Immersive Oscar-winning animation Flow offers an amusing cat’s-eye view of the world.
The cat-cam, a breakthrough in motion pictures, involves attaching small cameras to the collars of cats, offering an unprecedented look at their world. This perspective has become a popular feature online, showcasing everything from turf wars to food heists and the curious chirps of felines. As one of the most significant advancements in cinema since the Lumière brothers’ first film, it provides an insight into the everyday adventures of cats.
Building on this innovative concept, the newly crowned Oscar-winning Latvian animated feature Flow offers a similarly immersive experience. This unique film features no human characters or anthropomorphized animals, instead focusing entirely on animals whose voices are provided by their real-life counterparts.
The film has even captivated its own audience—pets. Numerous social media clips show house pets transfixed by the on-screen action. While it’s unclear whether their wonder and anxiety are genuine or simply reactions to the familiar sounds of their species, it’s evident that many animals are deeply engaged.
One of the film’s key draws for cats is its protagonist, an unnamed, scrappy feline with dark, matte-grey fur and amber eyes—a character reminiscent of Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service. The cat is first seen gazing at its reflection in a river deep within the jungle, experiencing a world where humans have disappeared for reasons that remain unknown. The rising water levels suggest some form of ecological disaster, perhaps one of humanity’s own making.
In a rustic home adorned with wood-carved animal statues, the cat rests on its late owner’s bed, pawing at a mattress that holds echoes of another life. A brief sigh fades into a yawn, leading to a cat-nap, while the world continues on.
When a flash flood sweeps through, the cat seeks shelter in an old sailboat, which transforms into a miniature Noah’s Ark. A motley crew of animal refugees join the feline—an uncharacteristically sleepy capybara (voiced by a baby camel), a playful ring-tailed lemur, a regal secretarybird, and an easygoing Labrador. The animals squabble, learn to survive together, and embark on a journey through the remains of ancient civilizations, now reclaimed by nature.
Director Gints Zilbalodis, inspired by French filmmaker Jacques Tati, imbues the film with charming humor through silent, physical comedy. His dynamic use of space and the virtual camera captures poetic and absurd moments—such as a cat floating underwater, surrounded by rainbow fish, or a group of lemurs, crowned in junk, navigating a leaky barge downriver like lost tourists. In one striking scene, a prehistoric whale rises from the floodwaters, cresting the horizon before diving back beneath the surface—a stunning image loaded with mythological power and modern warnings.
The film, animated with the free 3D software Blender, features a painterly world contrasted with the simple, almost wire-frame design of the animal characters, reminiscent of early PlayStation graphics. This design choice proves effective, as it enhances the expressiveness of the characters compared to the increasingly dominant photo-realistic styles in Hollywood.
In many ways, Flow stands in stark contrast to the big-studio animation model, which has seen a creative decline in recent years. The sense of wonder and imagination that Flow evokes has been missing from mainstream studios like Disney, DreamWorks, or Pixar for at least a decade. The last time these studios captured such a sense of awe may have been with Pixar’s WALL-E in 2008, especially its early scenes, which, like Flow, feature no dialogue or human characters.
However, Flow maintains its unity of vision, only occasionally disrupted by moments where the animals exhibit human-like traits or emotions, or where celestial imagery threatens to overshadow the film’s animistic tone. Despite these rare deviations, the film’s beauty remains intact. Its message is not one of making statements or lamenting past mistakes, despite the gentle melancholy that lingers beneath the surface.
As suggested by its zen-like title, Flow explores the interconnectedness of all living things, emphasizing that change is simply part of the natural cycle. Life, as Jeff Goldblum famously said, finds a way—whether or not humanity is part of the equation.
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