History WesternAnimation / IsleOfDogs

* EvilIsPetty: The whole film's plot (which involves multiple acts of strong-arming and murder of humans, bio-terrorism, and [[FinalSolution a breathtakingly absurd amount]] of animal cruelty) is Mayor Kobayashi's culmination of a multi-generational, genocidal hatred of dogs his clan has fostered because one of them bit an ancestor during the Meiji Era.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Chief is very antisocial and practically feral, but he's fiercely loyal to the ones he cares about (including, eventually, Atari). Even before his CharacterDevelopment, he gives a tough-love speech to his adopted pack that he won't allow them to succumb to despair.

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Assistant scientist Yoko Ono takes Professor Watanabe's death really badly, and even though everything's pointing to their dog flu cure being effective, she's almost given up hope of anyone even caring. Thankfully, [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan Tracy snaps her out of it]]]].

--> "[[LampshadeHanging I suppose if it was working correctly, we'd all be dead already]]."

-->'''Jupiter''': At the end of the bloody dog wars the vanquished mongrels became powerless house-pets: tamed, mastered, scorned. But they survived and multiplied. The Kobayashis, however, never forgave their conquered foe.

* PatchworkMap: {{Invoked}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-6Fz5F-6XE by the filmmakers]]; many sections of Trash Island are very sorted and built up of one type of trash, many of them having their own distinct colors (areas of white paper, brown rusty cars, black TV screens, etc.).

* ShoutOut

* AbnormalAmmo: [[spoiler: Spots uses ''his own (military-grade) teeth'', and spitting them out proves ridiculously effective at blowing up {{Robot Dog}}s.]]

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Nutmeg is attracted to Chief because "I'm not into tame animals".

* AnimalJingoism: Cats and cat symbolism regularly appear accompanying the dog-hating villains. [[spoiler: [[RedHerring Contrary to what you might expect in the prologue, the cats never actively participate in the plot or do anything evil]], and are mostly around for motif purposes.]]

* AnimatedActors: A funnily literal meta-example. In an ingenious marketing move, Anderson and Crew recorded the cast giving interviews for the promotional campaign, and then uploaded a video with the dogs [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOKzXQdA4Nw animated to match.]]
* AnArmAndALeg: Happens during the climax when [[spoiler: Tracy has her student visa nullified after protesting against Kobayashi, and then when Spots fights the robot dog, he loses an eye and a limb, and Atari is severely injured as well.]]

* BabiesEverAfter: Downplayed. [[spoiler: Spots and Peppermints' litter are born roughly before the climax, but we do see them at the ending with both their mother and father.]]
* BaitAndSwitch: The film's final shot attempts to trick one into thinking that [[spoiler: Spots died in the climax]], only to reveal [[spoiler: he survived, minus an eye and a foot]].

* BewareTheQuietOnes: The glasses-wearing hacker in Tracy's class never speaks during the movie; [[spoiler: He not only infiltrates Kobayashi's enforcers on Trash Island easily, he also dispatches them at the climax by reversing the wasabi-poison into their containment suits]].

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Atari and the dogs are likable heroes, while Mayor Kobayashi and the clan he represents are comprised of fascist warmongers, yakuza, skeletal assassins, and dog-haters. [[spoiler: However he realises the evil of his ways and repents. There is only one actually evil person in the movie.]]

* CassandraTruth: When Tracy tells her classmates that she has a GutFeeling Kobayashi is up to something, the head of the school newspaper tells her that he will not publish an article based solely upon a hunch. When she outright says Kobayashi is part of a conspiracy he refuses to publish an article accusing the mayor of such a thing.
* ChekhovsGunman: The hacker at Atari's school, who is shown here and there infiltrating the organization who'll exterminate the dogs. [[spoiler: At the climax, he's the one to neutralize Major-Domo's hijacking of Kobayashi's extermination plot, after Kobayashi decides to spare the dogs.]]
* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler: Due to Mayor Kobayashi being arrested on corruption charges during his re-election, it ends up defaulting to his heir, meaning Atari becomes mayor. To take this a step further, the student dissidents end up becoming his staff.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Assistant scientist Yoko Ono takes Professor Watanabe's death really badly, and even though everything's pointing to their dog flu cure being effective, she's almost given up hope of anyone even caring. Thankfully, [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan Tracy snaps her out of it.]]]]

* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler: Mayor Kobayashi [[HeelFaceTurn has a change of heart]] at the climax, but the Majordomo does not and presses the BigRedButton anyway.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Subverted. [[spoiler: Rex, Duke, King, and Boss]] are unceremoniously fed into a trash incinerator, but the film cuts to them later showing that they're fine as the incinerator is not working properly.
--> "[[LampshadeHanging I suppose if it was working correctly, we'd all be dead already.]]"

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler: Kobayashi really does love his adopted son, and learning that even after all he's done, Atari is ''still'' grateful to him for saving his life, is the push he needs for his HeelFaceTurn]].
* EveryoneHasStandards: What makes [[spoiler: Chief's [[WhatTheHellHero speech towards Spots]] powerful is that he himself used to be a stray who (formerly) couldn't care ''less'' about Atari's well-being, and even ''he's'' disgusted that Spots would ask to be released from his duty as Atari's guard dog.]]
* {{Fauxshadow}}: [[spoiler: According to the legend of the Boy Samurai, the Kobayashi clan was about to kill the last of Japan's wild dogs before a boy stood up to them and decapitated their ancestral leader. In the climax, despite fitting the archetype, Atari ''doesn't'' kill his Uncle Kobayashi. Instead, he appeals to his kinder side by comparing his adoption to that of taking in a stray dog out of kindness.]]
* FoodPorn: Roughly halfway in the movie, we're treated to a detailed scene of a chef preparing a bento box with fresh fish, crab, and squid. [[spoiler: It exists to show us the moment where a sushi roll is laced with poison wasabi to assassinate Professor Watanabe.]]
* ForWantOfANail: A positive example; had Boss not [[spoiler: pilfered the name tag from (what he believes to be) Spots' cage]], the search for Spots would have ended right there, [[spoiler: consigning every exiled dog to be euthanized]].
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Tracy does a pretty epic version of this to [[spoiler: assistant scientist Yoko Ono, snapping her out of her DespairEventHorizon to confirm her conspiracy theory and give her the dog flu cure.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: Subverted. [[spoiler: While Kobayashi undergoes a turn from villainy and undoes the Trash Island decree, he's still guilty of ''a lot'' of other crimes, so he and his co-conspirators still end up in jail.]]

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: Professor Watanabe's assassination. He manages to notice something's up with the poison wasabi-laced sushi and takes a tiny lick out of it. A scene later, we see that unfortunately this was enough to kill him.]]
* ImportantHaircut: After an important bit of bonding, Atari gives Chief a bath and grooming session, causing him to lose much of his grizzly appearance [[spoiler: and reveal he actually has white fur with black speckling, like Spots]].

* IronicEcho: Nutmeg's repeated line to Chief, "I'll tell you when I get to know you better".

-->'''Tracy''': Damn it... I've got a crush on you.

** A more serious example; Atari spends most of the movie with a chunk of metal piercing his skull, yet he stoically shrugs it off. [[spoiler: In the climax, he ends up with ''another'' piece of shrapnel stuck in his head, and he passes out, requiring brain surgery.]]

* MeaningfulEcho: The beginning of the film has Professor Watanabe attempting to speak out to save the dogs, ending his speech with "Whatever happened to man's best friend?", which is met with booing from the audience. [[BookEnds In the film's climax]], [[spoiler: Atari makes his speech at the same podium and delivers a poignant haiku, also containing the words "Whatever happened to man's best friend?" This time, the audience is moved to tears.]]

* MeetTheNewBoss: [[spoiler: When Atari and his new cabinet come into power, one of the laws we see them working on is suggesting the Death Penalty for anyone being even mean to a dog. Luckily this is subverted when they disagree with that charge and simply suggest community service and a heavy fine instead.]]

** [[spoiler: Kobayashi]] experiences this, admitting he had been acting without honor.
** Chief also feels this way while revealing that [[spoiler: he bit a child so hard that the boy ended up in the hospital, feeling that he has to be a stray to keep that from happening again]].

* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: When asked if he eats other dogs, Gondo responds by saying that [[spoiler: it happened only one time because their former pack leader was sick. Faced with either surviving or dying, they had no choice but to eat him]]. Gondo is not proud of this fact, and he howls in sorrow along with the other dogs.

* PatchworkMap: {{Invoked}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-6Fz5F-6XE by the filmmakers]]; many sections of Trash Island are very sorted and built up of one type of trash, many of them having their own distinct colors (areas of white paper, brown rusty cars, black TV screens, etc).

* ThePowerOfLove: Mayor Kobayashi's love for Atari [[spoiler: ultimately makes him renege on his promise to the dog-hating clan, admitting his corruption, and calling off the strike.]]

* PuttingOnTheReich: Kobayashi has giant monolithic posters of his face everywhere and takes advantage of a crisis to consolidate vast amounts of political power, [[spoiler: a crisis that he deliberately created to begin with for exactly this purpose, as is commonly theorized about the Reichstag Fire. His ultimate endgame is the mass poisoning of every dog in Megasaki]].
* RetroUniverse: Despite being set [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 20 years from now]], the technology seen in the film has a very deliberately outdated, pre-WWII {{Zeerust}} look to it, not to mention having experimental jets and incredibly advanced robot dogs [[SchizoTech existing alongside black and white CRT TVs and now-vintage cars.]] Considering that real-life western society in 2018 features gramophones and magnetic tape returning to popularity, plug-and-play versions of old video game systems becoming hot-selling items, and retro-ness in general becoming more "in" than ever before, the assumption seems quite reasonable.
* TheReveal: Once Atari gives Chief a bath, it turns out [[spoiler: Chief is not a black dog with bits of white, but a white dog with bits of black. This proves to be a heavy bit of {{Foreshadowing}} as even Chief points out the resemblance between himself and Spots. They are long-lost brothers]].

** “You heard the rumor, right, about ____?” This later leads to a BrickJoke where the rest of the pack [[LampshadeHanging asks Duke where exactly he hears all these rumors.]]

* SceneryPorn: It's a Wes Anderson movie, ''[[SignatureStyle duh.]]''
* SeparatedAtBirth: Surprisingly, [[spoiler: Chief]] and [[spoiler: Spots]].

** Atari gives Chief a bath, [[spoiler: washing away all the grime that made him a black dog with white spots, and [[RuleOfSymbolism making him a white dog with black spots]]. He's "white-washing" Chief's crimes as a vicious dog with a bite history.]]

* SyntheticPlague: [[spoiler: Dog flu was invented by Kobayashi pharmaceuticals to give the dynasty a pretext for removing all the dogs.]]

** [[spoiler: The amount of poison in the ''very'' tiny bit of wasabi Professor Watanabe barely licks is stated to have 10x the amount of poison needed to stop the heart of a ''whale''.]]
** [[spoiler: Mayor Kobayashi is later seen getting ready to deploy barrels upon ''barrels'' of it to Trash Island. No matter how many dogs are on Trash Island, that is wildly unnecessary.]]
* ThickerThanWater: Mayor Kobayashi, when confronted by [[spoiler: Atari, chooses to un-stamp the trash island decree, due to his love for his nephew and the fact that Atari chose to take a more peaceful resolution than in the original fairy tale; and he also chooses to donate his kidney to Atari, knowing full well that he will lose all his political power in doing so]].

** Chief denies having a favorite food, saying that he's used to leftovers and garbage. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that back when he was a pet, his favorite food was actually homemade hibachi chili (which he tried after biting a child), and he switches to Puppy Snap treats when Atari offers him one.]]
-->'''Chief''': Crunchy... salty... supposedly, it cleans your teeth. This is my new favorite food.
* TranslationConvention: The movie loves [[PlayingWithATrope playing with this.]] The prologue [[LampshadeHanging explicitly points out]] that "all of the dog's barks have been translated into English," but leaves the human-spoken Japanese unsubtitled, effectively putting the audience in the same linguistic shoes as the dogs (assuming they speak English and not Japanese). Also, there are in-universe news interpreters that translate into English, as well as characters who either speak it natively or in [[GratuitousEnglish quick passing]].

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: In 1911, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}} City of Istanbul]] exiled its entire stray dog population to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivriada Sivriada]], a small island in the Bosporus Strait. [[DownerEnding All 80,000 dogs perished there agonizingly.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Ironically, [[spoiler: it's the hero of our story (Chief) who is giving such a speech to ''another'' hero (Spots), the one they've been searching for. He calls out Spots for essentially wanting to give up his duty as Atari's guard dog because he has a new duty as the leader of the Aboriginal dogs, and he is going to be a father. And this is despite what Atari went through to find his dog, something none of the Megasaki residents even bothered to try.]]
* WorthIt: Before the dogs fight, Rex suggests [[StatingTheSimpleSolution opening the sack of leftovers first to see if it's worth fighting for]]. His pack and the other pack agree, and they open it up. Rex describes all that's in the sack, and it's only when Rex mentions a gizzard that Chief declares "Okay, it's worth it", and the two packs immediately start fighting.

-->'''Chief''': You all make me sick! (''[[VomitIndiscretionShot pukes to the side]]'') I've seen cats with more balls than you dogs!

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The poster alone has ''twenty-eight'' credited actors on it.

--> "[[{{Lampshade}} I suppose if it was working correctly, we'd all be dead already.]]"

->''"To the north, a long rickety causeway over a noxious sludge marsh leading to a radioactive landfill polluted by toxic chemical garbage. That's our destination."

* CastingGag:
** In ''Film/CatsAndDogs'', Creator/JeffGoldblum plays a man who is allergic to dogs (and trying to find a cure for allergies). In this movie, he stars as a dog himself.
** In a similar way, in the Japanese dub, Creator/TaitenKusunoki (who dubs Chief), voiced Spike, another dog, in the dub of ''WesternAnimation/RugratsGoWild''.

* RealityEnsues:
** When Tracy tells her classmates that she has a GutFeeling Kobayashi is up to something, the head of the school newspaper tells her that he will not publish an article based solely upon a hunch. When she outright says Kobayashi is part of a conspiracy he refuses to publish an article accusing the mayor of such a thing.
** Happens during the climax when [[spoiler: Tracy has her student visa nullified after protesting against Kobayashi, and then when Spots fights the robot dog, he loses an eye and a limb, and Atari is severely injured as well.]]
** [[spoiler: While Kobayashi undergoes a HeelFaceTurn and undoes the Trash Island decree, he's still guilty of ''a lot'' of other crimes, so he and his co-conspirators still end up in jail.]]

* NoKillLikeOverkill:
** [[spoiler: The amount of poison in the ''very'' tiny bit of wasabi Professor Watanabe barely licks is stated to have 10x the amount of poison needed to stop the heart of a ''whale''.]]
** [[spoiler: Mayor Kobayashi is later seen getting ready to deploy barrels upon ''barrels'' of it to Trash Island. No matter how many dogs are on Trash Island, that is wildly unnecessary.]]

* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler: The amount of poison in the ''very'' tiny bit of wasabi Professor Watanabe barely licks is stated to have 10x the amount of poison needed to stop the heart of a ''whale''.]]
** [[spoiler: Mayor Kobayashi is then seen getting ready to deploy barrels upon ''barrels'' of it to Trash Island. No matter how many dogs are on Trash Island, that is wildly unnecessary.]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: Mistreatment against dogs is bad. Mistreating sealife that's still alive and moving to make sushi is okay. The dogs and Atari at least treat the owl well, though.

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: Downplayed, but since [[TranslationConvention all barks have been rendered in English]] in the movie, [[spoiler: Spot's]] newborn puppies use clips of actual baby coos and cries.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: In 1911, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Istanbul}} City of Istanbul]] exiled its entire stray dog population to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivriada Sivriada]], a small island in the Bosporus Strait. [[TearJerker All 80,000 dogs perished there agonizingly.]]

* {{Fauxshadow}}: [[spoiler:According to the legend of the Boy Samurai, the Kobayashi clan was about to kill the last of Japan's wild dogs before a boy stood up to them and decapitated their ancestral leader. In the climax, despite fitting the archetype, Atari ''doesn't'' kill his Uncle Kobayashi. Instead, he appeals to his kinder side by comparing his adoption to that of taking in a stray dog out of kindness.]]
* FoodPorn: Roughly halfway in the movie, we're treated to a detailed scene of a chef preparing a bento box with fresh fish, crab, and squid. [[spoiler:It exists to show us the moment where a sushi roll is laced with poison wasabi to assassinate Professor Watanabe.]]
* ForWantOfANail: A positive example; had Boss not [[spoiler:pilfered the name tag from (what he believes to be) Spots' cage]], the search for Spots would have ended right there, [[spoiler:consigning every exiled dog to be euthanized]].
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Tracy does a pretty epic version of this to [[spoiler:assistant scientist Yoko Ono, snapping her out of her DespairEventHorizon to confirm her conspiracy theory and give her the dog flu cure.]]

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Professor Watanabe's assassination. He manages to notice something's up with the poison wasabi-laced sushi and takes a tiny lick out of it. A scene later, we see that unfortunately this was enough to kill him.]]
* ImportantHaircut: After an important bit of bonding, Atari gives Chief a bath and grooming session, causing him to lose much of his grizzly appearance [[spoiler:and reveal he actually has white fur with black speckling, like Spots]].

* IronicEcho: Nutmeg's repeated line to Chief "I'll tell you when I get to know you better".

-->'''Tracy''': Damn it...I've got a crush on you.

** A more serious example; Atari spends most of the movie with a chunk of metal piercing his skull, yet he stoically shrugs it off. [[spoiler:In the climax, he ends up with ''another'' piece of shrapnel stuck in his head, and he passes out, requiring brain surgery.]]

* MeaningfulEcho: The beginning of the film has Professor Watanabe attempting to speak out to save the dogs, ending his speech with "Whatever happened to man's best friend?", which is met with booing from the audience. [[BookEnds In the film's climax]], [[spoiler:Atari makes his speech at the same podium and delivers a poignant haiku, also containing the words "Whatever happened to man's best friend?" This time, the audience is moved to tears.]]

** [[spoiler:Kobayashi]] experiences this, admitting he had been acting without honor.
** Chief also feels this way while revealing that [[spoiler:he bit a child so hard that the boy ended up in the hospital, feeling that he has to be a stray to keep that from happening again]].

* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:The amount of poison in the ''very'' tiny bit of wasabi Professor Watanabe barely licks is stated to have 10x the amount of poison needed to stop the heart of a ''whale''.]]
** [[spoiler:Mayor Kobayashi is then seen getting ready to deploy barrels upon ''barrels'' of it to Trash Island. No matter how many dogs are on Trash Island, that is wildly unnecessary.]]
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: When asked if he eats other dogs, Gondo responds by saying that [[spoiler:it happened only one time because their former pack leader was sick. Faced with either surviving or dying, they had no choice but to eat him]]. Gondo is not proud of this fact, and he howls in sorrow along with the other dogs.

* ThePowerOfLove: Mayor Kobayashi's love for Atari [[spoiler:ultimately makes him renege on his promise to the dog-hating clan, admitting his corruption, and calling off the strike.]]

* PuttingOnTheReich: Kobayashi has giant monolithic posters of his face everywhere and takes advantage of a crisis to consolidate vast amounts of political power, [[spoiler:a crisis that he deliberately created to begin with for exactly this purpose, as is commonly theorized about the Reichstag Fire. His ultimate endgame is the mass poisoning of every dog in Megasaki]].
* RealityEnsues:

** Happens during the climax when [[spoiler:Tracy has her student visa nullified after protesting against Kobayashi, and then when Spots fights the robot dog, he loses an eye and a limb, and Atari is severely injured as well.]]
** [[spoiler:While Kobayashi undergoes a HeelFaceTurn and undoes the Trash Island decree, he's still guilty of ''a lot'' of other crimes, so he and his co-conspirators still end up in jail.]]

* TheReveal: Once Atari gives Chief a bath, it turns out [[spoiler:Chief is not a black dog with bits of white, but a white dog with bits of black. This proves to be a heavy bit of {{Foreshadowing}} as even Chief points out the resemblance between himself and Spots. They are long-lost brothers]].

* SeparatedAtBirth: Surprisingly, [[spoiler:Chief]] and [[spoiler:Spots]].

** The song "Tokyo Shoeshine Boy" was in the movie ''Film/{{MASH}}''.

* SyntheticPlague: [[spoiler:Dog flu was invented by Kobayashi pharmaceuticals to give the dynasty a pretext for removing all the dogs.]]

* ThickerThanWater: Mayor Kobayashi, when confronted by [[spoiler:Atari, chooses to un-stamp the trash island decree, due to his love for his nephew and the fact that Atari chose to take a more peaceful resolution than in the original fairy tale; and he also chooses to donate his kidney to Atari, knowing full well that he will lose all his political power in doing so]].

** Chief denies having a favorite food, saying that he's used to leftovers and garbage. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that back when he was a pet, his favorite food was actually homemade hibachi chili (which he tried after biting a child), and he switches to Puppy Snap treats when Atari offers him one.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Ironically, [[spoiler:it's the hero of our story (Chief) who is giving such a speech to ''another'' hero (Spots), the one they've been searching for. He calls out Spots for essentially wanting to give up his duty as Atari's guard dog because he has a new duty as the leader of the Aboriginal dogs, and he is going to be a father. And this is despite what Atari went through to find his dog, something none of the Megasaki residents even bothered to try.]]

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