‘Flow,’ a cat’s adventure, is best animated film of year

L. KENT WOLGAMOTT
Lincoln (Neb) Journal Star

“Flow” opens at the Roxy Theater on Friday, Jan. 9.

“Flow” is a gem of an animated film, its tale of a wide-eyed black cat surviving a biblical-level flood with a little help from its friends, perfect for kids and, arguably, even better for adults.

The cat’s unnamed — as are the lemur, osprey, capybara and dogs who join it on parts of its aquatic journey. That’s because Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis eschews Disney-like anthropomorphism throughout the movie.

These animals don’t talk and sing and dance and sure don’t have the cuteness and emotionally manipulative personas that drive the big studio animation with animals — e.g. the “The Lion King.”

Instead, they act naturally through the first hour before they have to “break character” as, to choose the earliest example, when the cat figures out how to steer the boat on which they’re sailing through the flooded world.

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That, obviously, comes after the extended four-minute opening that sets the tone for the film. The kitty, clearly wary, snatches a fish that’s been thrown onto the ground by a dog and the chase is on, a pack pursuing the terrified cat — wide-eyed, flattened ears — through the forest along some water.

Then a herd of deer come stampeding by, chased as it were, by an unseen force — which, of course, would be the flood. But before the world is inundated, we see the cat return to its home — in an abandoned cabin that had been occupied by someone who carves giant sculptures of cats that are scattered around the property.

Chased from the cabin by the rising water, the cat finds itself stranded, climbing the top of a peak, where it appears it will be a goner. But the aforementioned boat, occupied by the capybara, floats by and the cat is able to scramble on board.

There’s no immediate bonding between the wary cat and the sleepy rodent. Nor are the lemur, who hoards a basket of shiny things, the giant white bird, or the golden retriever that end up on the boat all that friendly.

Eventually, however, the animals ease their resistance to each other and start to, for lack of a better description, work together and help each other.

That, it appears, is one of the messages that Zilbalodis has packed into the picture — along with a cautionary ecological view and, subtly, a sense of personal sacrifice for the benefit of others.

The subtlety is in keeping with the film’s child-friendly tone. That said, there’s plenty of tension in the movie — the cat ends up underwater and swimming for its life on multiple occasions, the bird gets into a squabble with others of its kind and the dogs are “bad guys,” selfishly disrupting everything.

“Flow” also doesn’t look like the pictures made by Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, etc. Instead, it utilizes Blender’s graphics software to send the digital camera through a world that resembles video game environments and to capture the motion and expressions of the animals.

Admittedly, that makes some of the animals’ actions hard to “read” — there’s no background for understanding why they do what they do. But it gives the picture a distinct visual sensibility that’s perfect for the story being told.

“Flow” is Latvia’s entry for the Academy Award for best international feature film. It certainly would be deserving of that nomination. But there will be no justice at all if “Flow” doesn’t get a best animated feature film nomination. The movie was a surprise winner in the category at the recent Golden Globes. It’s the best animated movie I’ve seen this year.

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