The Latvian movie Flow (A) aka Straume) is an animated antidote and companion piece to Mad Max: Fury Road featuring assorted characters with survival on the mind careening on caravans toward a shared destiny. The characters in this human- and dialogue-free family adventure are all animals on a journey escaping an overpowering flood, and Gints Zilbalodis — director, co-writer, co-producer and co-musician — commandeers a master-class menagerie about navigating a world in crisis and the power of found family. The film follows a solitary animal named Cat who must find refuge and collaborate with other species on a boat after the deluge devastates their forest home. As the animals sail, often by boat, through mystical, overflowed landscapes, they overcome dangers while adapting to a transformed ecosystem. The beauty, scope and expression in this indie represent some of the most lovely animated work to ever reach the screen. The central feline is an utterly engaging protagonist, with each curious glance, curled nap, arched back, meow, yawn, hiss, leap or lurch amazingly authentic. Despite cats not loving water, this one becomes an avid fisherman to feed friends. The lavish world-building and thoughtfulness in rendering the ragtag ruffians including the resilient black cat, an organized ring-tailed lemur, a majestic secretarybird, a curious capybara and a spunky yellow Labrador demonstrate bountiful talent. Zilbalodis and team have crafted forces of nature including rushing torrents of water and flourishes of beauty including nature and man-made environments such as submerged cities with exquisite attention to detail. The filmmakers blend techniques of traditional cinema and open-world video games to create an immersive and dreamlike story. This gorgeous allegory takes viewers to a literal and metaphorical higher ground for greater empathy with lessons to impart for all ages. With a very quick running time of 85 minutes, be sure to stay for the brief post-credit sequence.
A bit more subversive at times than expected while still fun for the family, Jake Kasdan’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (B) is ostensibly a riff on The Breakfast Club if detention were actually a fantasy forest of video game characters and its ensemble of aimless teens transformed into avatars on a quest for their inner heroism. After a sluggish start, the film gains its footing once the characters start learning life lessons in and around thrilling action sequences involving animal stampedes, helicopter chases, encounters in exotic marketplaces and a subplot involving a stolen jewel. The film makes compelling use of its gaming conceits as characters discover their powers and vulnerabilities and preserve “lives” for the moments that matter. As far as characters go, Dwayne Johnson and Nick Jonas fare best with charisma in spades, and Jack Black sinks his teeth into the role of a female teen diva learning to care about others while adapting to her new male body functions. Kasdan finds the fables behind the fun and makes sure the escapism leaves everyone a wee bit wiser from the journey.
Co-directors John Clements and Ron Musker have animated quests with more Herculean tasks, drawn crooning crabs making a bigger undersea splash and created caves with greater wonders than the adventure afoot in Moana (C+), their mostly adrift Disney Polynesian epic wannabe. It’s quite enchanting to look at, at least for the first act; and newcomer Auli’i Cravalho brings lovely life to the brave and modern title character. Coupled with a goofy demigod convincingly acted and sung by Dwayne Johnson, the heroine embarks on an ill-conceived odyssey marked by listless villains, average banter and misbegotten mishaps. There’s one good song (of seven) played several times in the film, a propulsive anthem by Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda called “How Far I’ll Go,” but alas its prescient title begs the answer “too far” or “not far enough.” The most inventive use of tattoos since Memento and a creative battalion of Mad Max style pirate ships cannot lift the story to the gravitas to which it sometimes aspires. Bogged down in bluster and with story conceits which fail to differentiate it in the Disney kingdom canon, the film is barely better than its makers’ Treasure Planet and The Great Mouse Detective. The co-directors have found unexpected box office success but might have been better off leaving this journey in the bottle.