"Flow", a beatiful movie about a little cat (and nothing else)

There was so much talking about this movie I was expecting for it to revolutionize the way animation is seen. And, yes, it is very pretty and different, but all that was said was just smoke to the actual picture.

The film follows a cat that lives in an abandoned house with rock cat statues. One day everything goes to sh*t, the whole world starts to flood and this cat now has to survive in a boat shared with a dog, a capybara, a lemur with a fascination with collecting shinny objects and a hurted crane (or some kind of bird like that).

It is simple, and effective. These little animals just want to survive, and while doing so they start to become a found family, accepting each other's perks and flaws. The animals do not talk as in other animated movies nor act anthropomorficly, they kind of just act as the animals they are, but we can still see some complex emotions and motivations behind them. Making the movie a non-dialogue one, does not explain you everything and goes full on for an only visual narrative.

This is amazing. The film forces itself to find a way of transmiting everything without any dialogue. There is no exposition in any way, we never know why there are no humans nor why everything is underwater. The long shots, making the movie almost a collection of secquence-shots with a simulated handheld camera makes for a very inmersie and cinematic experience. There are also a couple of well thought details, like the first and final shot being reflections on water of the main cat, showing the change it went through, making it a circular and poetic narrative. In addition, some more complex ideas and moments are transmited through methaphors and surreal scenes, very flashy and a smart way to transmit them.

The animation looks very beatiful. It is like a 3-D CGI animation of 2-D elements and textures that, instead of looking realistic and detailed, pursuits some painting-like aesthetic. The character designs are simple and look very similar to their real counterparts, even in their movements; with the exception of whales, which for some reason in all dystopian stories are the first species to evolve, even when they are the ones who lived the longer (Darwin is un-evolving on anger in his tomb at this). Also, the enviroments are really cool: it is a mixture of houses, statues, neoclasical cities and tall mystical rock formations floded, abandoned and infested with mutant whales.

Yet, with all the praises, well deserved, is not as amazing as people made it feel. It is a wholesome and cute story, but not very original, deep nor truly emotional to break you cathartically; it is so much like the story was made by a pinterest "asthetik" teenager. Not a bad thing on itself, but makes this an extremely uneffective flick on its emotional aspect. You can feel the movie trying so hard to make you feel wholesome, that you start avoiding feeling like that and reacting apathically; no one likes being manipulated, and less when it is so obvious and cheap. There is nothing to say, nothing to think, nothing to explore deeply, just little animals meant to make you cry because they are cute.

Flow is a good and enjoyable picture. The visual narrative, animation full of personality and immersive shots make you truly hope the little cat and its friends are going to be okay. Sadly, everything is so obvious and superficial that it ends up feeling like eating a delicious, incredible smelling, amazingly looking meal, but without any nutritional value. At the end, I guess you just have to flow with the movie.