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.