Awards in the film industry are generally nonsense, but here they’ve done me a favour. If Flow hadn’t won a boat load, there’s a danger it might’ve passed me by. There’s no star names attached in the voice department, in fact there’s no voices at all. No people either. Just animals in a rather lush post apocalyptic world. It’s here we meet a cat. He looks like a house cat and there are houses with signs of human occupation. Something has happened though. Animals run wild and fend for themselves. This suits cat. He’s a solitary soul, but as a flash flood tears through his home and leaves the flood waters rising. He has to learn to adapt. It looks beautiful. I’ve not really seen anything like it. It’s not aping Pixar or Studio Ghibli. It’s detailed but not overly so, it’s got its own style and it’s easy to get lost in. Not just the technique and the stunning rendering of water, all done in the open source software Blender (plus Physical Addons), but the camerawork is utterly captivating. It pulls heavily on the heart strings and I watch parts of this with my heart in my mouth praying he’ll be okay. I’m not sure I’ve been this invested in a character in a long time. Making friends with a dog, a capybara, a lemur and a crane, the group gravitate toward a boat that’s both their savour, their home and their transport for adventure, occasionally helped by a prehistoric looking sea creature. It’s gripping, tender, packed with jeopardy, humour and emotion. The sound is beautiful too. From the foley to the score to the animal voices, all recorded by their real life counterparts, well aside the capybara who’s apparently voiced by a baby camel. Nothing I write can do this justice. It’s perfect. Incredible. One of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Worthy of every accolade it receives.
10/10
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