Has anyone else seen the movie Flow?

[Tommy Carcetti]

If you haven't, you should definitely check it out. (It's currently on Max for anyone who subscribes.)

It's absolutely magnificent and beautiful.

I was mesmerized and captivated throughout it, even though there's not much of a typical plot to speak of.

There's not a single line of dialogue or a human person on screen. It's all just animals, although they clearly live in a world that was once populated by humans.

The "protagonist" is a cat, caught up in an apocalyptic flood. You follow him/her around, as slowly the cat joins up with several other animal companions to navigate the flood: a Capybara, a lemur, a yellow lab/golden retriever, a messenger bird, and a whale-like creature that swims below their boat.

What's most amazing is that the animals actually act like animals. They're not Disney-fied humans-as-animals, but rather animated to be very true to their natural mannerisms.

And yet you still manage to get a sense of personality for each of them in a way that's not forced or fake.

It runs the emotional spectrum from humor to sadness, and I can't say much else but it was a truly beautiful film. The animation and music are all top notch.

It's an animal-centric animated movie like you've never seen before.

I'd love to hear anyone who has seen it and what your takeaways as to the themes and messages of the film might be.

[FirstLight]

1. Thank you for reminding me I wanted to see it!!!!

Where do you stream? I saw the preview a while ago and thought it would be really special. Thanks for the rec. I am a nature lover and have basically been living with the critters for years in the forest, and I love seeing their "personalities" by species and individual... I know which squirrel is which and I definitely know the neighborhood Raven

[Tommy Carcetti]

2. It's on Max if you get that.

Otherwise I would think it would be on demand somehow.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Loved it.

Totally charming and original.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Yes, watched it on Hulu or Max. I was so happy it took the Oscar.

[ThreeNoSeep]

5. It's a gorgeous animation

The animals are fantastic. The themes seemed to revolve around cooperation and community, as well as a strong element of the Taoist concept of wu wei (doing without doing).

Another animation that seems to portray animals as animals is Wild Robot, which does the trick even though the animals can talk.

[cyclonefence]

6. Okay. I hated it.

A good friend, a cold-hearted lefty lawyer, recommended it to me, and I said I'd avoided it because I was overloaded with cute cat videos and didn't want my frozen heart-strings plucked by anything that would make me want to puke because of its cuteness. Let me say now that I enjoy the cat videos posted here, but I don't look at many of them; I have a cat who wants to kill me and eat my face, so I am not immune to felinephilia.

So I watched it, and while I admired the animation at the beginning of the movie (and I am an insufferable snob about animation), it seemed to me to be less interesting as the movie went on, and the plot made me gag.

For a well-animated, well-plotted movie about pets that won't make one gag, see "Isle of Dogs" by Wes Anderson.

[Ocelot II]

7. I just loved it! Great animation, some beautiful artwork,

and the animals, especially the cat, moved like actual animals. Loved that there was no spoken dialogue, too. Wonderfully done, very imaginative, beautiful story, totally deserved the Oscar.

[nuxvomica]

8. I've been recommending it

The communication between different species is the most remarkable aspect of this remarkable movie. It's done very subtly and precisely, and universally relatable to humans regardless of native language or culture. As such, the movie can play as-is for any audience without dubbing or subtitling, which besides being a genius marketing idea it also shows that we can understand each other better than one might think, further underscoring the movie's theme of survival through cooperation.

[justaprogressive]

9. I love animation from Tom & Jerry to Myazaki

This doesn't make the cut. 2/10

I think either a bad artist or more likely AI is involved. There are multiple times when
the hero's face (the cat) looks nothing like a cat! It's jarring at best.

Watch The Boy and the Heron (Studio Ghibli) or Ne Zha ( Chengdu Coco Cartoon)

[Ocelot II]

10. It's not AI, far from it; it was created in Blender,

a free, open-source 3D modeling software that can run on most laptops. And it's the most accurate depiction of the movements of a real cat that I've ever seen in a cartoon. https://www.fastcompany.com/91232740/flow-movie-turned-a-4-million-budget-into-an-animated-work-of-art

[bif]

12. Totally disagree with you.

Occasionally the cat's eyes didn't look right. But the rest of the time it was great.

[bif]

11. Both my cat and I loved it!

She rarely notices anything on the screen. But she was transfixed the entire time I watched it.