Isle of Dogs, as the title suggests, is a film about a island full of canines. But this one hour and forty-five minute long stop-motion story is also about a lonely boy, a political conspiracy in a dystopian future Japan, and the overcoming of long held prejudice.

Released in March 2018, expectations were quite high for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, it is directed by Wes Anderson and animated by much of the same team that produced the critically-acclaimed and generally beloved Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). Anyone who is a fan of Fox will find their interest similarly piqued by Dogs, which is similar in both writing and visual style. Additionally, the cast of voice actors is is studded with stars as Scarlett Johansson, Yoko Ono, and Tilda Swinton, among a multitude of others.

In an interesting decision, all of the Japanese characters of the film speak unsubtitled Japanese, the meaning of their words interpreted only through the clues of their inflection, animation, and the reaction of others. This play on language is quite controversial; while some find it meaningful and symbolic of the general theme of universal understanding in a movie where quite literally half the characters are not human, others consider it an offensive way of allowing Western viewers to project their own ideas of orientalism onto East Asia with no respect or understanding.

But perhaps the best way to understand the film is to simply know what the actual premise is.The film’s opening is a dramatic description of a terrible sickness which has taken hold of all the canines in Megasaki City. Although the scientist Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito) insists that he is close to finding a cure, the anti-dog Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) signs off a decree that all dogs be immediately banished to the abandoned wasteland of Trash Island, lest they contaminate the populace. As a gesture of his resolution, the first to go is Spots (Liev Schreiber), the loyal guard dog of Kobayashi’s own ward and orphaned nephew Atari (Koyu Rankin).

The plot thickens when Atari goes to rescue Spots as rumors of a gang of terrifying cannibal dogs arise on Trash Island. Meanwhile, back in Megasaki City, American international student Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig) works to uncover a sinister political conspiracy by Mayor Kobayashi and his anti-dog faction.

I personally found the film non-offensive as an Asian-American, although I obviously don’t speak for all. The quality and singularity of it’s Japanese design aesthetic was breathtaking, as well as the smooth execution of the stop motion animation. Visually, Isle of Dogs is incredible. Although the story is sometimes weakened by the many threads woven into it, including multiple awkward romantic subplots, those faults are easily ignored by the main texture of quirky humor, offbeat horror, and genuinely heartbreaking tragedy. Tied together with unexpected twists and lovable characters, Isle of Dogs is definitively stunning.