Flow is a 2024 animated adventure film directed by Gints Zilbalodis and written by Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža. Created entirely in the free and open-source software Blender, the film was a 5½-year-long production with no storyboards, no deleted scenes, and no lines of dialogue. It follows a dark-grey cat’s journey to survive after an extinction-level flood washes over a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. Along the way, the cat gains new companions, learns to trust others, and ultimately discovers a lesson about universal balance. At the 97th Academy Awards, Flow won Best Animated Feature, was nominated for Best International Feature Film as Latvia’s submission, and also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
Right off the bat, Flow stands out for how different it is. The movie opens with two straight minutes of title cards, which is a lot, but it sets the tone for how artistic and deliberate everything in the film is. The animation is done with a crazy amount of detail, especially the environments. The world looks beautiful, but also abandoned and strange, almost like it ended recently. There are no signs of rot or decay, no skeletons or dust, which makes it feel like humans just disappeared, not died off.
The main character, a cat, doesn’t speak (no one does), but its expressions and movements are so lifelike that you get what it’s feeling. The music and sound design also help support and tell the story really well. Some things are a little off, though, like the occasional weird mouth animation on the brown dog or the confusing behavior of the secretary birds. Like, why do they hate the cat so much? What was that whole glowing-spire-death-scene about?
The movie raises a lot of questions without answering many. There’s a giant cat statue—was the cat a god or something? There are random huge monuments everywhere that seem important but are never explained. However, considering that they had less than 1.5 hours to establish the world and tell the story, I think the balance was good. They gave just enough context on the world for me not to be completely lost, and then focused on the plot. And then there’s the lemur. I hated that lemur with every fiber of my being. He was selfish, rude, and I would’ve left him behind. It didn’t even make sense why the other animals tolerated him.
Still, for all the confusion, Flow manages to keep you interested. It feels a little like a dream—beautiful, haunting, and slightly unsettling. The whale near the end hit really hard emotionally. The water level going down saves the land animals, but it dooms the whale, and the cat, realizing that was honestly one of the most powerful moments I’ve seen in an animated film.
I’m giving Flow 4 out of 5 stars. It’s not perfect, and it could’ve used just a tiny bit more explanation, but it’s unique, thoughtful, and totally unforgettable. Definitely worth watching if you’re into animation or movies that make you think.
