Introduced in 2001, the Oscar for Best Animated Feature usually goes to a big-budget studio affair. However, this trend shifted somewhat in recent years, a drift that allowed 2024’s inexpensively made dialogue-free Latvian/French/Belgian co-production Flow to win.

As various natural catastrophes occur, Earth seems to become devoid of humans. Animals survive but need to deal with the impact of a massive flood.

In a world submerged in water, Cat struggles to make his way. He eventually lands on a boat with other critters and must learn how to co-exist with potential foes and rivals.

That doesn’t sound like much of a plot, especially given the absence of dialogue. Can Flow prosper based just on visuals and action alone?

Not really. While I admire aspects of Flow, I don’t think the end result connects in a meaningful manner.

That doesn’t stem from the absence of humans. I love animals and seem likely to find our furry protagonist more compelling than most people.

My biggest issue stems from the primitive CG visuals. Shot on a low $4 million budget, Flow looks dated and clunky.

Granted, the filmmakers clearly wanted a certain visual aesthetic for the film. However, the end product still displays art and animation that can’t live up to mid-2020s standards.

Heck, I think those elements would look iffy for something made in 1999, much less 2024. Too much of the time, I couldn’t help but feel like Flow never evolved past the animatic stage.

Even if I ignore the less-than-natural movements of the characters, the visuals just don’t work. The different critters often fail to seem like they really exist in the locations presented.

Honestly, the animals also tend to simply look weird, and not in an “artistic license” way. No, they seem off in a “we didn’t have much money so we made compromises” manner.

I tried to get past these concerns and I did think that the movie’s environments felt more convincing. Nonetheless, the impression that this 2024 movie came with CG visuals that would’ve seemed problematic a quarter century ago nagged at me.

Even if I ignore the animation, I just don’t find a lot of meat here. On one hand, I like the fact Flow presents animals that act like animals and we don’t get anthropomorphic elements.

Well, mostly. The critters don’t truly behave as their real counterparts would, so we get plenty of “out of species” moments.

Still, I find it intriguing to see an animated film that doesn’t make animals talk and act in completely abnormal ways. I just wish the film managed a more compelling tale.

Flow doesn’t really involve a narrative per se. We see Cat and the other beasties as they float around and try to survive.

Because Flow lacks dialogue and semi-adheres to a non-anthropomorphic vibe, it can’t generate a lot of real plot. The characters remain fairly passive and largely just react to what happens around them.

This means the movie tends to come across as a collection of visuals that depict where Cat and pals go without much of interest along the way. We watch the voyage and see the occasional threat but don’t really find much to make things interesting.

The film’s running time doesn’t help. At 95 minutes, Flow doesn’t go on forever, but it tends to feel like a 20-minute short stretched out to feature length.

Which makes sense because director/co-writer Gints Zilbalodis created a 2012 reel called Aqua that acts as a clear precursor. I won’t say Flow literally remakes Aqua, but the latter feels similar and also works better because of its much abbreviated length.

I respect Flow as a cinematic experiment, and I genuinely wanted to like it. However, I just can’t discover a lot of substance here and I felt ready for this sluggish movie to end long before the credits finally rolled.

Flow appears in an aspect ratio of 2.00:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As expected, the film boasted a top-notch visual presentation.

Sharpness was fine across the board. Virtually no softness appeared, as the movie delivered satisfying definition.

No signs of jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and edge haloes were absent. Of course, print flaws never manifested themselves.

Flow came with a generally natural palette that usually favored the outdoors settings in which the tale took place. The colors showed a good sense of vividness and worked well.

Blacks were dark and deep, while low-light shots offered nice clarity and smoothness. This became an appealing visual presentation.

In addition, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack offered a lively soundscape, especially during the action-oriented sequences. Those fleshed out the spectrum in an involving way and gave us nice chances for movement.

These allowed the surrounds to play an active role. The various channels got a good workout in this engrossing soundfield.

Audio quality seemed pleasing. Speech always sounded distinctive and concise, while music was peppy and rich.

Effects offered solid reproduction, with clean highs and deep lows. I liked this mix and thought it gave the movie life.

As we shift to extras, we get an audio commentary from writer/director Gints Zilbalodis. He provides a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, animation and design choices, music and audio, cinematography and editing, and related topics.

Overall, this becomes a pretty engaging chat. Zilbalodis covers various aspects of the production in a positive manner and gives us a good take on the flick.

Also on the same disc as Flow, we find Zilbalodis’s 2019 feature film debut Away. It runs one hour, 15 minutes, 18 seconds.

After he wakes up hanging from parachute in a tree, a teen boy finds himself followed by an enormous and mysterious creature. He attempts to evade this being and reach safety.

In terms of animation, Away seems even cruder than Flow, but perversely, I think the style works better here. The entire enterprise looks “low budget” so we don’t get the contrast between ugly and polished visuals we see in Flow.

Though it also lacks dialogue, Away comes with a stronger plot than does Flow. Perhaps I feel this way because it involves a human protagonist versus a feline, but the story moves better and becomes considerably more involving.

Away still feels like the work of a developing filmmaker. Nonetheless, I think it turns into a pretty involving tale.

Disc One also brings two trailers for Away.

All the remaining extras appear on a second Blu-ray, and we find Meet the Filmmaker. The 13-minute, 20-second program offers more from Zilbalodis.

The director examines influences/inspirations, his background and prior works, Flow’s development and creation. Not too much of the material repeats from the commentary so this becomes a quality chat.

Feline Phenomenon goes for 10 minutes, 47 seconds. Here we find notes from producer Matīss Kaža.

He discusses the Latvian animation community, his collaboration with Zilbalodis, production elements, the movie’s release and reception. Kaža manages some useful notes about his participation.

With Dream Cat, we discover a documentary that ran on Latvian TV. It spans 57 minutes, 58 seconds and involves Zilbalodis, Kaža, producers Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman, digital artists Kristina Revziha, Konstantins Visnevskis and Artūrs Gore, concept artist Paula Bobrova, animation director Léo Sili-Pélisje, animation artists Peteris Tenisons and Kristaps Blumbergs, visual effects artist Martins Upitis, sound designer Gurwal Coïc-Gallas, composer Rihards Zalupe, and production coordinator Darta Krazone.

The program offers a general look at the origins, development and production of Flow as well as its release and aftermath. Though some of the info appears elsewhere, we get plenty of new details and the show brings a nice summary.

Two Zilbalodis short films ensue. Both made almost entirely by Zilbalodis on his own, we find 2012’s Aqua (7:35) and 2014’s Priorities (9:27).

Aqua offers a clear precursor to Flow and brings an even more impressionistic take. Unlike the feature, it doesn’t wear out its welcome and it becomes a mostly charming endeavor.

Priorities also comes with foreshadowing of Flow in terms of story, style and Zilbalodis’s move from 2D to 3D animation. The visuals look even rougher than those in Flow but the short still seems intriguing as an early work from the filmmaker.

We can watch the shorts with or without commentary from Zilbalodis. He brings background for the films and provides a lot of good notes.

Three segments appear under Process Videos. We see two separate “Proof-of-Concept Teasers”, one from 2019 (1:20) and one from 2021 (1:32). Both exist to demonstrate Zilbalodis’s visual plans to entice investors.

More substantial, an animatic lasts one hour, 20 minutes, 41 seconds and essentially provides a “work in progress” rough version of Flow. Fans will enjoy this look at the film in an early state.

Finally, “Unused Shots” spans nine minutes, 50 seconds and gives us deleted/alternate material. We see a few added character and story beats but nothing especially compelling.

Zilbalodis adds commentary to this silent reel. He brings good insights.

Promos and Trailers provides both US (2:10) and international (1:42) trailers. “For Your Consideration Reel” (3:55) offers movie shots.

Comments from Zilbalodis and some behind the scenes elements in a compilation intended to promote the film’s awards hopes. It actually offers a surprisingly good production overview despite its brevity.

“Awards Spot” (0:32) offers an ad that highlights the film’s prizes. Finally, “Director Endorsement Spot” 1:02) mixes movie clips with text praise from various filmmakers.

A booklet brings art, credits and an essay from critic Nicolas Rapold. We also find stickers for five movie characters.

Although I appreciate that the folks behind Flow attempted something different with its animated adventure, the end product comes with too much problems. Foremost it suffers from primitive and dated visuals, but even without those, it simply lacks the substance needed to sustain a 95-minute feature film. The Blu-ray boasts very good picture and audio along with a strong roster of supplements. Flow would work better as a short, though even then, the clumsy animation would remain a drawback.