Review - One of the challenges of putting together RNZ's At The Movies show is finding appropriate audio to illustrate the story that I'm trying to tell. About 90 percent of Emilia Pérez is in Spanish, for example.
So imagine my relief when I discovered that there's no Latvian in the Latvian-made animation Flow, tempered by the realisation that there's no English either. In fact, there's no dialogue at all.
How then am I supposed to make the case that this Golden Globe award-winning film is already one of the best of 2025, a film that is destined to be a classic, one that audiences will return to year on year? I'll do my best.
Flow introduces us to an independent black cat who doesn't have a human companion, although they live in a house and sleep on a bed where a human once lived. We don't have much time to ponder this mystery because on an expedition outside the house, cat is almost overwhelmed by a sudden and devastating flood. The waters are rising faster than the animals of the forest can escape.
An abandoned boat floats by and cat makes a desperate leap aboard, joining a surprised but very serious capybara. They sail away into the rapidly rising ocean, looking for sanctuary on some dry land, as the boat collects more and more animal refugees - including a labrador and a lemur.
Animation film Flow follows a cat which must team up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land after their home is devastated by a great flood. Photo: Supplied / Sideshow, Janus Films
I was reminded of the Disney classic The Incredible Journey from 1963 in which a labrador, a bull terrier and a Siamese cat trek across 300 miles of Canadian wilderness to find their humans, but Flow is a much more existential challenge than theirs.
It's superbly animated, forgoing the kind of photorealism that Disney now goes for where every strand of hair has its own independent animated life. The aesthetic is more painterly - the latest Puss in Boots film (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) tried something similar and it's good not to have to pretend that what you are watching is real. But the animal movements, and their characters, are totally believable, founded on long periods of careful observation of the real thing.
Flow is a beautiful and deeply moving fable - a captivating reminder that survival requires cooperation and that our differences are what make us stronger. There are messages here - if you want them - about the environmental damage caused by human apathy but the film is a reminder that the planet is just as indifferent to us and will carry on regardless.
If I see a better animated film in 2025 then it will turn out to be a very good year indeed.
Flow is rated G and is screening all across the motu.
