Flow | 2024
FLOW, courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.
After surviving a devastating flood, a cat finds itself clinging to safety on a boat with a capybara, a crane, a dog, and a lemur. The five of them can't communicate, and each has unique needs as they fight for survival in this watery new world, but they soon realize that through their combined strengths, they can only survive together.
Directed by Gints Zilbalodis, Flow is a dialogue-free animated film with all the hallmarks of an animated animal adventure—disparate animals making friends and facing obstacles together. But Zilbalodis brings something quietly remarkable to this tried-and-true formula. By eschewing dialogue altogether, he refuses to anthropomorphize the animals overtly, making them feel more like actual animals rather than goofy caricatures. That doesn't mean they don't still steer boats or behave in other decidedly un-animal-like ways, but it firmly grounds their actions and makes them more compelling.
This also allows Zilbalodis to tell the story in a wholly visual way, creating these characters simply through action and gesture, involving us in their world and their individual plights. The often breathtaking animation sometimes feels like a video game cutscene, but that adds to its otherworldly nature. There's no specific time period here - we get glimpses of ancient architecture but never see any humans, and the result is an adventure that feels somehow flung out of time, existing in a world all its own.
Flow is one of the most incredible animated films in years, an enchanting work of pure cinema that creates a world filled with wonders at once awesome and dangerous, where beauty can present great danger, but dangers can become new friends. The stalwart kitty at its heart is an adorable creation, and it's difficult not to become engrossed in its ever-mounting travails. It's a testament to Zilbalodis' skills as a visual storyteller that these animals are given such life, and their stories are made so compelling. People often argue online about the status of animation as cinema - and it's films like Flow that remind us of the true power of the medium. Through rapturous animation and lovely music (composed by Zilbalodis himself, along with Rihards Zalupe), Flow is an endearing, funny, and often moving meld of storytelling techniques that gives us something special we haven't seen before.
