The bizarre, visually stunning stop-motion animation film – which is definitely not for children – is a poetic, political allegory about Japanese dogs.
‘Bob, Bob, Bob Balaban…,” crooned Bill Murray to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann,” leading other cast members in song at the press conference for Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, an animated dystopian fable about Japanese canines which was the opening-night attraction of the 68th Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival. Isle of Dogs is the first animated film to open the festival. Balaban, an actor/producer best known for playing an NBC executive on Seinfeld, and Murray were two of the actors who voiced characters in the film taking part in the press conference, where well-known stars such as Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Liev Schreiber and Tilda Swinton rubbed shoulders with Japanese/Canadian child actor Koyu Rankin and Dogs co-writer, actor and all-around cool guy Kunichi Nomura, who wore his sunglasses throughout the event. The cast continued to sing when Rankin was introduced, serenading him with a chorus of “Happy Birthday,” to celebrate him turning 11.
