My Review of "Flow"

Flow is an animated movie that came out in 2024. It's a bit difficult to gain access to this movie because it's a small independent movie. You kind of have to go to small theatres to find it. I was curious about it because a friend had told me about how she loved this movie. It was sort of the same lines as Wild Robot but very different. Since I loved Wild Robot I thought I'd enjoy this just as much. For the most part I did enjoy it but it's a little heady.

The movie starts out with a black cat. There is no dialogue throughout the movie so nobody really has a name. That's fine because it's pretty easy to follow along. Each of the animals this black cat encounters are very distinct so you won't mistake one for another. Well that is until they fall into a pack. Even then the movie makers make it distinct enough to differentiate who is who.

In this world it seems that humans had once pre-occupied the world but mysteriously vanished. There are remnants of human life throughout this world but only via ominous mysterious objects. The world also seems to be going through some sort of Noah's arc episode. Water is starting to flood the world and it continues to rise. With all the water all of the remnants of human existence is starting to get erased.

Some of the animals still hold tight to the old objects whereas some just live carefree. At first the animals seem to be very much the stereotypical thought of what those animals would be. As the movie progresses they become more aware of themselves and start thinking and ultimately trust one another. This movie is about friendship and loyalty to that friendship.

Things get in the way of their friendship, for instance, we have animals that want to be with their own species. There's also an element of consumerism in here. We have the animals fight over inanimate objects similar to the movie, The Gods Must be Crazy. They really tried to add as many human related elements to this movie as they could. I thought it was pretty smart because the way they did it works.

Animal lovers will especially adorn this movie because of the mannerisms of the animals. We have such a wide assortment of animals and each of them act in the way that we would expect them to. It's almost as if you're watching zoo animals where you can understand their personalities. This relation with the animals will especially attract animal lover to this movie. So I could totally understand the fanfare behind this movie.

The only thing is, I thought there were certain moments that were drawn out a bit. There are a lot of scenes in this movie that are specifically drawn out just so that you can take in the beauty and splendor of the animation in front of you. At certain times I felt did feel a little out of pace. Perhaps this was exacerbated by the fact that there was no dialogue. Yes, these parts were quite beautiful and honestly this is probably best watched in a theatre with big picture and sound.

There is also what seems to be a meditation hertz frequency sound playing in the music at all times. It felt really weird because I felt like I was in some sort of yoga class.

Overall, it is a pretty good time and I think best experienced with big sound and picture. There are certain parts that felt kind of dragged on. The visuals are quite beautiful and there's a nice message of friendship at the end. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I don't know if I'd watch this again but I would recommend it.