Flow (2025)

It’s been quite a year for animated movies. I didn’t think it could get any better than the ones I have already seen but that changed immediately when I watched Flow. I always enjoy good story telling and I haven’t been that impressed with a film that has pretty much no dialogue since I watched The Boy and the World. The film is from Latvia and it was so good that not only did it win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, it also got a nomination for Best International Feature Film. In my opinion, truly well deserved. I don’t know how an impatient autistocrat like myself is able to make it through films like these but I sure am grateful that I seem to manage. Despite there not actually being any actors in this movie and the makers using actual animal sounds, they still managed to bring this well constructed world to life and take viewers on a journey that will captivate them from the first scene to the last. I can understand how this movie may not be for everyone and it’s easy to see why but that doesn’t change the experience I had when I gave it a watch and I can’t wait to go further into it.

     It’s the story of a reclusive cat (seriously, are most of the movies I watch about me?) whose home gets ravaged in a great flood and finds sanctuary on a boat with other animal species. I still don’t understand how you create a story with no characters who talk but it was incredible to see how they pulled it off. There are so many things to be said about this movie and I’m not even sure it would be enough. The story? Amazing! I can’t say for sure that animals of different species would come together in real life to face obstacles together but the creators made it look possible. The animation? Absolutely breathtaking! Every frame was like watching a painting come to life and I’ve never seen anything like it before. The characters? Very well-written! Even though they’re just animals making animal sounds, the makers added so much humanity and development to these characters to make you form a connection with them and hook you into the story further. I have to admit, I feel like Gints Zilbalodis and his team did the impossible with this film because I still can’t wrap my head around how they accomplished this. I mean, that might be my “slow-witted” mind speaking but I’m not even sure I’ll ever see a movie like this one again. It was different to say the least and I thought it was a pretty neat example of how far you can push the depths of animation and storytelling.

     As a lover of films and always on the lookout for something different, I think it’s safe to say that I got my wish right here and I couldn’t have been more satisfied with the outcome. Again, I don’t know if this movie will be for everyone but if you can handle a story with no words being spoken, that shouldn’t be a problem. I read another review that compared this story to Noah’s Ark but without humans and I can totally see that now, yet it still feels pretty fresh and original in a world full of animated stories that you’ve seen a hundred times before. All of that being said, I would have to give this movie a 10 out of 10 but that’s based on how I felt about it. If you’re emotionally mature (doesn’t usually apply to me but I somehow managed here), looking for something different, and can handle an extreme lack of dialogue, then check this film out when you have the time. Definitely an interesting experience to put it mildly.