“This is a film that children and adults will enjoy and marvel at. And one that is best enjoyed on a big screen.”
Con Nats
4.5 Mirrors
A cat, a capybara, a dog, a secretary bird and a lemur end up on a boat. It’s a simple plot of a simply lovely animated movie called Flow, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated film amongst a raft of others.
The film opens with a cat being chased by dogs before running to escape a tsunami. The cat escapes onto a floating boat with a capybara and they collect fellow refugees and their quirks. They sail into uncertainty discovering each other and learning more about themselves and their now empty world.
It’s an enchanting story. It’s delivered without any dialogue or humans or explanations. The animals are from different parts of the world and a strange whale and a mystical city is thrown in to muddy the rising waters.
The animation is a little baffling. The film makers used free shareware but it still doesn’t explain their choices. The animals are in flat colours and look unrendered while the backgrounds are in vivid detail. Birds in water reflections are more detailed than in close ups. However, the way the characteristics of each animal are captured makes this a forgotten detail. It could be a statement on their basic character before they go in their journey.
They do seem to take on some human characteristics. The capybara and secretary bird learn how to steer. The cat learns how to swim. The lemur learns to share. Each one has a character journey without becoming overly human.
Despite not using storyboards or deleting any scenes, many of the shots and angles are visually stunning. There is a bit of Life of Pi at play here and director Gint Zilabodis has a good eye. At 89 minutes it doesn’t overstay its welcome and the ending has optimism in this post-apocalyptic world.
This is a Latvian-Belgian and French co-production. It’s ironic that this film has crossed borders to help each other produce something magical, just as the characters do.
This is a film that children and adults will enjoy and marvel at. And one that is best enjoyed on a big screen.
4.5 mirrors
Con Nats, On The Screen
