The Environmental Poetics of Flow (2024): The Animals of Animation Film in the Age of Anthropocene

Abstract

The genre of Animation as a medium and representation of animals has a vital importance in the age of Anthropocene. This essay studies the genealogy of Animation as a medium by primarily tracing its anthropocentric and often exaggerated representation of the animal world in the pre-Disney era of Classical Hollywood followed by the Disney era and finally the contemporary period. Animation as a medium and technique also offers immense opportunities for radical ecological narratives and Gints Zilbalodis' Flow (2024) reflects that new and emerging ecological perspective, replacing conventional anthropocentrism with non-human agency and challenges the conventions set by Disney production films that dominate this medium. This essay compares landmark animation films centering animals and studies Flow's rhetorical environmentalism, portrayal of authentic animal behaviour, absence of dialogue in human language, the landscape of post-apocalypse, radical reversal of gaze, magic realism, etc as techniques of challenging traditional animation narrative delineating new techniques to counter anthropocentrism. A critical study centering Flow is important as it highlights a shift from conventional animation storytelling to radical ecocentric reflection.