I can’t remember the last movie I loved as instantly as Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. Not even a minute into the film’s prologue, which tells the story of a boy samurai who defended the “underdog dogs” against total canine annihilation and “beheaded the head of the head of the Kobayashi clan,” I was smitten.

The prologue segues into an opening credits sequence featuring a trio of young taiko drummers performing in the center of a gymnasium. And all of this is rendered in the most dazzling stop-motion animation I’ve ever seen.

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