Because of the downright awful UK film distribution system, the now Oscar-winning Flow is finally releasing on 21st March after being released in the US on 30th October. The wait has been agonising after seeing all the beautiful trailers and overwhelming praise but does this film live up to the hype? To put it simply: yes, and then some. This is arguably one of the most beautifully animated films ever made. It is made with such heart and beauty that is infectious throughout. It respects the audience’s intelligence by showing you a story rather than telling you one and it is a beautiful thing that a film that speaks so little can say so much.

Directed by Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis as a Latvian/French/Belgian co-production, Flow follows an unnamed, small, grey cat. It roams on its own in a world overtaken by nature. There are signs of humans being there once but not anymore and the cat has made an abandoned house its home. After running from a pack of dogs, the cat comes across a stampede of deer running away from something. A huge wave of water crashes over and floods everything. The water level keeps rising so the cat is forced to abandon its home and jumps on a boat with a capybara. With other animals joining the boat progressively, they all have to adapt and survive in a world that has been changed.

To emphasise what was mentioned before, this is a seriously beautiful looking film. The animation is so crisp and flows, funnily enough, so wonderfully. Combined with its painted CGI art style, it is just immense to look at and that makes it worth the watch in itself. There are so many scenes that are just breathtaking. From when the sun shines through the forest in the beginning, to some of the underwater sequences with the multitudes of vibrant coloured fish, it just look fantastic. Cinematography is one of the big reasons for how good this looks too. Lighting is perfectly set for the mood of the scene and the way that we are shown around these environments is just masterful. It does not cut much and instead likes to follow the scene seamlessly from multiple different angles and that just gives off this lovely personality.

Story-wise, this is very simple, but it does not need to be anything more. It is one still full of life and wonderful characters that even without dialogue, we know their personalities. The cat is very cautious to begin with, giving off a low grumble when anything gets to close. And yet, it starts to become a centre-piece for the animal crew. It opens up more and starts to be more caring to all the animals, even at one point deliberately jumping into the water, a famously big step for cats, just in order to get fresh fish for the crew. The labrador dog is another character who just bleeds your heart. He is playful like any dog and sets himself apart from any of his old dog crew because he knows they only look out for themselves. He is a true loyal dog and is one of the most faultlessly loveable characters in the whole film. Cats and dogs are stereotypically at odds with each other, but here they both understand the situation and adapt with each other to the changing world around them. With the others they slowly start to develop a familial relationship and it is just beautiful. All of this characterisation, all of this development, all of the relationships between each character, it is all done with no dialogue. It is insane how well this is done when you think about films with pages upon pages of dialogue that fail to give us anything to work with. It is nothing short of genius.

It has been briefly mentioned but the main theme of Flow is family. A dysfunctional one at that, but with the ever-changing landscape of the world, they learn that they have to stick together. It is a very simple theme but it conveys it so subtlely that it works. There is leadership, loyalty, comaraderie and caring kindness throughout the crew and those are core values of family. Its simplicity does still speak loudly in today’s world with many uncertain times ahead of us and this film teaches us to stick by people and it makes the bad times go down a bit smoother. This is the throughline of the film, starting with everybody scattered and yet everybody slowly coming together as they should.

I could gush about this film all day. It is wonderful in every single aspect and it is hard to fault it. Best of all, this is a film for everyone of all ages. Everybody can take something good from this film and at only 84 minutes, it does now waste your time in doing so. It is concise, straight to the point and just immensely gorgeous in doing so. One of the best animated films I have ever seen and I emplore you to watch this on the biggest screen you can when it comes out.