Occasionally, the most significant messages arrive unexpectedly. That's certainly true of writer-director Gints Zilbalodis’s second animated film, a remarkably lovely and thought-provoking journey about animals trying to find their place and endure in a transformed world. Following an immense flood that essentially eliminates human civilization, a young black cat has to discover how to survive when this overwhelming disaster washes away everything familiar, relying on his intelligence and the assistance of other animals—a capybara, a meerkat, a secretary bird, and some dogs, particularly a yellow Labrador retriever. As a group, these diverse creatures travel across the water in an old sailboat, learning to depend on one another and remain alive as they overcome numerous obstacles. Through their experiences, they uncover important lessons about life that humans could also benefit from understanding, especially when facing situations similar to those we all encounter in today's world—circumstances many of us can probably connect with. The solutions these animals find are frequently straightforward, but the film encourages viewers to consider why, if these answers are so clear, we aren’t doing more ourselves to adopt them for our own problems. That is a powerful question and one of the most compelling aspects of this widely praised movie. Without any spoken dialogue, relying solely on the natural sounds of its animal characters and an expressive musical score, the film presents stunning animation that portrays a world in flux, revealing what’s been lost and what's beginning to emerge. While the story takes a bit to settle in and occasionally feels disconnected as it progresses, the events depicted are instructive, heartwarming, significant, and accurate in illustrating the film’s many insights—presented in a way that demonstrates rather than explains, successfully resisting the urge to oversimplify things for audiences. "Flow" is animated, but far from a children's cartoon; it sets a standard that more films in this category should strive for. This Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee for best animated feature is an exceptional film, one we could all gain wisdom from—and hopefully before we find ourselves in similar circumstances.

Source on TMDB