#secretarybird flow

[terapsina]

Sometimes a family is...

a lonely black cat with trust issues

(who has to learn that sometimes it's okay to accept help)

a kind capybara that's happy to share in its luck

(who portrays how even the most steady presence in your life might need a hand once in a while)

a good dog that just wants to be friends

(who has to learn that sometimes making real friends means learning how not to follow bad ones)

a heroic secretarybird that faces bullies for a stranger

(who shows how sometimes constantly fighting for the right thing can leave one exhausted to the bone)

and a kleptomaniac lemur that just wants to stare at its reflection

(who learns how to let go of the things that don't matter and grab hold of the people who do)

[billinshoes]

🐈‍⬛ Flow

[komandorskaiagroza]

I watched the cartoon «Flow» and did not regret it. Beautiful and interesting pre-production. I really liked the absence of any words in the cartoon, all communication is sounds made by animals or sounds of nature.

The animatic (if it can be called that at all, considering that the cars are very static) was created only because I like any mention of secretary birds. I really think that the secretary bird and the cat became friends and that is why the scene at the almost end of the cartoon is very sad. I honestly think that the secretary bird died, and did not go to some secret world, the scene in front of the funnel of light looked too depressed, and the next one, when the cat is left alone on the rock. But this is in any case only my interpretation.

Just in case: this is not a ship, I only see them as friends

[susiephone]

i am so fascinated by the world of "flow" because like. it doesn't look like the humans have been gone that long. the house isn't that dusty, the city is submerged but not crumbling apart, the boats are mostly in good condition, and the cat returning to his house makes me think that on some level he still expects someone will come back. but there are no bodies.

now, this could be because showing an actual human corpse would be too dark for what the filmmakers are going for, but there are ways they could've implied it if they'd wanted to - think tarzan's parents' being shown on the floor after the leopard attacks them, but you only see their feet. there are also no signs of, say, a nuclear winter, or a major natural disaster (until the flood happens), or something that would've caused a mass evacuation or a mass death. it really seems like they all just disappeared one day. between that, the secretarybird's "ascension" (as i think of it), and the whale that doesn't look like any real whale and also miraculously survived being beached as we see in the post-credits scene, it absolutely seems like there's some form of magic or divine intervention going on in this world. (plus you know. animals smart enough to steer boats.)

so like... was this the rapture? just some weird universal 'reset' where all the humans blinked out of existence and the animals were left to inherit the earth? or did humans die off a long time ago, but something kept their artifacts miraculously intact?

[under-the-earth]

just got out of the theater for flow and many thougts are being thunk right now omg. when the water first rushed in, flooding everything, eating up every inch of land i kept think about mr gates' (black sails) "there's no legacies. just the water. it pays us and it claims us. swallows us whole, as if we'd never been there at all." and then when the secretarybird fought against its kind for the cat- sometimes we really lose the family we had as we stand up for something we truly believe in don't we. and then the lemur leaving its kind- the likeness it has obsessed over the whole movie- for the cat and its chosen family 😭😭😭 and then at the very end, when the cat looks at the puddle, at its own reflection, it reminds me of undertale's "despite everything, it's still you" and also of folding ideas' video essay on annihilation (2018) where he argued that "because [lena] has changed in equal measures to home that it allows her to return", referring to john campell's hero journey.

[twenty-words-or-less]

Flow (2024) (Straume)

Summary: A dark grey cat teams up with a capybara, a lemur, a Labrador, and a secretarybird to survive a sudden flood that consumes their entire world.

*gasp* *quiet whine* *involuntary 'no'* *full-body tensing in seat* *extended 'wow' under breath* *'aww'* *chuckle* *'oh shit' (internal)*

Rating: 4.25/5

Photo credit: IMDb

[sammirthebear2k4]

(Photos taken on February 2)

Yesterday I went to the cinema to watch Flow, if you don't know, Flow is an independent animated film without dialogue which was made in Latvia, which is about a Black Cat who, after waking up in a flooded post-apocalyptic world without humans, joins other animals on a journey along a river. Together, they face challenges that teach them about collaboration and survival.

Do you remember about my experience with the Robot Dreams movie?, which is another animated film without dialogue,

Flow also tells a well-developed story without any words, the protagonist is not only the Black Cat, but he is also accompanied by a Dog, a Capybara, a Lemur and a Secretarybird, and watching it, it was exciting and at the same time it was nice to see it giving a story of how a couple of animals embark on their adventures.

Well, that's the only picture I took from the movie. Recently, this movie has been winning awards, for example, it won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, and it is expected to win the Oscar. Many people are praising it and I have seen how many people want to see it.

By the way, my older brother has a black cat just like the one in the movie, I'm telling you this as a fact.

What do you think?

Tags: @murumokirby360 @bryan360 @shadowredfeline

[shadowmaat]

Flow (the kitty in a boat movie)

I'd heard good things about Flow, the Latvian animated film that actually managed to win a Golden Globe against two Disney hits.

It was a captivating watch and I can see why it's won so many awards. But towards the end things took a bit of an odd turn. I still loved it and cried a lot, but that particular bit was, hm, off-putting. It took a film that had been whimsical and gave it a twist that felt far more religious in nature. Christianity, to be specific. And as soon as Christian themes start turning up in something, I feel threatened.

I don't understand what the point of it was. I don't know what it adds to the story or what it was meant to convey to the audience beyond a dubious "if you're good you'll be rewarded" vibe that could be considered offensive in the circumstances. It also meant that while I did love the remainder of the film, its messaging suddenly felt more off. More aggressive? More fakey? I'm not sure. I'll discuss the specifics of the one scene behind a cut.

The scene that bothered me was when Cat reached the top of the spire and reunited with Secretarybird. They shared a moment and then water droplets started to rise into the air, as did the animals themselves. There was a mystical light above and a aurora-like atmosphere around them.

Secretarybird, whose wing had been maliciously broken earlier in the film, and who could be considered to have a permanent disability because of it, flew into the light. Cat tried to follow, unsuccessfully, and was dropped back to the ground along with the water droplets.

I may not be Christian, myself, but I've picked up enough through cultural contamination to recognize a rapture when I see it.

Why? WTF was the point of that? It's heavily implied that the film is set in a post-human world. Are we now meant to believe that the animals are filling the niche humans left and are now being Judged by some god? Even though none of the animals we saw engaged in any kind of worshipful behavior? (Unless you count Cat rubbing against the cat statues decorating their home yard.)

Obviously the Flood was a central theme of the movie, but that's a myth/story that exists in a lot of places, not just Christianity. Except now, instead of thinking of the flooding in the movie as some kind of weird (if supernaturally hastened) natural phenomenon, I was left wondering if the flooding was a Christian allegory for something. Which raised the question of WHY the flood was happening. The humans were already gone, so why drown the world? Had the animals caused offence? Was this less Found Family and more Proving Your Worth to God?

Secretarybird certainly proved something and got raptured for it, with the flood magically receding not long after. Did they put in a good word for the surviving animals? What was the point?? Ugh.

I'm trying to get back to not thinking about it because thinking is ruining the magic of the film for me. It was a sweet movie, dammit.

[canmom]

l'aventure de canmom à annecy épisode DEUX - lundi 2 - cats and pigs

So this one's going to be a little chaotic in terms of order of events but hey. Let's gooo.

First up! I saw Flow, as mentioned earlier. Director Gints Zilbalodis from Latvia was the very first person to win the Contrechamp award at Annecy in 2019 for his solo-animated movie Away. Now he has a team, and they decided to make a totally wordless movie about a cat. Honestly I could leave it at that - this is a movie which you should watch unspoiled and just let it take you on a ride - but for a more detailed summary...

Our adorable little cat is living alone in the forest, surrounded by statues left by their former owner, when the world abruptly gets flooded, sending the cat on a journey to try to find higher ground and survive. The cat falls in with a group of other animals - over the course of the film, this group grows to include a capybara, a ring-tailed lemur, a secretarybird and a dog. It's the story of the struggles of these animals as they try to navigate the rising water towards higher ground, dealing with both outside threats and conflict within the group. I won't tell you where they end up but things get a tad mystical.

The thing is this film is totally wordless. The animation has to do absolutely everything. And it does so with aplomb. This is hands down some of the best character animation I've ever seen in a CG movie. Every animal moves naturally and expressively, their relationships shown with humour and clear expression. I honestly don't know how they did it so well.

It's also gorgeous on a rendering level. I'm not entirely sold on the posterisation effect used on the animals, but their environments are so vivid and richly detailed, looking natural even as they enter stranger architectural zones. Under water, over water, in storms... it looks absolutely great. It makes me so happy that this was done in Blender, it's like, that's what we dreamed of back in the day on the blenderartists forums.

The film already got a Cannes nom, which is wild for animation, and honestly while I haven't seen the other features yet, this is gonna be a tough act to follow and I think it has a pretty good shot at winning. I have no insight into the mind of the annecy jurors though! Regardless, spectacular film, makes me really want to make shit in blender lol.

I got some photos of the team getting a standing ovation at the end but it's super late so I'll have to upload them later lol.

Later I saw the premiere of The Pig That Survived Foot and Mouth Disease, a new Korean film which makes a much better case for using mocap in an animated horror movie, also in the midnight specials slot. Impressively all the roles of around 30 characters were played by one mocap actor, which is wild. It's a classic Korean style of film - a spiral of death and trauma rooted in social violence, particularly military hazing and animal agriculture.

A pig, surviving the mass slaughter of pigs during the foot and mouth epidemic, eats the body of the farmer who raised him and transforms to become more human and becomes something of a cult leader for wild boars; a military deserter becomes a yeti-like creature but finds new hope when he rescues a girl from her suicide attempt, but is she even real?

It calls to mind films like King of Pigs and The Fake, and it's no less uncompromisingly bleak in its view of society - but by comparison to those films, it's shot very stylishly, with a cool nonphotorealistic shader and a frequently gorgeous forest setting. It's not as fancy as something like Flow, the models looking a little videogamey at times, but it's definitely solid - the rigs detailed enough to capture the acting. The style works very well for the film, and there's a couple of really standout stylised sequences, playing with religious iconography or dream sequences.

The film it reminded me most of is actually Unicorn Wars, another violent story of transformation and people going a bit nuts in the woods. But it also gets a bit Shakespearean with all the stabbings by the end.

Whatever you compare it to, it's a compelling drama, unblinkingly facing the cruelty of society. The two directions of escape - the human who wants to live like the animals, free from social cruelty, and the animal who wants to live as a human, free from the imminent threat of death, present a strong contrast and a good pincer movement on the theme of what it means to be human.

Sadly it didn't have nearly the turnout as WSDIB, but I did get to tell the director and mocap actor I liked the film - unfortunately I don't know enough Korean to really ask the questions I wanted to (though I learned they used Unreal for rendering) but the director did very kindly run over to his friend to give me a little postcard with some art.

I wish the crowd had been more enthusiastic tbh, this was a good movie!

I also watched a bunch of XR stuff today, and another WIP panel for Canadian film Death Does Not Exist which is looking real cool, more on that in a mo... and I met Malaysian director Suresh Eriyat in a comic book shop and bought his art book direct from him which he fully signed for me, bless him...

seriously how adorable is this?

[howsitduud]

WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL/FLOW REVIEW

Thought I might as well shave off the 2 Best Animated Feature nominees I haven't seen yet, since this is another category I'm passionate about. Luckily, just like last year, I don't think there's any bad movies that were nominated. If the weakest of the nominees is a fun Wallace & Gromit movie, then that's how you know you've got a stacked lineup.

This might be heresy to say, but I haven't seen that much of Wallace & Gromit, only Curse of the Were-Rabbit back in high school. I connect more with Aardman's other works, like Arthur Christmas or Shaun the Sheep, but watching this movie, I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I thought I'd need more context on who Feather McGraw is, since it's clear that he was the villain of earlier Wallace & Gromit shorts, but the movie got the exposition and context needed for who he was out of the way pretty early, and the rest of the movie is standalone enough to where I didn't need much context on who this penguin was. I was just able to enjoy his plan to ruin Wallace's reputation by hacking his inventions. McGraw is easily the best part of the whole movie; how is a character that doesn't speak or emote able to have such a distinctly sinister personality? What is this sorcery?

That's not to dissaude from everybody else in the movie, because they're fun as hell too. Wallace and Gromit had a predictable, but satisfying conflict throughout where Gromit got sick of Wallace's inventions. I really hoped that there wouldn't be a plot beat where Wallace blames Gromit for not trusting the Norbot and has a falling out with him, but they get through it quickly enough to where it wasn't too big of an issue. Speaking of the Norbots, I enjoyed those little things. Seeing them enact out McGraw's pretty smart plan is fun, and I loved their little song in the middle of the movie.

This movie isn't perfect, I found that some pacing issues and a few not-well written characters distracted me from calling this a great movie, but it's still a pretty damn good one. Check it out if you're looking for a fun family-friendly movie!

7/10 - THEY GOT THE FARMER TO CAMEO LETS GO

Flow was the only other Best Animated Feature nominee I haven't seen before, and I was really excited to watch it. From the trailers, it looked unlike anything I've ever seen, and it exceeded my expectations.

This is a movie about a cat trying to survive after its home was destroyed by a flood, getting help from a capybara, a lemur, a golden retriever, and a secretarybird along the way. The unique thing about this movie is that none of the animals talk like you'd expect them to; hell, none of them are really anthropomorphized in any way. It's deadass just about 5 realistically-animated animals navigating this flooded world with only their body language to tell us what they're thinking and feeling. The craziest part is that it works wonders. Sometimes I don't need overpaid celebrity's voices saying cringy dialogue to get emotions across, sometimes it's good to let the animals act like animals and show us how they're feeling instead of telling us.

I loved the visual and enviornmental storytelling in this movie, it makes for some great sequences that you don't need words to express. I love how the retriever sticks by the cat the whole movie despite the cat not trusting it; you can even tell early on in the movie when the retriever didn't immediately start hunting the cat for stealing its fish. The lemur was fun with how it took a bunch of man made nick-knacks with it on the boat, the capybara is the most chill thing ever put to screen, and the secretarybird was also a great addition to the cast. I like how it got its wing broken protecting the cat, and that's how they got close as the movie went on.

The animation here is incredible as well. Every single animal moves and behaves so realistically, but it's with an art style that almost looks like a 3D-animated painting. I love how the backgrounds and the environments look too, amazing looking water in this movie. This movie isn't perfect (how did these animals learn how to drive boats), but if you needed something to show that this movie deserved its Oscar nominations, just look up the cat fishing scene. It's so peak. Even though I liked 3 other movies up for Best Animated Feature more than this, I honestly want this one to win because of how unique and grand it felt in comparison to everything else. Disney and Dreamworks get plenty of recognition, we need something for Gint Zilbalodis' Blender-made passion project.

7/10, those dogs were the true villains of the movie.

[rjzimmerman]

Trailer for a new animated movie, to be released in US theaters in December 2024. Excerpt from a review from Rolling Stone:

And a pussycat shall lead them! Flow, the animated film that’s Latvia’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, kicks off with a beautiful moment of tranquility: A small, black feline, staring wide-eyed at itself in a rippling puddle. It’s somewhere in a forest, surrounded by foliage, and the ambient sounds of nature fill the soundtrack. A rabbit runs by, momentarily startling the cat. It’s soon followed by a pack of dogs, chasing the bunny and barely registering the meowing bystander’s existence. The creature will eventually amble up to a house with a cracked attic window, slipping inside for an early afternoon nap.

It’s all very soothing, giving you the sense that you’re watching the animation equivalent of ASMR. Then, after some business involving a stolen fish, our furry little friend finds itself in the same patch of green earth as before. Once again, the dogs sprint past it. This time, however, they’re followed by a thundering herd of deer. The animals appear to be running away from something. In the background, the trees begin to violently sway back and forth. And then, a huge wave rushes through and washes away everything in its path, including the cat. It eventually gets back to dry land, but then the water keeps rising. And rising. And rising….

A survivalist thriller that’s designed to appeal equally to animal lovers, avant-garde-cartoon aficionados and environmental doomsayers, Flow will spend the next 80 minutes following this feline and his fellow interspecific travelers as they try to navigate the end of the world as we know it. Eventually, the Golden Retriever who’d been part of that roving gang of doggy miscreants will join the freaked-out kitty on a boat they happen to spy passing by. So will a capybara, a lemur and a secretarybird. When the cat falls overboard and can’t paw its way back to the surface, it’s rescued from drowning by the opportune passing of a mammoth humpback, who catches the animal on its nose and breaches just in time. Saved by the whale! One life down, eight to go — although given the obstacles it will continually face, you worry that this resourceful lil’ buddy will eventually run through all of them before the day is over.

Yet this disparate band somehow manages to endure, and though you can’t accuse Flow of having a happily-ever-after ending, it somehow does go out on a optimistic note — a water-logged Planet Earth half empty, rather than half-fully ruined. There is a reprise of that lovely opening shot, basking in a calm before the inevitable storm to come. The movie ends as it begins, with no easy solution in sight. Only now we see a makeshift community staring back at themselves, no one alone, everyone companions in the apocalypse. It’s a timeless moral. And yet, at this particular moment, for many of us staring down the next four years, the idea that a community can come together to take on the rising tides couldn’t be more welcome or needed.

[terapsina]

In the Latvian animated movie Flow (Straume) who is...

[considernature]

Hello everyone! Damn, the paddlefish article has really brought a lot of new folks to this blog! Welcome everyone, and thank you so much for joining this lovely little project of mine--I am so grateful that so many people have taken an interest in my work and in the species I want to help protect.

Since there are so many new folks here, I wanted to give a brief rundown on the articles I've written so far. In the last year and a half of this project, I've been able to write about seventeen awesome and unique species that are in need of further conservation attention. Here are some links to learn more about them:

Olm (Proteus anguinus): the OG and mascot for the site, this eyeless salamander manages to survive in its pitch-dark cave biome through incredible sensory abilities and supernatural patience.

Indian Purple Frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis): this comically-ugly creature is also incredibly mysterious, spending its entire life underground and only emerging for a single day each year.

Pygmy Hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis): this secretive, pig-sized mammal is the only surviving relative of the mighty river hippo, but lives a completely different lifestyle from its much more famous cousin.

Scaly-Foot Snail (Chrysomallon squamiferum): one of the weirdest animals on the planet, this snail grows a shell reinforced with iron and lives around hydrothermal vents deep beneath the surface of the Indian ocean.

Kaua'i Cave Wolf Spider (Adelocosa anops): this blind cave spider is one of the rarest arthropods on Earth, and lives in tunnels carved by lava flows beneath the surface of the Hawaiian Island of Kaua'i.

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex): this huge African water bird uses its tremendous beak like a guillotine to smash and decapitate its prey.

Largetooth Sawfish (Pristis pristis): this relative of sharks and rays has a tremendous nose lined with teeth which it uses to dig up and swipe at prey, but that's not the only thing its nose is good for.

Takin (Budorcas taxicolor): this large goat relative is quite possibly the most mysterious large land mammal on Earth, as it lives deep in the forested mountains of China, India, and Bhutan.

Zacatuche (Romerolagus diazi): also known as the "volcano rabbit", this adorable little fellow is an excellent gateway into understanding the benefits of grasslands to ecosystems and human settlements alike. Done in collaboration with Mexico'a CONANP.

(tambien en español)

Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius): this badass raptor stalks the African savannah, using its powerful legs to deliver one of the fastest and most accurate kicks in the animal kingdom (and yes it's also the bird from Aggretsuko).

Manchineel (Hippomane mancinella): the first plant written about on Consider Nature (though certainly not the last), the manchineel is quite possibly the most toxic tree in the world, with every part of its anatomy steeped with a variety of noxious substances.

Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus): this crocodilian is a fish specialist, using its long, slender snout like a rapier to cut through the water and snag its prey.

Vaquita (Phocoena sinus): the most-endangered mammal on the face of the Earth, the Vaquita is a tiny porpoise that has gotten caught up in the black market trade of an extremely valuable fish bladder. Done in collaboration with Sea Shepherd International.

Pekapeka (Mystacina tuberculata): this tiny bat species is one of only 2 mammals native to New Zealand and spends more time on the ground than any other bat species in the world, despite being able to fly.

Angular Roughshark (Oxynotus centrina): this shark is native to the coasts of Western Europe and Africa, where it lives over a thousand feet beneath the waves and is rarely seen by people.

Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus): these iguanas are the only seafaring lizards in the world, and have developed a variety of remarkable adaptations to survive the extreme conditions of the Galapagos Islands.

And as always, if you have any suggestions, questions, or just want to say hi, you can DM me here or email me at considernatureblog@gmail.com. Welcome, and thank you for your support.

[maymcabby]

Xianhe Design Developments

I started with her bird form silhouettes. I wanted to make her look very long and lanky, so I leaned more towards the options with longer legs. I ended up with a mix between 2 and 6, with a secretarybird head, a crane body, and peacock-esque feathers, all to emphasise her tallness. Due to her origins as a painting, I also wanted to include brush like texture, especially on her feathers.

For her human form, this is one she chooses to take, not the one that she was cursed to be, so she has more control over how she appears. She can take the form of a seemingly normal looking human, to blend in, but I imagine she can also adjust her form on the go to include more bird feathers, such as claws, a long neck, or wings. For clothing and accessories, I looked at Chinese opera, Chinese princesses, and Japanese shrine maidens. Elements I wanted to include and emphasize a form of intricate head wear, long flowing sleeves, and long skirt, and decorative tassels.

I ended up choosing 5 as the final silhouette, but I still really liked 9 and 10. I liked how the top half of 5 looked very normal, but the bottom half is where all her feathers and her claws are, and I liked the split between that.

I then started on some different options for her bangs. I wanted her to have very straight hair, with a symmetrical hairstyle. I ended up choosing top left.

This ended up being the final design. I gave her an ornate headpiece, that not only mirrors the Priestess' headpieces, but also looks like a bird in flight. Her sleeves have a brush like texture on them to emulate her wings. I gave her a very monochrome colour pallete, as she is a white crane, but the red serves a good purpose. It evokes imagery of cranes and shrine maidens, while also making her design more visually striking. The red in her design, the red robes specially, represent that she is still tied to the human world, unable to break free and have her own ascended form. Overall, I think the design I came up with is good, but I'm not really happy with her. I wanted to make a Chinese inspired character, but I wasn't familiar enough with Chinese fashion history or folklore. I ended up making her look more Japanese, and I feel like it's a bit offensive to give her a Chinese name, but have her obviously be Japanese. I feel like I could make her a lot more culturally accurate, and a lot more unique and inspired if I had spent more time researching.

[scannain]

Flow - Biblical in scope, grand in emotion

Out this week in Irish cinemas is the award-winning Latvian animated film, Flow. Following a cat in a world sans humans, this cat has to survive as the waters rise, drowning what is left of the world. Along the way, the cat befriends several other animals including a labrador, a lemur, a capybara, and a secretarybird. A seemingly simple premise of Flow belies something far more grand. This all…

[thefilmsnob]

Flow: ****1/2 out of 5

Making a cat your story’s protagonist really should be considered cheating. Never mind that there’s a built-in audience of fiercely loyal cat lovers who will devour anything involving these cute little fluff balls. But, even if you’re trying to entice those whose opinions of cats are less than flattering (ie. wrong), you’re still left with a tiny creature who’s vulnerable yet incredibly independent and downright ferocious at times. In other words: a routinely proven formula for fascinating characters.

Of course, writer/director Gints Zilbalodis doesn’t solely rely on feline virtues to make a compelling story, as easy as that would be. With Flow, a new animated feature from Latvia, Zilbalodis creates a breathtaking world that’s lush, serene, and populated by an array of diverse animals. It’s a world that feels at once familiar and foreign, life-like yet surreal. Crafted with a uniquely rustic animation style, it recalls the video games Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two masterpieces that often emerge in debates regarding the artistic merit of video games. Whichever side you land in that debate, you certainly can’t deny the artistry on screen here.

At the center of this story, paradoxically, is a rather nondescript cat. It’s not an exaggerated cat nor an anthropomorphic one who cracks jokes but a simple, dark grey cat whose distinctive physical feature is its deeply expressive large yellow eyes. These bright orbs are integral for a story featuring an animal who can’t speak, thus unable to express itself verbally.

They spring into action almost immediately; as the cat goes about its day doing typical cat stuff like snatching a fish from a group of dogs, its beautiful forest home is suddenly threatened by onrushing water that begins to consume it. The animals cease their petty squabbles to reach higher ground with the cat taking refuge in an abandoned cabin, presumably belonging to a former owner, curling up into a ball for a cozy slumber as cats are wont to do.

It’s a short reprieve as the water continues to rise, submerging the cabin and forcing the cat onto the highest point in the vicinity, a giant cat statue, an image that cleverly portrays humanity’s adoration of certain animals as merely performative, relinquishing accountability when our poor little friends need us most. It’s a harrowing sequence and our hearts break for this furry creature whose eyes and panicked movements project so much fear as the water reaches the top of the statue…until a sailboat approaches, helmed by none other than a pudgy, mild-mannered capybara of all things. The rodent saves the day.

Aside from our relief about the last-minute rescue, it’s just delightful seeing a cat hop aboard a capybara’s boat, a heartwarming image of one creature helping another. They sail on, saving and recruiting a variety of other animals like a ring-tailed lemur, a secretarybird and a Labrador Retriever. It’s a work of fiction and some liberties are taken, such as imbuing the animals with somewhat heightened intelligence, but generally they act how you’d expect; the cat is skittish, the capybara is calm, and the lemur is a ball of energy. The expected disputes occur, but at the heart of this story is a group of disparate beings cooperating for their survival. Our little kitty cat benefits from this newfound safety net since it finds itself immersed in the raging water several times and although the underwater views and plethora of colourful fish are breathtaking, these moments give both the cat and the audience quite a scare.

This lesson in teamwork is an added benefit for the children already being swept away by this wondrous spectacle, but it’s essential for adult viewers who are more cognizant of our fractured world and who have a greater responsibility for both its causes and, hopefully, solutions.

This is a story about the plight of animals, but human activity can be felt consistently on the periphery. During their travels, the animals pass stone structures and find themselves traversing a half-submerged city, relics of a bygone civilization or perhaps a flourishing city just recently abandoned. It’s not clear. We’re also not told whether this is our world or one very similar.

Regardless—and partly because this is a less manic film than most animated features nowadays--we’re left to contemplate the identity of these builders, the effect they had on this land and, finally, existential ideas such as climate change. Did these hypothetical beings doom this beautiful land and its diverse wildlife? Are we doing the same thing to our world?