Flow

image for Flow

Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 7 (scary scenes, some violence)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Flow
  • a review of Flow completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 24 March 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to scary scenes and violence.
Children aged 6–7 Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes and violence.
Children aged 8 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Flow
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Some scenes may scare very young children
Length: 85 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

A cat finds itself alone in a forest when a pack of dogs appears. The dogs are aggressive and chase after the cat. The dogs are then chased by a herd of deer who also run over the cat, but it is unharmed. The deer are running away from a huge deluge of water which rushes down through the forest. The cat is swept up in the water and has to save itself from drowning. Eventually, the cat finds dry land and a place to sleep but is rudely interrupted by one of the dogs, a Golden Labrador. The water keeps rising but the cat manages to jump on board a boat which has a lone occupant of a capybara.

The cat and the capybara are eventually joined by a ring-tailed lemur and the Golden Labrador. They journey through strange landscapes of deserted cities and huge stone pillars, while the water continues to rise. The animals are often in peril, particularly from a flock of secretary birds (very large white birds), who frighten the animals. However, one of the secretary birds befriends the cat, and is ostracised from its flock for doing so. Finally, the water subsides as quickly as it has risen and the animals are again in danger from fault lines opening in the earth, causing huge trees to uproot and fall.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Animals in peril; Natural disasters; Floods.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Two dogs fight over a fish that they’ve caught.
  • The dogs bark aggressively at the cat. The cat swipes at the dog, which then chases after it.
  • A flock of large secretary birds swoops the animals in the boat. One of the birds catches the cat in its claws and carries it off. The cat starts to struggle and the bird drops it.
  • The cat gets knocked down a hillside and lands in a flock of secretary birds. The birds squawk at the cat and the cat runs away, terrified. The birds chase after the cat. A large bird threatens the cat and another bird protects it. The two birds fight each other, pecking and kicking. The bigger bird wins and stands over the smaller one. Several of the other birds stand on its wings. The bird is ostracised from the flock.
  • The lemur gets angry with the secretary bird for kicking his ball into the water. He starts to attack him.
  • Huge trees are uprooted as the earth cracks open, and they fall crashing to the ground.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • The cat is scared a lot of the time by strange noises, loud bangs, dogs barking, the secretary birds, a large whale, and interacting with the other animals.
  • The forest is a dark, scary place with owls hooting.
  • Two of the dogs are large, scary-looking animals who are quite fierce.
  • Strange landscapes of large cat statues, huge stone pillars, abandoned cities, a large statue of a hand and a head, etc.
  • A very large whale appears, which the cat is terrified of, but it saves the cat from drowning.
  • The boat is tossed about during a couple of storms – dark skies, thunder, rain and large waves.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • A herd of deer stampede and the cat is caught underneath. It is very frightened.
  • The cat is seen on several occasions frantically trying to swim and to stay afloat.
  • The water continues to rise to the very top of the tallest columns.
  • The cat is trapped by weeds underwater.
  • The secretary bird is injured during a fight and is unable to fly properly.
  • The cat finds the bird at the top of a tall structure. Bubbles float around them and they both float in space. The bird flies into a vortex and the cat can’t follow it in. It appears symbolic of the bird’s death.
  • The capybara is stuck inside the boat, which is teetering on the edge of a tree branch overhanging a deep ravine. The other animals try to rescue it with a rope. The cat jumps into the boat to help the capybara but falls. The capybara, in turn, saves the cat.
  • The whale is seen breached on dry land.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

  • None noted.

In a nutshell

Winner of both an Oscar and a Golden Globe award for Best Animated Feature Film, Flow is an animated movie with no dialogue, however, the story wonderfully captures the characters of all of the animals. The graphics are stunning and emotive, but the animals are in constant peril and there are several distressing scenes. The film is therefore not suitable for young children but likely to be enjoyed by ages 8 and up, and with parental guidance for 6 and 7-year-olds.

The main messages from this movie are that life can suddenly change but you have to ‘go with the flow’; and that survival often depends on interacting with those who you wouldn’t normally interact with.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Persistence
  • Collaborating with strangers for mutual benefit
  • Kindness
  • Generosity
  • Overcoming fears to help others
  • Working as a team
  • The importance of friendship.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • The secretary bird was bullied and punished for standing up for the cat. It probably died as a result, although this isn’t obvious. Parents could discuss the importance of standing up to bullies even at personal cost.