Produced by only 20 animators, Flow is a breathtaking, Oscar-winning film made in Latvia about a cat struggling to make it in a world made against it.
The story begins with a cat living a life of fear, twitching at the slightest sounds. The screen pans to the only place the cat is comfortable in: a small forest cabin. As it falls asleep, the film presents a sense of warm comfort through colors. Hungry, the cat goes out again. That’s when it happens: the beating of hooves and the sound of rushing water. The impending flood chases the cat, forcing it to run away.
The cat veers between trusting others and trying to survive on its own. The film conveys the struggle through imagery, rather than words. Flow lets the scenes speak for themselves, using the ebb and flow of the waves to dive into the cycles of life and death. Unlike many children’s films about animals, dialogue was never necessary; if there was any, it would only dilute the quality of the film. Having no dialogue saves them thousands of dollars on translations, but the lack of words lets the directors instead focus on other qualities of the story. Instead of having the cat talk about all its fears of the world, Flow shows the cat leaving the only comforting place it knows and ultimately finding out that it doesn’t have to do everything alone.
The complex emotions the studio can produce with the models are amazing, especially since they’re using Blender, a free animation program. They convey not only distress and unease in the low crouch of the cat and its wary eyes trailing every action, but also warmth and happiness through playful actions, like batting at little pieces of junk or pretending to be different animals. When a pack of ferocious dogs are introduced in the opening scene, the hairs along the cat model rise as its pupils dilate, clearly and wordlessly showing fear.
The colors of the backgrounds are magnificent: subtle green and aqua blue forests, brilliant cream and gold ruins and bright blue skies. The most impactful scene is when they sail into a giant city and it pans up to show intricate, dilapidated architecture. Where most of the film is filled with warm blues and greens, the reds and oranges are striking. When the water level rises too high, the colors of the scene subtly shift to be darker and scarier, portraying the ominous storms to come.
Flow takes everything amazing with indie animations, like the details and innovation, and scales it up, creating a whole new world of film, where a small team is able to produce at the same level as big corporations. Its success shows that studios no longer need to spend thousands of dollars on animation programs. If you’re an aspiring artist or even someone who enjoys art, this film is made for you. Anyone with eyes can see how stunning this film is. You’d be a fool not to watch it!
