Opinion: «Flow» the cartoon — A Cat's Odyssey

The animated film Flow is one of the most talked-about films of 2024. The film received a huge number of awards, including the Golden Globe, and critics were unanimous in expressing their love for the creation of the young Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis. Of course, we also wanted to check out the hit and even included the cartoon in the top films of the outgoing year that are definitely worth seeing. However, such a resounding success requires more thorough analysis, so it was decided to make another article entirely dedicated to Flow. All the details are below.

The first thing to know before watching is that the cartoon is very auteur, which means you shouldn't expect a normal coherent story. There will also be no dialogues typical of other similar films. The entire action can and should be perceived on several levels, so Flow is not suitable for watching with children — they risk being completely puzzled.

The main characters are exclusively animals. In many reviews, you can find phrases that the director added realism, but this is not true. Despite the absence of any linguistic dialogue, the animals communicate with each other in the most cartoonish and fantastic way. When you see the scene where the secretary bird is steering a boat, all doubts about realism will completely disappear. This is a real fairy tale. Some reviewers praise the creators for the rare, by modern standards, ability to tell a story without words, but we personally found it contrived. If the animals really behaved like their real counterparts, then constructing the narrative would become a challenging task. However, due to the unrealistic intelligence and almost human-like logic of the animals, everything that happens, on the contrary, moves forward quite easily.

The story is simple and complex at the same time. The Earth has been engulfed by a global flood. Humans have long been gone, and we don't know what happened to them. Essentially, it's an adaptation of the worldwide flood. A cat peacefully spends its days in the house of either an artist or a sculptor. The measured existence is disrupted by a new surge of water, which turns out to be so strong that it completely engulfs the entire house and even the tallest cat statues nearby within a few hours.

The poor animal is forced to escape to the top of the nearest hill, but help comes from an unexpected place — a capybara sails up to the patch of land on a boat and practically invites the cat aboard. Very quickly, the company expands, and a kleptomaniac lemur, a secretary bird exiled from its flock for defending the cat, and dogs, which are clearly divided into a good Labrador and a pack of bad-boy bullies, join the vessel. Together, they will simply sail in an unknown direction, and that's basically it.

There won't be any particularly important plot twists. The cartoon literally consists of forming that very boat team. Once the full team is assembled, the animals don't interact with each other all that much. Over time, something strange happens in the story, the bird flies into a divine beam of light, and the water unexpectedly recedes, but that's about it.

Here we step onto the path of assumptions and interpretations, as we remind you, this is an auteur and independent film. Of course, we are not told where the water came from, where the humans disappeared to, and what happened in this world. However, one can immediately conclude that it must have been a civilization close in development to ours. This is especially noticeable with the lemur, who collects some cans, vials, spoons, and its main treasure — a mirror. The second observation — judging by the architecture, everything happens somewhere around India, although there could be variations. But these are just details that complement the impression. The most questions arise about that very divine beam and the bird.

If we discard the literal perception, the animals are reincarnations or projections of the personalities of real people. There's an artistically inclined cat, used to exploring the world like any person of art. There's a capybara — kind to everyone but not engaging in conflicts even where it should. The lemur clings to worldly trifles even in the conditions of the apocalypse, and the bird is an outsider, rejected by its own tribe. Finally, the dogs are those who simply chase after momentary pleasures and benefits, succumbing to the herd instinct of community.

All these types are very schematic but too conspicuous to appear accidental. By the way, the bird's kin break its wing, which further hints at the unreality of that very flight to the light. Apparently, in reality, the cat witnessed the bird's death and its transition to another world, to God.

What is the idea behind all this? The most obvious and simple one is that everyone unites under the influence of an external terrifying danger. But are there other meanings? We believe the director tried to demonstrate the search for oneself and community. You can't stay alone for long if you truly want to "go with the flow forward," and it's also important to set priorities. This is especially noticeable at the end when the Labrador doesn't chase after the rabbit but stays to help friends.

Is all this banal? Well, Flow is a matter of pure taste. Much depends on the perspective with which you watch the cartoon. Some will find that the director accomplished his task brilliantly, while others, on the contrary, won't see a powerful plot foundation in the cartoon, aside from a series of truisms.

However, what cannot be disputed is the unusual and memorable visuals. By Hollywood standards, the film was made on a shoestring budget, so they had to be creative. The entire cartoon looks as if it were drawn with paints or crayons on paper. Very simplified lines and color solutions are included. At the same time, we have incredibly realistic animation of each animal's movement. The characters behave almost like their real-life counterparts (except when the plot needs to move forward). And there's also incredibly beautiful water. Strangely enough, the visuals are closest to computer games for children, where bright flamboyance is more important than detail.

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We in no way want to argue with the universal love for Flow. It is a colorful and memorable cartoon with an interesting concept, worth spending time on. However, we, unfortunately, did not find any sacred meaning or brilliantly realized idea. Perhaps the director was just lucky, and this is an example of that rare case where all-encompassing ambiguity worked in the project's favor, or something eluded our understanding — it happens. However, calling Flow a timeless hit is difficult. Most likely, you'll watch it once and then promptly forget it.

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