User blog:TheMegabug/Major Domo Effortpost

Friday's effortpost for Major Domo. I also have to write the one for Roger Clifford, which will be... long.

‘’’What’s the Work?’’’

Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson’s latest wonderfully strange project, centers around all dogs being banished to an island by the Mayor Kobayashi after a dog flu virus spreads throughout the Japanese world. The first dog to be banished to “Trash Island” is the bodyguard dog of Mayor Kobayashi’s ward and nephew, Atari, who goes to rescue him. As bad as Mayor Kobayashi may sound, the true evil is his right hand man.

‘’’Who is Major Domo and what does he do?’’’

While he appears throughout the movie as Kobayashi’s rather creepy right-hand man, he does not do much on his own until the climax. Before that point, there are two key things to know: an opposing political party found a cure for the dog flu, but Kobayashi and Domo poisoned him so the dogs could stay on the island. And secondly, their ultimate goal is to bring every dog there so they can all be gassed to death.

At the end of the film, the hiding of the cure is unearthed by an American exchange student, and Atari manages to convince the Mayor to have a change of heart (he admits he’s been acting without honor.) He tries to call off the poison attack, but Major Domo is having none of it: he seriously hates dogs. A fight ensues in which Domo would have been fully willing to get rid of anyone in his way (the Mayor, Atari, a bunch of dogs) so he can cause a total genocide. He manages to successfully press the button, but a friend of the American exchange student manages to get the poison to backfire on the captors. The last we see of Domo after that is in prison with the rest of Kobayashi’s staff (of whom we know nothing about) and Kobayashi.

‘’’Heinous Standard’’’

I can see him being compared unfavorably to Kobayashi himself in this case, but I think he is far worse. Mainly because, Kobayashi realises what he’s doing is completely wrong and tries to call it all off, regretting the conspiracies and condemnation of a race. Major Domo? Not at all. Throughout the film up to the end he was fully willing to commit crimes to further their ultimate goal. He’s far more evil than Kobayashi.

‘’’Other Problems’’’

Yes, dogs are fully sentient here, they all talk in front of people. Everyone in the film knows that, there’s a gag at the start saying “all barks were fully rendered into english” but that’s just that, a gag and doesn’t impact the film or the human’s understanding of the dogs.