When you think of Wes Anderson, you think of abstract, symmetrical imagery and unique shots famous in movies like The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr Fox. The Isle of Dogs doesn’t fail to compare with his previous works.

This animated film is based in a fantasy Japanese world, or what others may call, a Wes Anderson world. Cat loving villain, Mayor Kobayashi in Megasaki City banishes all dogs to a garbage island.

Various political themes link reality and fantasy together through animated dogs voiced by a human cast in what was intended to be a beautiful metaphorical story.

However, the excessive use of stereotypical images and a mostly white cast in a Japanese setting may just completely and utterly overshadow this movie’s heartfelt message.

Anderson utilizes various stereotypical Japanese imagery and elements from references to sumo wrestling to taiko drumbeats playing in the background. What some might see as homage to the Japanese culture, others see it as what is considered ‘cultural appropriation’.

Cultural appropriation, for those who haven’t been on the Internet in the past couple of years, is the act of stealing elements from another culture and taking it as your own for commercial purposes. A lot of people take it as an offensive acts while others may argue that they’re just overreacting. It’s a big debate that I will not get into.

The representation of Japanese themes and symbolism in a movie primarily set in a fantasy Japan may not seem like such a big problem if at least half of the cast were Japanese themselves and actually contributed to the movie.

Not surprisingly, American English actors voice all of the dogs in the movie and only a couple of the characters are actually Japanese. Its only in a few scenes from the movie do you actually hear some of the characters speak in native Japanese and even then, there’s no English subtitles to actually understand what they are saying.

They aren’t used as a relevant part of the plot, just as an element to remind the audience ‘Oh in case you may have forgotten, this movie is set in Japan despite the fact that everyone else is speaking in perfect American English accents.’

A number of people also took to Twitter to express their own disappointment at the film after Los Angeles Times movie critic Justin Chang  released a review on the film titled Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’ is often captivating, but cultural sensitivity gets lost in translation that points out the offensive material shown in the film.

This is so disappointing but something I’ve been dreading since the trailer. I love the level@of craft that Anderson puts into his films but never at the expense of offensive caricatures. It’ll never end if we keep hand waving artists as ignorant but well meaning.

— Brandon Streussnig (@BrndnStrssng) March 22, 2018

However, a lot of others did argue the opposite saying people were overreacting and that everyone is just looking for ways to get offended.

Whoever actually thinks this movie is “cultural appropriation” should geniunely just get off the internet ⚡️ “A review of Wes Anderson’s new movie sparked a conversation about cultural appropriation”https://t.co/nloZVq57oX

— DrinkCooler (@DrinkCooler2D) March 22, 2018

That all depends on a person’s view on a movie but the fact is, Wes Anderson used a different culture and setting for the purpose of  ‘spicing up’  his movie and did not take the right steps in fully and truly paying it the respect it deserves.

Wes Anderson’s appreciation of the Japanese culture was with reasonable intentions  but the execution failed miserably.  He could have based the animation movie in America and it would have made a lot more sense.

Let’s face it, this isn’t a Japan fantasy; this is a Wes Anderson fantasy.

Words Reem Makari