Nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature
A cat must navigate a world threatened by rising water, finding relative safety on a boat with a crew of other random animals as they search for high ground.
This was the Oscar submission from Latvia and it's one of the strongest animated showings I've seen in years. I felt genuine distress every time that cat was in danger. I was a little distracted at first because the collection of animals is weird: a capybara, a secretary bird, a ring-tailed lemur, and a golden retriever, all of which are from different continents, but the architecture of the human (?) built structures is also weird so then I didn't care as much. It's obviously some sort of fantasy setting. (Tyler suggested it takes place in Hyrule.)
There's no attempt made to anthropomorphize the animals so it's completely wordless, which means you have to pay attention to every frame. This is not the movie to have on while you play on your phone.
The animation is very soft and almost dream-like. I generally don't pay attention to the score but it is also very soothing. It reminds me of music you'd hear in a video game, present but not calling attention to itself. In fact, I would not be surprised to find that this started out as a cut-scene or demo of a planned video game like Stray. Too lazy to look it up though.
It's currently only in theaters (if you're lucky) or available through your handy-dandy VPN.
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