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Flow, one of the most cinematic and meaningful animated films ever made, takes place in an unknown world and unknown time, where a cat must learn to trust animals of other species in order to survive a great flood. When the waters consume its hilltop home, the cat climbs aboard a sailboat with a motley crew of fellow travelers — a peaceful capybara, a materialistic lemur, an impressionable dog, and a mysterious secretary bird. As they journey toward far-off mountains, they overcome their tribal behaviors and prejudices to survive as a group.
At first, I thought Flow was going to be a more mature version of The Land Before Time, with creatures of different species forced to work together for a common aim. But halfway through Flow, things get surprisingly sophisticated, open to interpretation, and deeply mythological — if not downright religious. In one of the most powerfully emotional scenes I’ve seen in a long time, the cat watches the secretary bird ascend into the stars in a supernatural way. Since there’s no dialogue in Flow, the imagery is everything. We get no spoon-feeding about how to interpret what we see, except for some emotional meows, barks, or other animal sounds. Since the secretary bird earlier saved the cat from a flock of other secretary birds and suffered a broken wing in the process, I have ideas about the character’s ultimate destination — but who’s to say? The scene hit me in a fierce, primal way. Once the film ended, I had to watch it three more times to bask in the cinematic majesty and profound meaning it had for me.
I don’t love everything about Flow. Some of the character designs are too simplistic, and the animal fur is rendered in a way that creates a jarring ‘banding’ of colors. This is usually an unfortunate artifact of digital compression technology, but here it is used as an ugly but intentional design choice. It mars an otherwise beautiful aesthetic. Everything else about the film, however, is masterful and inspired. The character animation is solid and the environments are stunning. Director and co-writer Gints Zilbalodis also scores the film, giving emotional, spiritual weight to key moments.
Flow may not be for young children, who may be confused by the open-endedness of the story. After watching the film, it reminded me how 2001: A Space Odyssey made me feel — introspective and exhilarated. This is a film that invites you to be an active participant in the storytelling. If you’re open to the experience, it’ll get you thinking about trust and fear, tribalism and ‘found family’, heroism and sacrifice, and goodness knows what else. Without words as guardrails, Flow marries imagery and sound to powerfully emotional and provocative effect. It’s pure cinema.
Co-written by Matiss Kaza and Ron Dyens.
Academy Award: Best Animated Feature Film
Oscar Nomination: Best International Feature Film (Latvia)