An adorable grey cat with amber eyes is the central character in Gints Zilbalodis' exquisite animated feature, Flow, which means the movie qualifies as maybe the most arresting cat video ever.
Set in a forest that's big, blooming, and full of life, the film begins with butterflies fluttering, rabbits hopping and Cat (who is never given a name), seeming right at home.
Adventurous, but also skittish, its ears flattening when startled, this Cat is not afraid to swipe a fish from a pack of dogs when they aren't looking, and it's quick enough that when they give chase, it can pretty easily give them the slip.
But then, they come running back, not even looking Cat's way, followed by a herd of deer.
Cat looks back to see where they've come running from and spots trees shaking, first in the distance and then closer. Then a wall of water — a flood that thunders through the forest, sweeping Cat up and stranding it first on a tree branch, then on a hill near a sculptor's studio that, at this early moment in the film, is the only sign that humans were ever around.
As Cat discovers over the next day or two, safety will be fleeting. The water is rising, submerging the hill, then the studio, then the massive grey cat sculptures across the grass for which it seems cat could have been a model.
And just when there's nowhere left to stand, an abandoned boat floats by, and Cat leaps aboard, to find a South American capybara — a large guinea-pig-like critter — that grunts once, then falls asleep.
As the boat drifts near outcroppings of land, a few other animals climb aboard: a labrador from that pack of dogs that was chasing Cat; a lemur that collects shiny bottles and spoons in a basket; and finally, after a crane-like secretary bird gets injured in a bout between Cat and a larger bird, it too joins the motley crew on their tiny ark of sorts. A great flood has apparently whisked away all of humanity.
Teamwork for a story about cooperation
Filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis hails from Latvia, and in 2019, made his award-winning debut with Away, a one-character animated film that he made on his own. This time, he's still co-written, directed, edited, co-produced and co-composed the music for Flow, but as befits a story about lots of critters cooperating to survive, he's had help.
Animators from Belgium and France have worked miracles with computer graphics that make breath-catchingly beautiful backgrounds look photorealistic. Their "virtual" camera swoops and spins to follow creatures they've rendered to look hand-drawn. It's a gorgeous mix, as if a 3D Bambi were romping through a nature documentary.
But not a talking Bambi. Unlike most animated films, these critters are voiced by, well, critters. Mostly by their own species, though the film's quietly stoic capybara apparently has a more buoyant personality than a real capybara, so its bits were dubbed by a baby camel, Zilbalodis has said in interviews.
With a message about cross-species cooperation and a playfully observant take on animal habits, Flow will certainly delight kids. But the film also offers food-for-thought for adults, who'll be curious as to what might have caused the calamity that brought the critters together. Climate change, maybe? Flow doesn't offer explanations, and the mystery proves haunting as currents carry the boat past a flooded city — towering, majestic and utterly empty of human inhabitants.
Have animals inherited the earth? And if so, might they do better by it than we did, just going with the Flow?
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