An underrated stop-motion movie featuring Scarlett Johansson‘s voice will soon be available to stream on HBO Max. Directed by an Oscar-winning filmmaker, it is a heartwarming tale of a young boy who travels to a quarantined island in search of his exiled dog.
Isle of Dogs arrives on HBO Max in June
HBO Max will add Isle of Dogs to its streaming platform on Monday, June 1, 2026, per the streamer’s schedule.
Wes Anderson helmed the film and co-wrote it with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura.
Isle of Dogs takes place in a dystopian future Japan, where the government has exiled all dogs to a remote, trash-filled island after a canine flu outbreak. When a 12-year-old Atari Kobayashi’s beloved dog, Spots, is also sent away, he hijacks a plane and travels alone to the island to rescue him. There, he meets a group of stray dogs led by Chief, who help him search for Spots. Meanwhile, the leaders try to prevent the public from learning about the possible cure for the canine flu.
The film features an expansive voice cast that includes Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kunichi Nomura, Koyu Rankin, and Bob Balaban, among others.
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Isle of Dogs premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2018. It was followed by a release in the United States on March 23, 2018. Both critics and audiences gave it favorable ratings across several review aggregator sites. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a critics’ approval rating of 90%, while the user score sits at 87%. IMDb reports a score of 7.8 out of 10, based on over 210K user votes.
Reportedly, Isle of Dogs had a budget of $35 million. It ended its theatrical run with a global earnings of more than $72 million. Furthermore, it also received two Oscar nominations: one for Best Animated Feature Film and the other for Original Score. Interestingly, the film was also a part of The Criterion Collection’s The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray release.
Originally reported by Harsha Panduranga on ComingSoon.
