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I really wish I’d seen this a few months ago, before it received all of the glowing reviews and won that Academy Award. Then I’d have been coming to it without any influence and I’d have known whether my reaction to it was real and measured, or whether I am right in thinking it is not actually that good.

I don’t mean Flow is not a good film, I just feel that having seen it receive unequivocal praise and the biggest prizes that could possibly be bestowed on it, having seen others compare it to early Ghibli and herald its creators as important new voices in the world of animation, it’s not that good. 

I can see why it got the Oscar, it is a work of strong vision from artists working without the support and money of big studios and if the Hollywood award ceremonies show us anything it is that the whole American film industry likes to think it is not as dominated by commercialism and slavish audience pleasing as it actually is. Put up against the other nominations though, this is not as well realised or spectacular. Sure Inside Out 2 is a retread of Pixar’s past achievements but The Wild Robot genuinely pushed animation to new levels and the work behind Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is incredible. If voters had wanted to award an underdog then the smart and edgy Memoirs of a Snail was also right there. Flow does simply not reach the same heights.

For some I guess that is the point, this is a movie defined by its limitations and how it challenges them. Much has been made of how the whole thing was produced on a laptop using open source software. There is no question that they have pushed Blender’s program and its plug in real time render engine further than before but for the viewer it still looks a bit like Fortnite. The backgrounds are amazing but the character animation is just not as accomplished and at worst can be distractingly weak. Also in places it goes the same way as The Polar Express by including several sequences that are more about showcasing the animation than advancing the narrative, and that is something I struggle to forgive. 

In terms of that story, it is often delightful but it is drawn out. The plot follows a regular cat as it tries to survive a biblical flood. In fact were it not for the inclusion of a more modern human dwelling at the beginning, I’d have assumed this genuinely was a side story to what was going on elsewhere while Noah has having his adventures in his famous floating zoo. Since the film follows a group of animals there is no dialogue and at times the way they make it clear visually what it is they are communicating to each other is very clever. Last year’s Robot Dreams, which might have got the Oscar had it not been up against The Boy and the Heron, did this better though. There are also moments where the extent of the anthropomorphism of the central creatures is inconsistent. One other thing that bugged me that I’m sure I’d have been free from without all of the discussion around the movie is the sound of the capybara. They used real animal noises for this but thought that one sounded wrong so they used a baby camel instead. Knowing this, it just looked like a camel grunt coming out of a capybara though, which did not help me get immersed in what was happening. 

There is undeniably much to celebrate here. It is a small film finding great success in the international market, it is the first movie from Latvia is win any Academy Awards, it has some wonderful design and sweet characterisation for the feline hero (less so the yoga lemur). It harks back to silent cinema while feeling very contemporary as well, and I love the fact that there is now a statue of the cat in Riga. None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been a feature film. Still though, from a purely audience experience point of view, I think it would have worked much better as a short.

So, as I say, if I’d seen it at Cannes when it debuted, back when no one had heard of it, if I’d seen it fresh – maybe I’d have had a better time. I’ve not seen another review with anything bad to say about this but as it is though, I sadly can’t go… with the flow.