Story

Themes

Cruelty to animals; experimenting on animals; the attempted mass killing of dogs; death of parents; suicide (briefly touched on).

Violence

Isle of Dogs contains frequent violence. For example:

• There are many fights involving both dogs and humans. These are often portrayed as a wild ball of chaos, with legs, paws and fists flying out.
• A speaker has things thrown at him, and he’s shown with blood and cuts.
• There is some blood and gore. For example, when a dog’s ear is bitten off, blood spurts out and the severed ear lies on the ground. Another dog kicks it away in disgust.
• Men come for Atari. They blindfold and restrain him, and try to take him into a waiting aircraft. The dogs fight the men. Chief fights a robot dog and is badly injured but wins. Atari is able to escape.
• There are rumours of a cannibalistic tribe of dogs who’ll do anything to survive.
• Atari pulls a bit of metal out of his head and a spurt of blood is seen. There’s still metal lodged in his skull, but it doesn’t seem to bother him until later in the movie.
• One dog describes how another dog committed suicide by hanging himself from his leash.
• Spots has a military-issue exploding tooth that fires exploding bullets. He uses these twice.
• A sushi chef chops and slices live fish. This is creepy and disturbing.
• A human character is poisoned. His dead body is shown in the mortuary, eyes bulging from their sockets.
• Three dogs escape a chopping, crushing and incinerating machine.
• Some of the dogs locked in cages on Trash Island can’t escape, and a scene shows their skeletons.

Sexual references

Isle of Dogs has some sexual references. For example:

• A female dog called Nutmeg, who used to be a show dog, is repeatedly accused of mating with Felix. Characters say things like ‘She made it with Felix’.
• One dog sighs and says that ‘All the dogs I like are never in heat’.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Isle of Dogs shows some use of substances. For example, one scene shows characters drinking in a bar.

Nudity and sexual activity

Isle of Dogs has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:

• The mayor’s naked bottom is seen as he gets out of a bath.
• Sumo wrestlers tussle on a mat in traditional costumes.

Product placement

Nothing of concern

Coarse language

Isle of Dogs has some coarse language.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Isle of Dogs is a stop-motion animation set in Japan. The animation can be beautiful, but the background is purposefully ugly and depressing. The movie is broken into parts and it might be difficult for younger viewers to follow. Most of the Japanese spoken in this movie isn’t translated, although you can get a general idea of what’s being said. The dogs, however, speak in English.

This movie is suitable for some pre-teens, young teenagers and older viewers. Older children and their parents are likely to enjoy this movie, which has had many favourable reviews. But its violence and themes make it too scary for younger children. We also recommend parental guidance for children aged 10-13 years.

The main messages from this movie are about standing up for what’s right, even if you’re the only one standing. The movie is also about fighting for what you believe in, even when winning seems impossible, and never giving up, no matter how hopeless your situation might seem.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include loyalty, love, friendship, and willingness to stand up for the downtrodden and fight against corruption.

This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about:

• political corruption and how it can tear a family, community or country apart
• animal culling and how this still happens all over the world and affects the environment
• animal testing and its terrible effects.