By Matthew Moorcroft

Strong Recommendation

• Directed by Gints Zibalodis
• PG

The best way to describe Flow, a new ambitious animated feature from Latvian director Gints Zibalodis, is that of “tech demo”. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing (though to some it may seem like faint praise), but as an animated film made entirely through open source software – Blender specifically – it’s clear that Flow is meant to be call to arms for indie animators to up their game. It’s time for the big leagues.

Flow is undeniably gorgeous. Every shot is almost impossibly colorful with some truly dynamic camerawork – the amount of one takes in this is bordering on ludicrous – and there are some sequences that seem fully designed to just awe the audience. The tense disaster sequences, which will definitely affect some audiences who are more animal loving, are particularly impressive, with the effects work never feeling too overwhelming but making it clear that a lot is happening on screen. The camera remains fixed on the cat’s perspective the whole time, keeping things grounded while also maintaining a strange sense of whimsy about itself. After all, what’s more whimsical then a cute little black cat exploring a world?

Fans of Stray be happy – this as close of a spiritual sequel as we will likely to get, though it certainly has it’s differences. Flow is much more spiritual in a sense, having ideas surrounding our relationship to nature and fauna; brief flashes of the future appear almost as warning for our lead cat to either go towards or run away from. But can he really? The film seems to indicate some level that fate is guiding him along, but the purposeful vagueness of the storytelling leaves that mostly up to audience interpretation. I see a lot of Flow as a vibe picture first and foremost, but there is also a clear climate change allegory in here that’s difficult to deny and devastating once you reach the credits.

And all of this is done without much dialogue at all, which is the real triumph. I don’t know if it’s as immediately effective as last year’s Robot Dreams, which used it’s wordless conceit to tell a humanist story, but here it keeps the animals animalike and almost presents itself as a nature documentary from the flooded future. It does mean the audience is sometimes at an arm’s length from the events, but this is a great example of empathy in storytelling; one does not need to anthromorphize an animal to understand it. Emotions and feelings are universal.

And as family features go, it’s a particularly profound one. While it’s messages are certainly simple – mainly that of one of shared comraderie and experience saving the day – the way it’s presented is without talking down. It respects it’s audience, forcing them to really confront certain topics without blaring it out to them. One sequence involving a family of lemurs unable to join our heroes is a great example of this; simple devastation through visual imagery.

Flow ultimately wants to be a simple movie, and I think in that regard it pays off. It’s visual ingenuity and simple ideas are all it really needs to be effective, and as an example of great “DIY” filmmaking for animation it’s quite astonishing – directors Zilbalodis did much of the work himself if the credits are to believed. And while I’m not sure if it ever transcends merely being a vibe picture with great visuals, sometimes that’s really all you need to be a great time at the movies. Highly recommend for animation aficionados.