'Isle of Dogs' Video Reveals Who is a Good Boy

You’d be forgiven for thinking that dogs are already the best creatures imaginable. But a new video for Wes Anderson’s upcoming film Isle of Dogs reveals a new standard of canine perfection — a dog that speaks in Jeff Goldblum’s voice.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on March 1, is a compilation of cast interviews paired with animation. It features most of the cast members from Anderson’s movie describing the character of the dog they’re playing and generally extolling the virtues of pups.

Tilda Swinton, who voices a pug named Oracle, was poetic in her praise of dog virtues. “The heart of a dog is a bottomless thing,” Swinton says, as her animated canine counterpart gazes around the room, eyes flitting back and forth as if embarrassed by Swinton’s exaltations.

Jeff Goldblum plays one of the film’s alpha dogs, a jubilant Husky named Duke. Goldblum spends the preponderance of his interview scatting and singing Take The A Train by Duke Ellington. The combination of Goldblum’s smooth pipes combined with Duke’s expressive face makes for one the purest joys in this world.

Edward Norton is Rex, a scrappy pooch that Norton describes as “comfortably middle class.” Rex has had an easy life, but Norton says he is still very hard-working — his relatively privileged upbringing hasn’t compromised the goodness of his heart.

Bill Murray, who voices a terrier named Boss, waxes philosophical about life, the universe, and dogs. “Dogs are given by god in a way,” Murray says, “They’re a responsibility to use not as a servant, but as a sounding board, as a demonstration of what your obligation is to life that you must serve.”

The whole video features nine different dog/actor confessionals. In an interview with Vulture, Anderson said that the audio was recorded first, and the animation was done after the fact to fit the tone and content of the interviews.

You can see Isle of Dogs in theaters on March 23.