Flow 4K 2024 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

A global flood occurs and a black cat is forced to escape in a boat with other animals.

Review 4K Movie

There was a black cat around the corner....

Only the cat was not quite black, but rather dark-dark gray, and he lived not around the corner, but in a strange world, from which suddenly and inexplicably disappeared all the people. They had disappeared recently: their homes had not yet been swallowed up by the jungle. Maybe they were taken away by a fire portal opening over the top of the highest cliff on the coast? And what if the terrible sea monsters that sometimes surface are somehow connected to the disappearance of people? And why did an unknown sculptor leave a giant cat statue on the shore?

Don't expect answers; there won't be any. What will be the story of a cat and his fellow creatures. Because of the floods in the same boat with the cat will be a capybara from South America, a lemur from Madagascar, a secretary bird from Africa and a fragment of Western civilization - a good-natured dog breed golden retriever. During their journey together, the lonely cat learns to be a friend and appreciate company, while the dog, on the contrary, at the crucial moment behaves as an independent individual rather than part of a pack.

In a brief retelling, this story seems straightforward and didactic, but it's not the 'what' that matters here, but the 'how'. Director-screenwriter-artist-composer-editor Gints Zilbalodis has done the almost unbelievable: he has achieved the effect of magical realism on the animated material, shifting the realism of the story and video sequences a little bit towards a parable-like tale. In the photorealistic environment, he placed slightly less realistic animals. They are a little bit caricatured - but just a little bit, not Disneyesque. The plastics of the animals are impeccably rendered - the emotions of all the characters, especially the kitty, read like an open book, and they don't need words at all to convey thoughts and feelings. These animals behave almost like animals: they don't talk, they don't search for people or other animals. But they steer the boat and turn it in the right direction at the right moment. However, they are powerless and helpless before the elements of the ocean.

Water is another character in the movie, no less important than the cat and his companions. Water is the most volatile and multifaceted participant of the story. It can be scattered with thousands of joyful splashes flashing in the sun, it can turn into a roaring deadly stream, it can just indifferently rise and flood the earth. And it is the water that becomes a mirror for the heroes who realize themselves in this strange world.

Zilbalodis has made more than just an animated movie. He created a unique cinematic universe that lives by its own laws and reminds us that we are all in the same boat. So let it be a universe/boat with a SEAL at the center.