2021 should see Disney+ hitting its stride. WandaVision has just begun, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier isn’t far behind and there are a whole bunch of Marvel and Star Wars projects in the pipeline. Alongside all that, the platform continues to bulk out its catalogue of streaming movies and has just added one of Scarlett Johansson‘s best efforts: Wes Anderson’s 2018 stop motion adventure Isle of Dogs.
Following in the footsteps of 2009’s excellent Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs is realized with pleasantly hand-crafted animation and extremely intricate model work. As is typical for Anderson, he assembled an impressive ensemble cast, too, and as well as Johansson we get Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel and Yoko Ono.
The film is set in a retro-futurist Japan in which all pet dogs have been exiled to Trash Island in the wake of an outbreak of canine flu. The first dog to be deported is Spots Kobayashi, the pet and bodyguard of young Atari, who steals a plane in order to search the island for his missing companion.
Isle of Dogs was released to widespread critical and public acclaim, sitting at 90% on the Tomatometer and receiving an A for its audience Cinemascore. This was reflected in the 2019 awards season as well, where it picked up Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations in the animated categories.
Though Scarlett Johansson only provides voice work here, it’s looking increasingly likely that she’ll soon become a big feature of Disney+. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing yet more delays to blockbusters, there are whispers that Black Widow will emulate Wonder Woman 1984 by being made available on VOD the same day as its theatrical release. Let’s hope that proves to be true, because the film has been sitting in the can finished for almost a year now.
