by Miguel E. Rodriguez
DIRECTOR: Gints Zilbalodis
MY RATING: 10/10
ROTTEN TOMATOMETER: 97% Certified Fresh
PLOT: Somewhere deep in a forest wilderness, a solitary Cat barely survives a cataclysmic flood by clambering into a boat with an assortment of other animals; their survival will depend on their ability to help each other.
Nearly twenty-five years ago, Disney released an animated film called Dinosaur [2000] that was touted as being an industry game-changer. The premise was revealed in a stunning, epic-length teaser trailer that fired my imagination. Some of you may remember it. Using state-of-the-art CG animation, and with no spoken dialogue, we watched as a dinosaur egg on prehistoric Earth was flipped out of its nest, carried away by scavengers, dropped into a river, swallowed and regurgitated by a fish, then plucked out of the water by a pterodactyl that soared over magnificent real-world vistas and plains before being dropped accidentally into a jungle canopy where the egg was discovered by a family of, I think, prehistoric lemurs. A reminder: all with no spoken dialogue.
I remember thinking, wow, Disney is going to attempt the impossible: create a feature-length animated movie with no spoken words. I was stoked. What an experiment! Hasn’t been done since Fantasia [1940]! And if anyone can pull it off, it’ll be Disney, right? Imagine my disappointment when I went to see the movie, the opening scene plays out exactly as shown in the teaser, the lemurs peek through the foliage at the fallen egg, and one of the lemurs opens its mouth…and talks. Not just human speech, but with a New York-Brooklyn-esque accent that almost sounded like Bugs Bunny. Dreams shattered.
I mention that story because Flow, the recent winner of the Golden Globe for Best Animated Motion Picture, promised the same thing in its trailer: an animated film without words, starring only animals on a perilous journey. I was skeptical.
Until I watched the movie today. Not only does it deliver on its promise (making Dinosaur look shallow and childish by comparison), it sets some kind of crazy bar for mystical, awe-inspiring visuals that I would put on the same level as Avatar [2009] or Dune [2021]. Yes. They’re that good. And, according to IMDb, it was all created using only Blender, a free, open-source animation software tool. Flow is a remarkable accomplishment.
The story opens with Cat wandering a forest. None of the animals are named, of course, nor were they named by the animators. They were all referred to simply by their species or breed: Cat, Whale, Bird, etc. After being chased by some dogs, including a friendly Retriever, Cat curls up in the top floor of an abandoned, expensive-looking forest cabin with nary a human in sight. Where are all the people? No answer is given.
With ominous abruptness, a cataclysmic flood sweeps through the forest, leaving Cat and Retriever stranded at the cabin as the waters steadily rise. Retriever hops into a passing rowboat occupied by the other dogs from an earlier scene, but Cat understandably passes on this opportunity and eventually finds itself sharing a second boat occupied by a grunting, monosyllabic Capybara.
…but this simple plot summary doesn’t begin to do justice to the experience of simply watching this film. I am super glad I saw it on the big screen first, 3rd row back, so the screen filled my field of view. The whole movie reminded me of the best oceanic scenes in Finding Nemo [2003], crammed with detail, lavishly rendered, so that you sort of fall into the world. There are hints to indicate that the forest and the lands beyond, now flooded, were once populated by humans, but they have all disappeared. Statues of animals. Top floors of houses still untouched by water, but not for long. And, on a distant hilltop, a massive statue of a cat, on which Cat must find refuge at one point.
The look of the film is something I’m not going to be able to describe very well. Partnered with the smooth CG animation itself, the main animal characters nevertheless have a hand-painted quality to their coats and fur. The virtual camera moves as if being held by a real cameraman, reminiscent of the best scenes in the first Avatar. There is a magical, spiritual sequence towards the end of the film (you’ll know the one I mean) that took my breath away and rivals anything from Pixar or Studio Ghibli. I may not know precisely what it means, but to be honest, I didn’t care then, and I don’t care now. I just know that it is a spectacular scene. There are subtle hints that this world may not even be Earth as we know it, or when we know it. Mystery abounds! I love it.
I must give special mention to the animation of the lead character. Cat has moments of cat behavior so specific and real that, even if you’re not a cat person or watched umpteen cat videos on YouTube, you will recognize it as being 100% authentic. For that matter, the same could be said of all the animals in the film. I must be honest and report that there are times when, viewed through a lens of “is-this-realistic”, the animals behave in a way that does not compute with reality. I highly doubt a capybara would be able to figure out how to work the rudder of a sailboat…and yet, in this movie, it does, and it’s fine.
Which brings me to the one problem I can imagine some folks might have with the film: the ending. I can’t tell if the right descriptor is “elliptical” or “open-ended” or “inconclusive.” Perhaps it’s a plea from the filmmakers for cooperation and teamwork in an age where uncontrollable outside forces are doing their best to prevent it; like these animals, we’re all in the same boat. Or maybe that’s not the message. The beauty of Flow is that the ending is subject to interpretation, thanks to the lack of dialogue simply telling us what it means.
Frankly, I’m not too fussed about extracting the message from Flow. I am too grateful that a film like this even exists to lose sleep over its Deeper Meaning. It is a film constructed out of wondrous sights that harken back to the days of Pinocchio and Fantasia [both 1940], when animators and filmmakers gave equal weight to story and visuals, and it’s one of the best animated films I’ve ever seen.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 