mise en scene in isle of dogs

The film ‘isle of dogs’ (Wes Anderson 2018) uses mise en scene in my opinion excellently throughout this movie Wes Anderson uses stop motion similarly to the film ‘fantastic Mr fox’. Wes Anderson uses props placed well throughout the scene for example throughout the movie placing subtle cats where the antagonist of the story is. (Because the heroes of the story are mostly dogs)It is these smalldetails that make this movie have such good mise en scene and add more meaning to the film.

In this shot the leader of this pack of dogs (chief) has his back turned to the audience he is also in the middle of the four dogs which show the audience that He’s in charge, Wes Anderson also uses a lot of symmetry in this shot it is to make the other four dogs look similar and make Chief look more like an outcast to the group, in this scene Chief is giving a pep talk to the other dogs.   

The color palate used in trash island consist of browns whites and yellow colors this proves to the watcher how this island is rundown and not fitting for dogs to be living there, these beige colours contrast with the colour palate used in the human world. By using bold colours in this human world such as reds and yellows it has connotations with the audience of anger and makes the bland colour palate in trash island even more bland in comparison and makes the audience feel bad for the dogs. 

trash island

The first introduction we see of the 5 main dogs is this entrance scene, by using symmetry in the horizon and the places that the dogs are standing this scene shows the main dogs we follow in the story as strong and threatening to the other dogs, this is reinforced by their names: Chief, Duke, Boss. This introduction scene shows to the audience that these characters are intimidating and strong. The murky water and orange/brown floor also shows how polluted and dirty this island is.

first scene with the five main dogs

Even though trash island has a mainly beige and brown color palate Wes Anderson still adds different scenes with a different background to contrast with the beige and brown, and to show the characters moving to different places in trash island.

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