Flow (2024) review

Human beings are missing from the planet (which is a good thing) with only a little evidence (sculptures!) they were there in the first place, so an unnamed black cat (of unknown gender) has to get by on its own, running away from a pack of dogs, surviving a flood and befriending a Labrador Retriever, a capybara (who's the stoner of the group), a hording ring-tailed lemur and a majestic secretary bird.  This dialogue-free animated feature from Latvia (created with open-source programs like Blender) was developed by individuals who adore nature and did a wonderful job of making the animals life-like (as opposed to anthropomorphic), although it does have its inherent limitations that are required to keep the story moving: there's always some handy platform or vacant vessel that appears out of nowhere to assist them, and it's curious that both the bird and the capybara know how to steer boats (survival of the fittest, I guess!).  The last third has it move in more of a fantasy direction - with one of the main characters vanishing into the cosmos - and the water mysteriously recedes (which beaches that poor whale-like monstrosity), but most of the crew make it another day ... no thanks to the easily-distracted (and selfish) pooches.  Rarely is there a movie where I want to either pet or hang around with everyone, so that's nice....