by A Latvian production won this year’s Oscar animation award.
“Flow,” which won this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, beating out “Inside Out 2” (Pixar) and “Wild Flowers” (Dreamworks), is a silent film by Latvian director Gints Zilbarodis that depicts a post-flooded world from the perspective of a cat.
The film is currently showing in Japan, but in an interview with director Jill Balodis, he said that Studio Ghibli heavily influenced him and that he especially liked the TV series “Future Boy Conan” (Hayao Miyazaki: 1978-) by Hayao Miyazaki. Indeed, “Flow” also features a tsunami scene, just like “Future Boy Conan.”
Interview with Director Gints Zilbalodis ( Doremifa Square )
It uses animal sounds instead of dialogue.
This film is silent, but director Gints Zilbalodis’ previous works and shorts were all silent. When asked why, he said, “Without dialogue, I can use other tools and music to be more expressive,” but he uses real animal sounds in this film. He uses the cries of his cats and dogs and those he has recorded at the zoo to create the animal characters that appear. Moreover, he emphasizes natural sounds and does not rely on melody, a technique he also used in Gints’ short film “Priorities” (2014), which is composed of dog voices and natural sounds.
In fact, this work is a plot version of his feature debut, “Away” (2019), a short story about a boy who gets into a plane accident and waits for rescue on an island with his pet dog.
This time, “Away,” which was revived to celebrate “Flow’s” Oscar win, expands further and tells the story of a boy who meets various animals while riding a motorcycle to the other side of the island while escaping from a giant chasing him.
This work is also a silent film, and the cries of birds and cats can be heard. Music that symbolizes each part is played, but in fact, it is a masterpiece created by the director alone. As a result, it was nominated in the Best Music category at the 47th Annie Awards along with “Frozen 2” (Disney: 2019) and “Toy Story 4” (Pixar: 2019).
A world filled with scenes reminiscent of Japanese anime and games.
While “Away” is set on an isolated island like “Future Boy Conan,” there are some points that remind me of “Spirited Away” (Studio Ghibli: 2001).
The giant moves like the God Warrior from “Castle in the Sky” (Studio Ghibli: 1986) but is hungry like No-Face from “Spirited Away” and quietly pursues the boy. Eventually, the boy reaches a lush green area beyond the cave and meets a small bird. From there, a series of images make it unclear to the audience whether this world is real or the world after death.
This expression resembles the world in “Spirited Away,” where Chihiro’s family enters a tunnel in their car and gets lost. Furthermore, the bamboo forest in Japan that director Gints Zilbalodis visited is shown on the screen. As the director is a fan of video games, the signposts leading to the boy’s destination are dotted with arches like those in Mario Kart.
The long-running hit “Robot Dreams” also owes its influence to Ghibli.
Looking back, the silent animation “Robot Dreams,” which was nominated for the 96th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, the same award won by Hayao Miyazaki’s “How Do You Live?” (Studio Ghibli: 2023), and was a long-running hit upon its release in Japan in 2024, also drew much influence from Tezuka Osamu and Ghibli creators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata in terms of character acting, according to producer Pablo Bergel.
See interview with director Pablo Berger ( TOKION )
Because there are no lines, the audience pays attention to the characters’ expressions and actions and listens carefully to the sounds around them. To achieve this, the characters’ expressions must be simple so that they are easy to read, and their movements must be smooth and meaningful so that the psychology of their actions can be explored.
These are the characteristics of silent animation, which is enjoyed with the five senses. It is fantastic that Studio Ghibli, which has such masters as Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, has influenced silent animation, and film awards worldwide have praised its skill in incorporating this technique.
It is true that Studio Ghibli’s France-Belgium co-production “The Red Turtle” (2016) is also a silent film, but Ghibli animation basically has lines. Ghibli’s works are known for their drawing skills that make language unnoticeable, and we are in an era where creators around the world who Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata have influenced are highly regarded.
