During its entire festival and award season run, Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow was sweeping up victories left and right as it, alongside Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, became the animated film darling from the animated films that came out from overseas. It won the major awards at Annecy, Animation is Film, The Golden Globes, and most recently, the Academy Award. While it has been an interesting few years to see Disney/Pixar not bring home any Best Animated Feature awards, losing to the likes of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio and Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, there is something distinct with the fact Flow won. The first Latvian film to ever win an Oscar of any kind, and the third film to beat a highly acclaimed Disney/Pixar film at the Oscars. Most animated films from Europe don’t even get a lot of recognition, because folks don’t watch them in theaters or when they are ‘on demand’, and that is sadly making them less desirable to bring over since overall, animation viewers and filmgoers will watch more animated films from Japan than from Europe. What was it about this movie that swept the entire film world when most folks would give most foreign animated films the side eye? Here are some theories/guesses of why I think this film became one of the most important films of 2024.
Simply Put, People Liked the Movie
I mean, let’s be honest here. While some sneer or give a side eye to what gets popular and nominated, a lot of people loved the movie. People loved watching this grand methodic adventure of animals sailing across a flooded world. Despite the fact it didn’t have any dialogue and the animation wasn’t up to the typical standard people expect from theatrical animation in the States (though it’s still great looking), animating an entire movie using Blender on a small $3 million budget is impressive since it’s free software that anyone can use, and people were enthralled with the themes of friendship and connection between the different animals the group encounters. While it wasn’t raking in the money that other animated films were doing from Disney/Pixar/DreamWorks, it still made a relatively good amount of cash for an indie release. It might not be in my top 10 favorites from 2024 animation, but I’m not gonna sit here and deny the fact that the world of moviegoers and critics fell head over heels for it.
Having a Distributor Helped Things!
People may not know, but Gints, the director of Flow, made a film back in 2019 called Away that was also a festival darling, but if this is the first time you have heard about this movie and how it also looks like a cinematic indie game experience, it’s probably because it was self-distributed. Even though it was a favorite among critics in film festival circuits, that popularity didn’t translate to anything. It also would have had steep competition that year from Klaus, I Lost My Body, Toy Story 4, Missing Link, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. With some smart release strategies from the likes of Janus Films, it reached more of an audience after it did well at Annecy and Animation is Film. It makes a world of difference when you have a distributor who is able and willing to help get your film out there, which is why Flow picked up way more steam. While the premise and the fact that it follows a cat did help it grab the public’s attention, having that extra bit of support helps immensely if you aim to make money and get all of that proper support to make your next movie and such.
People Want Different Types of Animated Experiences
Whether you are still enjoying the animated offerings from US studios or not, and while most general audiences will still go see most offerings from studios like DreamWorks, Pixar, and Illumination, some people are yearning for something different. With studios like Disney cutting back on ambition for safe investments, Pixar wanting to branch out to do more but being held back by Disney themselves, and DreamWorks and Illumination beating the drum at their own pace, folks are starting to venture out to see something they haven’t seen before. While they might not be making as much money hand-over-fist as other studios are, the fact more people are seeing films like Japanese animated films, smaller animated releases, and making screenings of Flow sell out, shows that people have a hunger to see something else. They still have to work on folks seeing French animated films in theaters and making sure distributors put them out in theaters for longer than a day, but that’s another battle for another day. The fact people cared about and went out to see a non-US animated film to this degree and voted for yet another non-English animated film to win Best Animated Feature in a row is an interesting thing to see unfold.
It Was A lot of People’s First Foray into Taking European Animation Seriously
This one point was a challenge to write, because the tone I want to portray here is that this was a lot of people’s first foray into foreign animation without coming off like a gatekeeping fan of animation. I also didn’t want to hammer in how unadventurous animation fans and filmgoers are about seeing non-US animation. I can safely assume that the possible nomination of films like Robot Dreams and the victory of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron ignited further interest in non-US-produced animation. It shed light on experiences most folks didn’t seem previously interested in checking out. Hopefully, this curiosity keeps making filmgoers and animation fans more willing to check out something that isn’t simply the same old stuff we see. Also, I hope this shows distributors that more folks want to see more than just US and Japanese animation.
After the Hype, Was It Worth it?
I mean, yes. The hype was worth it. Again, it might not be my favorite of last year due to not finding the story’s third act to be as strong as it could have been due to how it introduced a more spiritual element that doesn’t get brought up again after the departure of a character, but anytime folks support and reward new and original material is good for any industry. Whether I like a film or not is beside the point, since any time new original ideas do well, I’m all in. It’s more important than ever with Hollywood wanting to avoid not only paying people fairly but not wanting to greenlight or create new ideas for folks to have a reason to go to the theater. This is also on top of other actions done by the fact that the overall entertainment industry honestly needs to regress to how things were done back in the day to truly survive. They might scoff at the fact that this did well, but with everything that’s going on, change needs to happen, and I’m glad films like Flow are there to show that said change can be wondrous.
About the writer
Cameron Ward
Cameron, aka Cam’s Eye View, is a writer, podcast editor/cohost of Renegade Animation, chill dude, and a lover and supporter of the medium of animation. He also loves movies in general. You can go to his site to check out his work.
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What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season One, Episode Seventeen, “Sometimes You Hear The Bullet”
This is another iconic episode, with this being the earliest major example of the show dealing with heavy emotions. I always found it a touch overrated, which is partly due to the show becoming vastly more complex but mostly due to this being built on a fairly cliche story; Hawkeye meets an old friend who then dies in combat, and that makes Hawkeye sad. Looking at the show in detail, though, makes me see how much its creativity with details makes this much more interesting than it could have been.
There are actually three plots intertwined in this episode: Hawkeye’s childhood friend writing a book on the war, Ron Howard playing a teenager whole stole his older brother’s identity to join up and impress a girl, and Frank throwing his back out and trying to spin that into a Purple Heart. Each is filled with little details and scenes; Howard’s character reveals himself as an enthusiastic racist, which Hawkeye tries to shut down, for example. They even intertwine Shield-style towards the end, when Hawkeye’s friend dying leads him to turn in Howard and then steal Frank’s Purple Heart to get him the medal he wants.
Although that last beat feels too cute to me, making it so Hawkeye is the hero in the kid’s eyes again. At its best, the show is less forgiving towards its heroes for following the beat of their own drum. Hawkeye brutally betraying the kid to keep him alive would have been a perfect ending (“Let’s hope it’s a long and healthy hate.”).
McClean Stevenson watch: he’s so perfect when things start turning serious, never falling into histrionics (Hawkeye almost does, but Alda is a strong enough actor). Stevenson sells that Henry is out of his depth but not completely out of his depth: “And rule number one is ‘young men die’. And rule number two is ‘doctors can’t change rule number one’.” / “You believe that?” / “I don’t know.” That last beat is up there with Dutch responding to Vic asking if he, uh, delivered Danny’s baby – quiet to the point of mumbling – conveying the same sense in the opposite way: this situation is simply too big for me to summarise.
“Bernice? That’s your sergeant?”
This is a case where I had, without realizing it, edited the episode in my memory so that I clearly recalled “Let’s hope it’s a long and healthy hate” but not the turnabout with the Purple Heart. (Edit: Forgot that this is the first of at least two times Hawkeye repurposes Frank’s undeserved Purple Heart to better ends. Hypothetically, one shouldn’t go back to that well twice, but on the other hand, I can see why they were tempted: it’s both very Frank to keep trying for it and very Hawkeye to keep both wanting to spoil it and wanting to use it as a kindness for someone else.)
Man, that Hawkeye-Henry conversation is heartbreaking and perfect, and that Vic-Dutch exchange is a great parallel for it.
I always enjoy mondegreened moments in fiction like that, because it feels like a free pass to rip off the version I made up in my head. Although sadly in this case your memory is superior to the work, and points to how much of a letdown that turnabout is.
“in this case your memory is superior to the work” is a pretty perfect encapsulation of why the Star Wars prequels could have never worked.
Kojak, “The Frame” – A crook Kojak’s been after for years accuses our hero of taking a bribe. Kojak then has to deal with an investigation by Internal Affairs while doing his job. But of course managing to get things done with a little bending the rules and by getting the crook’s own lawyer to help! This one is a tough watch since it leans into all the “let the cops do their jobs” and “internal affairs cops are just narcs” tropes. I have said that the level of copaganda on this show is not through the roof, but sometimes we are very clearly reminded where the writers stand. The funny thing is that otherwise this is a well written and acted episode. James Luisi is the head of the Internal Affairs team, and already playing his character from The Rockford Files.
Airplane — The kid and I watched this on a lazy Sunday and had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the rhythm of the film this time. Every line is a joke, but it’s not so stuffed that it becomes unpleasantly frenetic. It retains a comfortable pace so that you have time to laugh at everything. And of course, the true genius of the film is the catholicism of its humor.
This is not an adjective I’ve heard applied to the ZAZ oeuvre.
Small c catholic is expansive, wide-ranging — it fits well here! Puns visual and verbal, jokes in the background and backgrounds as jokes, manic slapstick and deadpan absurdity, an inflatable man getting a blowjob — there is a huge variety of humor here.
also potent themes of Guilt and Absolution
Adding a word to my vocabulary today, thank you
Autocorrect tried to fuck me by capitalizing it, but I caught it in time!
“I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue because I gave it up for lent.”
Escape from L.A. – While we’re giving heretical opinions, I’ll say this is definitely worse than Escape from N.Y., but not that much worse. Love Kurt Russell, love him teaming up with John Carpenter… I just don’t think Snake Plisskin is all that great of a character. Once again he’s all reputation, and his pissy attitude is too straightforward to be parody, too much like an obstinate toddler to take seriously. He gets by on luck more than cunning – oh hey, here’s the person I’m looking for literally heading a parade down the middle of the street in front of me – and has adversaries too dumb to need outwitting anyway. The dodgy special effects are what torpedoed any chance of reclamation of this title, but you could George Lucas those scenes up (or cut them entirely) and still have a lot of flat scenes to answer for (the few flashes of brilliance – an extremely macabre joke out of a sudden death, Cliff Robertson’s Bible-thumping president – make the rest more frustrating in comparison). Retroactively makes me appreciate the practical jankiness of the first film more, but for some reason this stays firmly on the wrong side of the silly/stupid divide, even though Carpenter and Russell are fully capable of surfing that wave. Thankfully we’ll always have Little China.
Agreed – I’ve only seen this once but I had a pretty good time. It might help that I’m also not the biggest Escape From NY fan, there’s so much Carpenter that I enjoy more although I keep going back in the hope that it’ll eventually win me over.
Hundreds of Beavers – went to see this for a second time because the roadshow was in town, the star / co-writer giving an intro and Q&A and yes, there may have also been some large animal costumes present. Movie was just as fun second time, both times have been sell-out audiences in the biggest screen in town and there’s no better way to see a comedy. I can’t believe I’d forgotten about the horse, although that meant I got to laugh at it all over again. The behind-the-scenes info was interesting, always good to hear from passionate independent filmmakers – their upcoming projects sound intriguing too!
Oh, this would be such a fun one to see live with a friendly, already-in-the-know crowd. I hope to at least be spotting large animal costumes around at Halloween for years to come.
Yeah! It was a really good crowd, lots of repeat viewers, plenty of first-timers, people even asked decent questions! Nobody had “more of a comment than a question”!
Tried Abbott Elementary Season 2 and there’s a whole article here about neoliberal burnout and liberalism in sitcoms, but really my core thinking is “THIS ISN’T FUNNY ENOUGH.” There just aren’t enough fucking jokes on this show* and instead there are lessons. This is a situational comedy, and I am thirty-two going on thirty-three. I don’t need lessons from the situational comedy! I want laughs! Accordingly, I put on 30 Rock Season One, and while you can argue Fey is an awful person, (1) she knows, and (2) the show is a goddamn joke machine even 9 episodes in, a glorious thing. Black Frasier! Jack stress eating! Dennis on To Catch A Predator! Y’all please demand more actual jokes from your shows. Rant over.
*”Sea Barbara is different from Land Barbara” was actually funny, look, A JOKE.
*lesson exemption granted for Arrested Development
“and that’s why you should approve more funding for public schools!”
—Willoughby walking away
from a charter school with only one arm
the three body problem, netflix, episode 1. I have some questions about beniot’s and weiss’s adaptation choices. The biggest change is moving the main locus of the action to london, instead of china, and replacing most of the Chinese protagonists with a mix of international students. The other big change is introducing the cop (da Shi, played by benedict wong) early instead of using him as the bridge for our protagonist into the murder mystery hook.
One of Liu Cixin’s big concerns is a lack of investment for basic science. The adaptation has already aged poorly as it’s increasingly funny to imagine western powers as big investors in basic science relative to China. But also B&W don’t seem to really understand why the basic science is important. The opening hook to the plot of 3BP is that a lot of physicists are dying under mysterious circumstances because particle accelerators are generating impossible and inconsistent results. And I know B&W don’t like doing big worst expo dumps unless you can have characters fucking in each other the background, but like you do need to talk about the basic science stuff. (Also, there’s an obvious way to do this in something called “the three body problem.” It involves three bodies. You just need characters to participate in an eiffel tower while discussing up and down quarks. “right now in this configuration we’ve got two up and one down. That’s a proton. If we had two down and one up we’d be a neutron”)
But it’s nicely shot and we’ll see how it goes. The flaws are all up front so maybe the virtues will still be able to shine through.
It is kind of annoying when people glom onto something you’ve been beating the drum for a long time, and moreso if they do it around a lesser example of the thing. I loved Flow, but I’ll admit it would maybe top my list of European animation mostly because it’s a very short list (checking Letterboxd, it’s not quite as dire as I imagined, but there’s a lot of space between Svankmajer and Cartoon Saloon). I wonder if, counter to conventional wisdom, having no dialog actually helped the movie? No awkward translations or dubbing by celebrities with a couple hours to spare.
I also find your dislike for the strange, spiritual twist interesting, since one of the hallmarks of mainstream American film is a distaste for shifts in an established tone or elements that don’t strictly serve the narrative. The American movie I can think of that has a sort of similar moment is The Princess and the Frog, and that has a fair amount of preamble and dialog to set up its moment of transcendental wonder.
It caught me off guard when the film finally introduces this in the third act with no real build-up, which made me dislike it. On top of the weird alien whale, I felt like it tackled maybe a little too much of its story when the strength of the film was its more straightforward story, because it had no dialogue. I got over it and still enjoyed the ending, but it was the one part that made me tilt my head.
I tap out at four stars for a cat movie where the cat doesn’t have whiskers. I’m SORRY. I don’t care if your free software couldn’t handle whiskers! No awards from me, Flow! Although the only other nominee I’ve seen is Wallace & Gromit and I wouldn’t have given that any awards either, I guess I need to check out Memoir of a Snail as I did really like Mary & Max when I saw it, long ago.
Cartoon Saloon are definitely the shining light of Euronimation for me, depending on my mood I might pick Song of the Sea as my #1 animated movie, period. Some interesting stuff on this Letterboxd list – I’ve seen 30 of them and enjoyed nearly every one, although if I were to make a top ten it would still be heavily US / Japan dominated.
https://boxd.it/DHU2g
List is missing Rugrats in Paris! Incomplete.
I mean I loved Triplets of Belleville as a kid, but I was a real weird child and loathed Disney (to an extreme but not unreasonable level) for what was clearly a certain fakery. The real world was so much grotesque and weird than what they’ve ever depicted on screen save maybe sequences in Pinnochio or Fantasia.
Year of the Month update!
This April, we’ll be looking at 1999, so you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al!
TBD: James Williams: 10 Things I Hate About You
TBD: Ruck Cohlchez – Summerteeth/The Soft Bulletin/Utopia Parkway
TBD: Lauren James – Storm of the Century
Apr. 4th: Gillian Rose Nelson: The Straight Story
Apr. 8th: Bridgett Taylor: …One More Time
Apr. 11th: Gillian Rose Nelson: Balloon Farm
Apr. 15th: Ben Hohenstatt: The White Stripes
Apr. 16th: James Rodriguez: The Scooby Doo Project
Apr. 18th: Cameron Ward/Cori Domschot: The Mummy
Apr. 18th: Gillian Rose Nelson: The Hand Behind the Mouse
Apr. 22nd: Sam Scott: Titus
Apr. 23rd: Cori Domschot: The Matrix
Apr. 24th: Dave Shutton: American Pie/Class of 1999
Apr. 25th: Gillian Rose Nelson: Disney on DVD
Apr. 28th: Tristan J. Nankervis: The Sixth Sense
And the open call for May starts now! Our year will be 1962, so you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al!
May 2nd: Gillian Rose Nelson: Moon Pilot
May 9th: Gillian Rose Nelson: Bon Voyage!
May 16th: Gillian Rose Nelson: Big Red
May 23rd: Gillian Rose Nelson: Almost Angels
May 30th: Gillian Rose Nelson: In Search of the Castaways