Flow tells a story about a group of animals who survive an apocalyptic climate catastrophe by working together. It’s animated and beautiful.
Cat begins the story. Cat lives in an abandoned house where someone once carved multiple large sculptures of cats. But there is no human around. There are no humans anywhere.
One day cat is going about his daily routine in the woods, hiding from a pack of dogs. The earth shakes, a herd of deer stampede by, and a wall of water washes him away. The water gets higher and higher, even atop his house on a high hill, Cat is flooded.
A beat up sailboat drifts by. A lazy capybara is inside. Cat jumps in despite his distrust of the capybara. Later they are joined by a lemur, a dog, and a huge white bird. The water continues to rise. The animals are all in the same boat. I’ll repeat that for the folks looking at their phones while the movie plays – when it comes to a climate disaster, we’re all in the same boat. The message is entirely visual. No one speaks in this film, there are only animal noises.
To survive, the various animals have to put aside their differences and work together. They cooperate, share food, rescue each other and act very cute and true to their species while doing it.
While drifting in the ever rising waters, the animals see other animals. Even a whale shows up swimming among the mountains. There are millions of colorful fish under the water.
They come to a city atop the high mountains and float through it. There are no people anywhere.
The charm of Flow comes from the fact that the animals behave like animals. There are exceptions, however. Birds or cats would not steer a boat by the tiller. Each animal is lovable. I was rooting for them to find safety. There was suspense and danger and, of course, the message to work together in the face of environmental disaster.
The film is rated PG, but I think young children will be captured by it and watch it with a sense of wonder. It does have a satisfying ending, but be sure to watch the credits for a final scene or you’ll think it’s a sad ending.
Flow was directed by Gints Zilbalodis, who made the film with a low budget using open source software. In 2025 it won the Academy Award for best animated feature film.
You can see the film on Max.
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Yes, Flow is a remarkably beautiful film, in my opinion. My own reaction was that many young children would be terrified by it, as the adventure was not about exploring, but about trying to escape death — but you might well be right that they would just be captivated by the visual beauty, the near constant movement, and the diverse, cooperative and charming animals, willing to take risks for each other.
Like so many other children’s stories, Moana 2, for example, Flow is rated PG. that lets parents know to decide what their own children can handle. Not sure how many parents sit down and watch something before they let the children, but I hope they watch it with them and talk about it.
To me, this is a true gem of a movie. I was drawn in right from the beginning. It doesn’t give any backstory about what happened—why the characters are in this strange state of life, or why there are no humans. The mystery stays alive throughout.
And the fact that there’s no dialogue is fantastic. Honestly, if someone had told me that beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to watch it—but it works so well. The animation feels very real, not Disney-fied or overly cute. Just great storytelling.
I agree. Great story and message.