For many critics and fans (including us), one of the happiest upsets at this year’s Oscars was Flow winning Best Animated Feature, beating out acclaimed titans from much bigger animation studios like The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2. The film’s tiny team from Latvia, led by Director Gints Zilbalodis, went home national heroes, as their statuette now sits in the Latvian National Museum of Art, with people waiting in line for hours just to see it. It’s much easier for viewers at home to see the film itself, as it is now available to stream on Max.

In this episode of The Long Take Review, Greg, P.T., and I share what we think is so special about this one-of-a-kind film. We try to pinpoint what works about its storytelling style, debate a few different interpretations of key events, offer up our ideas about how the story could function as an allegory, and perform our fair share of animal imitations along the way. Please note that we recorded this episode BEFORE the Oscars, not realizing we wouldn’t be able to publish it until this week. Jen edited out as much Oscars Watch talk as she could so you just get our pure and timeless breakdown of the film, but if there are seemingly outdated references to life before this little kitty won big, please ignore them.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 18:53 minute mark. If you are still undecided as to whether or not you want to go with our spoiler-flooded flow, you can listen safely until then.

Image Credit: Director Gints Zilbalodis’ Instagram Account, @gzilbalodis

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