An lovable black cat with luminous amber eyes fends for itself in “Flow,” snatching a fish from a pack of distracted mutts and dashing off with its loot whereas the canine chase only a few seconds behind. Visionary animator Gints Zilbalodis’ digital digicam swoops after the cat, revealing a crisp, computer-generated world the place people are oddly absent, however their affect might be acutely felt.
Maybe that explains what occurs subsequent, as a near-biblical flood of water — which could be the results of artifical local weather change, although Zilbalodis by no means specifies — brings a herd of untamed animals stampeding in its course. The cat’s ears flatten, and it crouches low to the bottom, very like “The Lion King” did in that movie’s iconic wildebeest scene, as an enormous wave comes thundering after the deer. Seconds later, the forest is underwater, and the cat is desperately making an attempt to remain afloat. (The deer appear to have disappeared fully, as issues are likely to do in a movie that is still doggedly dedicated to its lead cat.)
This spectacular opening shot lasts greater than 4 minutes and easily wouldn’t be attainable in stay motion for as many causes as a cat has whiskers. Even with using drones, cameras can’t transfer as nimbly by way of house as Zilbalodis whisks us, attaining an instantaneous kinship between audiences and his feline protagonist. However there’s additionally the plain proven fact that no filmmaker might practice animal actors to do what Zilbalodis’ creativeness calls for — as urged by that apocryphal story of a number of kittens being dropped off a cliff to get the shot in “The Adventures of Milo and Otis.”
In virtually each respect, “Flow” might solely be animated. And it might solely be animated as hynotically as this by Zilbalodis, the one-man world-builder answerable for the 2017 indie marvel “Away.” At his new movie’s Cannes premiere, the younger Lithuanian auteur defined how, after dedicating a solitary three and a half years to the making of “Away,” “Flow” represents the supportive coming-together of a staff — a notion that turns into more and more clear because the cat’s survival relies on the opposite species it encounters alongside its fascinating journey.
Little by little, the ensemble expands to incorporate elegant storks and bauble-hoarding lemurs, a Lovecraftian-looking whale and a random marmot, every of which come to the cat’s assist at totally different factors in its travels. The animals don’t speak in “Flow,” however they don’t behave fairly like animals both — as after they commandeer an deserted sailboat. Nonetheless, their silence marks an important distinction between this challenge and the comparatively anthropomorphic custom of American cartoons, even when Zilbalodis intends for us to learn a human allegory into what his solid experiences over an epic 86 minutes.
The canine are the primary animals to interrupt character, piling right into a rowboat because the water rises and beckoning the cat aboard. Whereas they’d been chasing the black cat simply earlier than, the pack now appear to acknowledge the larger disaster and prolong a serving to paw — though one of many movie’s challenges is the right way to learn the motivations of animals restricted to a slender vary of expressions. Contemplate this: The movie is a few cautious creature studying to belief others. “Flow” is one thing of an anomaly in that it places larger weight on wealthy, impeccably lit surroundings than it does on character animation.
That’s in line with Zilbalodis’ model (“Away” featured only one particular person, who by no means spoke, and barely emoted), and but, seeing as how he has a staff of collaborators this time round, it’s affordable to count on that the animals’ performances be extra nuanced. As an alternative, the film seems to be a bit like a high-resolution online game (“Myst” involves thoughts) or a really fancy screensaver, the place the critters seem suspended in opposition to all these dazzling environments, with little sense of weight or gravity. If something, all these lengthy, floating plans-séquences make every part really feel barely extra synthetic. That may not trouble younger viewers, but it surely defies the physics-based rules of CGI.
Although “Flow” seems to be pleasing to the attention, it isn’t expressionistic sufficient in model to forgive these technical shortcomings. You understand that feeling if you revisit a computer-animated cartoon that blew you away on the time (say, an early “Shrek” installment or the now-prehistoric “Ice Age”) and notice that just a few years on, the know-how doesn’t maintain up? The difficulty with “Flow” is that it already seems to be dated — commendable to make certain, but rudimentary on the similar time. It’s as if Zilbalodis determined to dump an ocean’s price of water within the Uncanny Valley.
Nonetheless, animal-loving viewers will bond nearly immediately with the cat and its motley companions. From Jiji, the feline sidekick in “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” to Bob, who stole the present in Skydance’s “Luck,” this film’s anonymous star has powerful competitors from different animated black cats. But it surely’s powerful to withstand these golden eyes, or the best way “Flow” incorporates every kind of endearingly cat-like conduct, from knocking objects off ledges to swatting on the lemur’s dangling tail.
That darn cat could have began out as a loner, however by the top, this small cadre of creatures have saved each other sufficient occasions to be inseparable. “Flow” illustrates that fantastically by way of a bunch reflection that contrasts fantastically with the opening shot of the cat staring down and seeing solely himself within the water. Don’t scamper off the moment the credit roll, as there’s a satisfying glimpse of 1 character’s destiny hidden on the finish.
