Flow - À Deriva

Gints Zilbalodis's animated feature is movingly attuned to its characters' primal instincts.

The Latvian film is part brilliant experiment, part cutesy animal movie, but engrossing for all audiences-even if it might, like Fantasia, stick uncomfortably in the memories of the youngest in attendance.

The real takeaway is that we have to rely on each other for salvation. And it's here where this experiential experiment in empathy, eco-activism and elation over the creative possibilities of a medium too often hijacked to sell toys truly hits its marks.

Zilbalodis largely avoids the sort of whimsy and sentimentality that might plague, say, a Disney movie with the same premise.

Even the quietest moments of Flow are tainted by existential threat. It's suspenseful and pensive and painful in a way few films strive for, and fewer still achieve.

Ahimmers with the essence of life and the spirit of selfless cooperation.

Finally, a feline-led film that really is about the perils of tribalism.

Timelessness in an animated movie has rarely been so hauntingly invoked. "Flow" is my favorite animated movie so far this year.

What I felt watching this was the exhaustion and empathy about not being able to plan for the world that you're living in... On that ground, I thought it was beautiful.

Wondrous, gorgeously rendered, and immersive to the point where whenever the poor cat was imperiled I had a knot in my stomach.

There's such obvious dedication to making all the creature movements seem natural, and having their reactions germane to what breed of species they are, which further accentuates the experience.

This lovely, gorgeously rendered and unforgettable feature is Latvia's official entry for next year's best international film Oscar.

In the subtle subtext of having a solitary creature like a cat find companionship in a boat full of animals who have lost their pack, their flock, or their herd, we will find a tender story about knowing where we are meant to be.

It is dreamy, epic, perilous and very beautiful.

Reflections run through "Flow", but none more so than the image of ourselves gazing back at it.

An animated adventure with a gentle touch and a simple message, "Flow" is a bit like the story of Noah's Ark, minus Noah.

Latvia's dark-horse entry in the animation Oscar sweeps doesn't need dialogue (it has none) or A-list voices (also absent) to qualify as a thing of beauty as a cat and four fellow creatures carve out a future after a cataclysmic flood wipes out humanity.

To viewers who've grown accustomed to the animation industry's push toward photorealism, Flow may look unfinished, even cheap. But there's beauty in its simplicity, as well as an invitation.

I found the simplicity of its story, about a group of animals in the wake of a great flood (and with no humans around, eliciting a discomfiting, postapocalyptic vibe), to be profoundly moving.

The fluidity of life runs through Flow, a marvelous animated movie from Latvia.