Enjoy Isle Of Dogs' Sushi Scene, 95 Satisfying Seconds Of Stop-Motion Whimsy

Jan. 22 update: Isle of Dogs was nominated for an Oscar this morning in the Best Animated Feature category. The prediction website GoldDerby currently has the film at a 4-to-1 favorite to win the Academy Award, in third place behind Incredibles 2 and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Original Oct. 3, 2018 post: Having just watched Isle Of Dogs over the weekend and finding the film utterly delightful ("utterly delightful" © Wes Anderson 1996-2018), the scene that resonated most with me was this montage of sushi being prepared as part of a (spoiler alert!) assassination plot.

This just might be my favorite depiction of sushi on film—even more so than Jiro Dreams Of Sushi—when you remember this scene is entirely done in stop-motion animation. Witness the incredible attention to detail: the hand placement on the sushi knife, the quivering fish's head after it was lopped off, the tenderizing of the octopus tentacle. Notice how the snow crab's eyes disappear from one shot and reappear with the tomalley in the next.

It's just an intensely satisfying 95 seconds worthy of your precious time.

And here's Variety with how they pulled it off. It's mesmerizing.