Story
A cat is alone in a forest when a pack of dogs appears and starts to chase it. The dogs themselves are being chased by a herd of deer, who run over the cat, but it is unharmed. It turns out, the deer are running away from a huge deluge of water which rushes down through the forest. The cat is swept up in the water and has to save itself from drowning. Eventually, the cat finds dry land and a place to sleep but is rudely interrupted by one of the dogs, a Golden Labrador. The water keeps rising but the cat manages to jump on board a boat, where it meets a capybara who is also escaping the flood.
The cat and the capybara are eventually joined by a ring-tailed lemur and the Golden Labrador. They journey through strange landscapes of deserted cities and huge stone pillars, while the water continues to rise. The animals face many dangers, including a flock of very large white birds who frighten the animals. However, one of the birds befriends the cat, and ends up joining the animals on the boat.
Finally, the water subsides as quickly as it has risen. But the animals are in danger again, this time from fault lines opening in the earth, causing huge trees to uproot and fall.
Themes
Animals in peril; natural disasters; floods
Violence
Flow has some violence. For example:
- Two dogs fight over a fish that they’ve caught.
- The dogs bark aggressively at the cat. The cat swipes at a dog, which then chases after it.
- A flock of large birds swoops the animals in the boat. One of the birds catches the cat in its claws and carries it off. The cat starts to struggle and the bird drops it.
- The cat gets knocked down a hillside and lands in a flock of birds. The birds squawk at the cat and the cat runs away, terrified. The birds chase after the cat. A large bird threatens the cat and another bird protects it. The two birds fight each other, pecking and kicking. The bigger bird wins and stands over the smaller one. Several of the other birds stand on its wings. The bird is ostracised from the flock.
- The lemur gets angry with the bird for kicking his ball into the water. He starts to attack the bird.
- Huge trees are uprooted as the earth cracks open, and they fall crashing to the ground.
Sexual references
There are no sexual references in Flow.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
There’s no substance use in Flow.
Nudity and sexual activity
There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Flow.
Product placement
There’s no product placement in Flow.
Coarse language
There’s no coarse language in Flow.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Winner of both an Oscar and a Golden Globe award for Best Animated Feature Film, Flow is an animated movie with no dialogue. Despite this, it does a great job showing the personalities of the animals. The animation is beautiful and emotional, but the animals are in constant danger and there are several distressing scenes. Because of this, the movie isn’t suitable for young children but would likely be enjoyed by those aged over 7 years, with parental guidance for children from 6-7 years.
These are the main messages from Flow:
- Life can change suddenly, and sometimes you just have to ‘go with the flow’.
- Survival often depends on connecting with those who you wouldn’t normally engage with.
Values in Flow that you might want to reinforce with your child include courage, persistence, collaborating with strangers for mutual benefit, kindness, generosity, overcoming fears to help others, working as a team, and the importance of friendship.
Flow could also give you the chance to talk with your children about how the bird was bullied and punished for standing up for the cat. You could discuss bullying and how to deal with it in real life.