AILSA CHANG, HOST:
An adorable gray cat with amber eyes is the central character in a new animated feature called "Flow." The film has no dialogue, and our critic Bob Mondello says the film is not just the most arresting cat video he's ever seen. It is one of the finest animated films in years.
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BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: The forest is big, blooming and full of life. Butterflies flutter, rabbits hop, and Cat...
(SOUNDBITE OF CAT MEOWING)
MONDELLO: ...Somewhere between kitten and young adult, seems right at home, adventurous but also skittish, its ears flattening when startled. It's not afraid to swipe a fish from a pack of dogs when they aren't looking and quick enough that when they give chase, it can give them the slip. But then they come running back, barely looking Cat's way...
(SOUNDBITE OF HOOVES PATTERING)
MONDELLO: ...Followed by a herd of deer.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAT MEOWING)
MONDELLO: Cat looks back where they came from and sees trees shaking in the distance, then closer, then a wall of water...
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER RUSHING)
MONDELLO: ...A flood that thunders through the forest, sweeping Cat up and stranding it first on a tree branch...
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MONDELLO: ...Then on a hill near a sculptor's studio that, at the moment, is the only sign that humans were ever around.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAT MEOWING)
MONDELLO: Safety will be fleeting as Cat discovers over the next day or two the waters rising, submerging the hill, then the studio, then the massive gray sculptures for which Cat might have been a model.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAT MEOWING)
MONDELLO: And just when there's nowhere left to stand, an abandoned boat floats by, and Cat leaps aboard...
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)
MONDELLO: ...To find a South American capybara, a large, guinea pig-like critter that grunts once...
(SOUNDBITE OF CAPYBARA GRUNTING)
MONDELLO: ...Then falls asleep. As the boat drifts near outcroppings of land, a few other animals climb aboard - a Labrador from that pack of dogs that was chasing Cat...
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
MONDELLO: ...A lemur that collects shiny objects - bottles, spoons - in a basket.
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MONDELLO: And finally, after a crane-like secretary bird gets injured when it gets between Cat and a larger bird, it, too, joins the motley crew, a tiny ark of sorts after a great flood that has apparently whisked away all of humanity.
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MONDELLO: Filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis hails from Latvia and, a few years back, made his award-winning debut with "Away," a one-character animated film he made on his own. This time, he's still written, directed, edited, co-produced and composed the music for "Flow," but as befits a story about lots of critters cooperating to survive, he's had help. Animators from Belgium and France have worked miracles with computer graphics that make breath-catchingly beautiful backgrounds look photorealistic, while their virtual camera swoops and spins to follow creatures they've rendered to look hand-drawn. It's a gorgeous mix, as if a 3D Bambi were romping through a nature documentary but not a talking Bambi. Unlike most animated films, these critters are voiced by critters, mostly by their own species, though the film's quietly stoic capybara apparently has a more buoyant personality than a real capybara.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAPYBARA GRUNTING)
MONDELLO: So its bits were dubbed by a baby camel. With the message about cooperation - cross-species cooperation - and a playfully observant take on animal habits, "Flow" will certainly delight kids. But the film also offers food for thought for adults, who will be curious as to what might have caused the calamity that brought the critters together - climate change, maybe. "Flow" doesn't offer explanations, and the mystery proves haunting as currents carry the boat past a flooded city - towering, majestic and utterly empty of human inhabitants.
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MONDELLO: Have animals inherited the Earth? And if so, might they do better by it than we did just going with the flow? I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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