What an absolutely amazing movie! Flow movie is more than just an animated film—it’s an allegory brimming with analogies that will surely leave you stunned. What appears to be a simple visual narrative hides profound meanings, inviting you to dive deep into an unprecedented plot of adventure, seen through the eyes of a cute black cat. It’s a silent film, yet the sound design is phenomenal, pulling you directly into the whirlpool of action.
Plot of Flow Movie
The film is told from the perspective of a cat and beautifully captures a feline’s thought process when a flood strikes. She makes four unusual friends, each bringing their own set of characteristics into their journey. What initially seems confined to animated theatrics slowly unveils a deeper philosophical layer, reflecting the language of life. Let’s try to dissect some of the poetic analogies that make Flow such a great movie.
That being said, we must not forget Gints Zilbalodis, the brilliant director of Flow, who, along with Matiss Kaza and Ron Dyens, wrote this beautiful film. What’s even more surprising is that the entire movie was created using Blender—a tool I’ve always wanted to learn but never found the time to explore.
Analysis of Flow Movie | Spoilers
Let’s begin by analyzing the movie. We meet a hungry cat doing its usual—escaping dogs, finding food, surviving. In its purest form, it’s life stripped to its essence. If you compare this to human life, you realize it’s the same—hunt, rest, survive.
The Flood
Suddenly, a flood disrupts the cat’s life. The rising water levels symbolize an unexpected problem sneaking in—one you try to escape by taking higher ground, but it follows you regardless. The flood represents life’s inexplicable hardships. Why does it happen? How can we stop it? Why me? If you keep obsessing over these questions, you’ll find yourself going nowhere.
For some—like the fish, shark, and whale—the flood is a blessing. For others—like the cat, dogs, capybara, and lemur—it’s devastating. For the birds, it’s just a minor inconvenience. This reflects how people experience adversity differently.
A Band of Unusual Companions – Flow Movie
This inexplicable beast swallows everything in its wake—from your own species to even those who do not belong to your kind. Yet, there are different ways to handle the situation.
While the cat is freaked out by such an unforeseen situation and is constantly on its paws, fighting every second, every little rise in the water level, enters a rather calm capybara who seems to be making the most of it. It reflects a carefree attitude that remains focused on living life to the fullest, come what may.
The capybara is feeding itself and sleeping despite the world being upended, and remains friendly at the same time with every animal. It has no problem adjusting to any situation never caring about social awkwardness.
Next, we have a secretarybird—an epitome of beauty and brains. Its arrival into the life of the cat is fortunate and cinematic, highlighting groupism extant in the world. Punished and disowned by its very kin, it is forced to lead a life of solitude.
A lemur’s inclusion bluntly reflects a personality that is constantly obsessed with materialistic things and narcissism. Despite the world going into chaos, its primary concern lies in its accumulated wealth. What couldn’t be ignored was the fact that such people exist in society, and the variety on the boat was a perfect reflection of such personas.
A labrador is the weird and optimistic friend you have—someone you might consider daft, and yet their presence feels like a warm hug. You know that you couldn’t go on if it weren’t for the positive vibes of friendship they bring. Such people remain a gift in disguise, even though at one point you might have rejected them due to contrasting personalities.
Flow of Life
Together, this band of ungentlemanly animals navigates through the ocean of life. It’s akin to going with the flow of life, with little to do other than accept where it takes us. Only things like steering remain in our power.
Such an exemplary image can be taken from every page in life. It could be a perfect reflection of a school, where you are supposed to group up with unknown faces, forced to get along to wade through life. It could also be an office, where you have colleagues with varied personalities and yet have to carry on doing your work. Then you can’t help but compare it to a family—a mixed breed of people forced to share a similar boat, people with different personalities trying to swim and face problems as they come.
More so, all in all, it’s a perfect reflection of life, with its inconsistent and unpredictable nature of waves. Our existence lies in the common limb of the universe, where we are supposed to get along since we are riding the same boat.
While the secretarybird has the power to steer the direction of our lives—like a good leader, a boss, or a manager—we are at the mercy of their decisions, despite how tough they may be. The lemur, losing its precious glass float and unable to understand the gravity of the situation, will remain a classic example of being extremely short-sighted.
Significance of The Whale and the Stone Pillars
The presence of the whale is that guiding light and the most fortunate encounter—like a miracle—that keeps you afloat. The divine intervention takes you out of trouble and helps you stay alive. You keep chugging along the engine of life owing to its presence. You know that things are going to be alright because this divine presence will always be there with you—when you pray or when you’re down. You will always be lifted and saved.
The highest point—the stone pillars—in the movie is akin to the pinnacle of enlightenment, the ultimate liberation—Moksha, as we say in Hindi. A scene that depicts the secretarybird flying away to the highest point, with the cat following it, is actually the bird’s quest to attain ultimate release. The cat is unable to pass through the same portal, for its time had yet to come, whereas the secretarybird’s time had arrived (owing to the earlier injury), along with no will to live.
The stone pillars are also the highest point in the entire flooded setup—untouched by the torments of water. They naturally signify what they are meant to convey—the only place that is free of all problems.
The Unpredictable Nature of Things
Finding the lemur’s glass float and being saved by it is like saying that not every materialistic thing is to be disregarded—some can be put to good use. While it meant the world to the lemur by its very existence, it actually served the cat a different purpose—a chance to live.
The water recedes all of a sudden, which at one point seemed as if the trees and mountains were rising—a beautiful contrast of perspectives. It shows that sometimes we get so hung up, so traumatized by life, that we fail to recognize when something good is happening to us. According to the lemur, it had managed to succeed in life, captivating its audience—a bunch of fans—even with its broken mirror: an imperfection that only the lemur knew about.
The recession in such a manner is also so unpredictable that you realize you still don’t know the reason it happened in the first place. It’s like—if a deluge were to hit us today like that—what kind of science do you think could explain why? You can only accept it and try to survive.
The Climax of Movie Flow
The boat is found dangling precariously on a branch, where all the dogs the cat had once thought to be hostile are now stranded—along with the capybara, the companion who had stayed by its side throughout their journey through life. Having saved them, the dogs are so nimble-minded that they get distracted by a rabbit, showing no situational awareness, and end up leaving the cat to die. Again, people with such minds exist.
But somehow, the cat survives along with the capybara because of the labrador and the lemur, who don’t leave their side, having grown a camaraderie owing to the journey they had taken together.
The first appearance of the pillars had given the cat some hope—a glimpse into our purpose, a sense of what needs to be done to attain the ultimate point—to be saved. This becomes evident towards the end, when the cat senses the flood returning during the deer stampede. It sees the pinnacle in the distance and decides to go for it, hoping its time has come and it is finally ready to escape this unending cycle of life.
At that moment, she finds the whale—her constant saviour—struggling to stay in the water. It feels like a call to strength. The cat senses that the whale is choosing to stay and face the challenges of life, while she herself is aiming for an easy escape. When she looks back at her confused companions, she realizes they are still in it too. She chooses to return to them—to stay and fight alongside them instead of running away.
Post Credits Scene of Flow Movie
In the post-credits scene, we witness the deluge again, signifying that it is indeed a never-ending cycle, with the same whale navigating through the cosmos of life. Its perennial presence endures—even though the main characters have lived and died—it continues to traverse the planet, doing its bit, saving souls from drowning. In the end, it survives just like all the other animals—only capable of doing what it can, at the mercy of the sea.
Flow
Pros
- Extraordinary Plot
- Brilliant Life Analogy
- Seamless animation
- Beautiful Cinematography
- Great Direction
