Isle of Dogs puppets

It’s hard to wrap your head around the scale of work that went into creating the puppets for Isle of Dogs. In addition to cosmetic differences, between scenes, almost every character had duplicate puppets created in at least three sizes, sometimes up to five, depending on how many types of shots they were to be filmed in. An extreme close-up needs a very large version of the character. An extreme wide shot might require a half-inch-high one.

The puppets also needed to be durable enough to withstand filming, while flexible and expressive enough to convey emotion. There were a complex series of steel paddles and rods inside the face of each dog to be able to convey the slightest nuance. Human puppets had detachable faces with different expressions and mouth shapes on them. Sometimes a face would be swapped ten times a second to create natural-looking movements.

When a dog puppet is positioned by a puppeteer, the fur moves a few millimetres where it’s been touched. Over the course of filming a shot, this subtle movement creates a rippling effect in the fur called ‘boiling’. Normally this would be considered a mistake, but Wes Anderson liked it, as it emphasised the hand-made quality of the film. It also subtly reinforced the environment of the story. Given that the dogs have fleas and they’re standing outside in the wind, it makes sense that their fur would be moving, right?

– Assistant Curator Jim Fishwick