Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs trailer depicts an epic journey to find a missing pup

LOS ANGELES — The stakes are set in the official trailer for Wes Anderson’s new stop-motion animated film Isle of Dogs.

The movie takes place in Japan, 20 years in the future. A canine saturation has reached “epidemic proportions”, the voicer in the trailer explains. And an outbreak of dog flu causes the government to take emergency orders — the dogs are banished to trash island.

“I don’t think I can stomach any more of this garbage,” one dogs says, as a pack of others agree.

Then, a young boy comes to the island in search of his lost pooch, Spot.

“We’ll find him. Wherever he is. If he’s alive. We’ll find your dog,” the other dogs console the boy.

Isle of Dogs is Anderson’s first directorial effort since 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. He has worked with stop-motion animation before in 2009’s Fantastic Mr Fox.

The all-star voice cast includes some familiar personalities in the Anderson universe, as well as some newcomers. Bryan Cranston and Edward Norton voice the main dogs, and the rest of the ensemble includes Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kunichi Nomura, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Courtney B Vance, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, and Yoko Ono.

Fox Searchlight is distributing the film, which is produced by Indian Paintbrush. It is scheduled for release on March 23, 2018. VARIETY.COM/REUTERS