"Flow" and "Memoir of a Snail"

I'm usually pretty supportive of foreign and indie animated features, but the two that have gotten the most attention this awards season are just not my thing at all.  I debated with myself if it was worth writing these reviews, since smaller films like this face such an uphill battle getting audience attention, and putting forth any negativity feels kinda mean spirited.  However, just because I didn't like them doesn't mean that I can't write about them in a way that would highlight why other viewers might like them and want to seek them out.  Plenty of viewers have clearly enjoyed "Flow" and "Memoir of a Snail."  Maybe you will too.

First, let's talk about "Flow," which is a Latvian CGI film from Gints Zilbalodis and Dream Well Studio.  It stars a collection of animals, has no spoken dialogue, and seems to take place in a fantastical world that human beings have abandoned.  Our main POV character is a black cat who is caught in an unexpected flood, and must join several other animals - a dog, a capybara, a secretary bird, a lemur, and a whale - making a journey to a mysterious city.  The visuals are the main event here, creating an extremely immersive experience as we watch the cat travel through different environments, get swept away by the flood, and struggle to cooperate with the other animals to survive.  The animals behave like real animals for the most part, and are only minimally anthropomorphized.    

The CGI animation of the natural environments is lovely, and the critters are pretty cute.  Our hero cat looks almost exactly like the ones that often pop up in Studio Ghibli pictures, like Jiji from "Kiki's Delivery Service." The animators do a great job of keeping us invested in their journey, watching them work through one problem and obstacle after another.  If "Flow" had been created as a twenty minute short, I would have thought much better of it.  However, it's an 85 minute movie, and the premise just can't sustain the runtime.  Despite some standout sequences, I couldn't stop thinking of "Flow" as awfully reminiscent of a tech demo for a video game, designed to show off the impact of the gaming experience, and how cool the effects animation is.  I can understand the choice to use a non-traditional narrative, but as a result a lot of the movie feels very disconnected and arbitrary.  The character animation isn't expressive enough to suggest much actual intention in the animals' behavior, much less any motives, leaving their actions a mystery.  You don't see many animated films committed to so much realism, which is commendable, but it also negatively impacts the storytelling.  "Flow" left me intrigued, but unmoved, looking for a story to go with the lovely images.  

Now, on to "Memoir of a Snail," which is the latest film from Australian animator Adam Elliot, who made "Harvey Krumpet" and "Mary and Max."  Like his previous work, "Memoir of a Snail" is a biography of an oddball.  Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) is a snail enthusiast who endures a difficult childhood with her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) under the care of their disabled drunkard father Percy (Dominique Pinon).  Things become worse when Percy dies, and Grace and Gilbert are split up.  Grace ends up with nice, but mostly absent foster parents, and finds a friend in an elderly woman named Pinky (Jacki Weaver).  Gilbert ends up with a family of terrible religious fundamentalists, and is only able to communicate with Grace through occasional letters. 

I've enjoyed all of Adam Elliot's films and shorts, but I've never really liked them much as animated media.  The stories are certainly compelling, full of miserable personal histories, dark humor, and the celebration of imperfection and eccentricity.  Grace survives so much tragedy, you have to root for her, though the soap opera twists get to be a bit much by the end.  However, my biggest problem is with the visuals.  Adam Elliot's style is instantly recognizable.  His stop-motion animation characters are all ugly-cute caricatures of average people, often with lumpy bodies and huge bug-eyes, and rendered in drab colors.  The production design is full of subversive little details and nostalgic kitsch.  The animation itself, however, is crude stuff - characters rely mostly on voiceover instead of talking, and have a tendency to sit around, staring blankly out at the audience.  

Other animators with minimalist styles like Don Hertzfeld find ways to use the limitations to their advantage, and still come up with creative, memorable imagery.  "Memoir of a Snail" does manage a few good visual gags, but only seems to be animated when it absolutely has to be, which is a mark against it. I enjoyed the film, and do recommend it to discerning grown ups, but there are so many good animated films from 2024 that this places pretty far down in the list.    

          

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