An unlikely group of animals gather on board a boat to protect themselves from a massive flood in Flow. A lone black cat scavenges around for food and ends up running away from a pack of dogs. However, the waters in the wilderness begin to rise and the animals rush to take shelter. The cat ends up on a sail boat that is already occupied by capybara. They are soon joined on the voyage by a lemur, and its collection of oddities, a friendly golden retriever, separated from the rest of the dogs, and a noble Secretary bird, who establishes itself as the one steering the boat into the unknown.
Flow Synopsis
Flow is a dialog-free animated adventure film co-written and directed by Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis. The film features a unique pseudo-rotoscoped animation style that appears like a moving watercolour painting. While each of the animal protagonists of the film each develop their individual personalities, they are voiced by actual recorded animal sounds, with an interesting bit of trivia being that the filmmakers used a camel for the capybara, since the real animal was too screechy.
My Thoughts on Flow
Flow is an absolute wonder in visual storytelling, where the plot of the film is quite easy to follow, despite there not being a single word of spoken dialog. The film allows you to build the backstory for each of the animal protagonists in your mind. For instance, the black cat, who is arguably the central protagonist of the film, lives in an abandoned wood-carving workshop, surrounded by multiple wooden cat statues. Flow does not develop this backstory much more than that, as soon the workshop and all the statues are submerged underwater, and the cat desperately takes shelter on a lone boat.
As each of the various animals board the boat, they each establish their own distinct personalities. While the capybara sleeps most of the time, he eventually establishes himself as the leader of the group. The lemur, on the other hand, is extremely protective of its stash of antiquities, particularly a mirror. Then there is the golden retriever, who’s extremely playful and keeps wanting to play fetch.
Arguably the most poignant relationship is that between the cat and the Secretary bird, the latter of which saves the cat after it goes overboard, but is kicked out of its flock as a result. The cat and the Secretary bird develop somewhat of a mother-daughter relationship, even though the Secretary bird gets quite stubborn when it is steering the boat, refusing to change course when the other animals want to. In addition to the animals on board the boat, Flow also features another animal protagonist in the form of a giant whale, which periodically surfaces.
I don’t want to get into too many specifics into how the plot of Flow develops. However, I will note that the film takes a surprising turn into fantasy towards the end, including the final poignant moment between the cat and Secretary bird. Altogether, Flow is one of the best animated films of the year.
Trailer for Flow
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