The vibrant colors in Oscar-nominated Flow are one sure shot to mesmerize anyone with its concept. It revolves around a cat’s journey who is trying to adapt to a flooded world and is also a big shoutout to everyone’s concern about the climate shift. But Gints Zilbalodis, who wrote and directed the film, put this concept in front of us 12 years ago, and we missed it.
His short film called Aqua tells the story of a cat who is witnessing and surviving the elevated water levels, which is very likely a consequence of climate change. Though his latest movie is 3D-rendered using open source software Blender, his 2012 film was developed using Toon Boom Animate Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop.
Flow is Essentially Aqua Turned Into Feature
There’s a simple reason Gints Zilbalodis chose a cat for his concept: cats are afraid of water. And there’s water everywhere so the cat has to overcome the fear to survive in this ‘waterland’. However, he has to do this alone, as there’s no mindful otter or the annoying but super enthusiastic dog-like in Flow.
For those who haven’t seen Aqua, they’ll find several scenes featured in Flow. One of my favorites is when he sits on the boat’s edge to finally take that leap of faith into the water so the hunger doesn’t kill it, an emotional climax that’ll have you cheering for the cat.
In one interview with Cartoon Brew, he explains how this concept came about. He said:
It started as vague ideas of a cat, ocean and overcoming fear. Then through numerous battles with the script it shaped up to something similar you can see now. After seven drafts I felt that it was ready to start storyboarding, but the film kept evolving all the way until the sound mix was done. I kept learning about filmmaking everyday, going through all of the different processes.
The seven and a half-minute film is available on YouTube with 12,000 views at the time of writing. On the other hand, Flow‘s trailer has garnered over a million views at the time of writing. Whether a proof of concept or an experimental short, just like Flow does, Aqua points to an important message that we absolutely have to listen to, lest we end up like the cat.
For more Thumb Wars Film coverage, check out Jason Statham’s newest collaboration with David Ayer, or how Hugo Weaving surprisingly played two parts in The Lord of the Rings.
Anurag Batham is a Writer at Thumb Wars zeroed in on video games but will also throw himself up on anything in association with anime and cinema. As with his favorite video games, give him anything with a linear story, be it Call of Duty or Braid, and he will be happy. He think of stories as food and wants to feed his readers something nutritious, food for thought.