Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and Wes Anderson has made those canines the subject of his new film Isle of Dogs, the director’s first stop-motion feature since the warmly received Fantastic Mr. Fox. In this exclusive first clip from the film, you’ll get a sense of the unique Isle of Dogs setting: Anderson has fashioned an alternate version of Japan where the country’s flu-ridden dogs have been quarantined on an island all their own. Alas, this is no four-legged paradise: Rex (Edward Norton) and his pals fight other dogs for maggot-ridden scraps in a grim, colorless world until a human boy crash-lands on the island and gives these good boys a reason to sit up straight. Isle of Dogs will open the Berlin Film Festival on February 15, but domestic dog lovers will have their crack at Anderson’s film when it debuts Stateside on March 23.