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This article was originally published ahead of the2025 Oscars.
At the awards,Flowwon for best Animated Feature.
Theres always an inherent bias that a kid will have.
I know I had it with my dad.Oh, great.
This is one ofhismovies.
This is what he wants.
Im being dragged to see some boring thing.I didnt want that to be the case.
I wantedFlowto be something that they wanted to see.
We saw it last November.
They went and experienced it as they wouldPaddington.
My wife and I will talk about which movies to show the boys.
Sometimes, its: I like going in the ocean.
I dont want him to be afraid of that.
Another one I saw too early wasThe Shining.
That scared the hell out of me.
And they have got to bea lotolder to see my movies.
When that doesnt work out, its sad.
You think,Eh, maybe in another year.
You have to pick and choose: What it is that you want them to see and feel?
If its too safe then its not as much fun.
it’s crucial that you have a bit of those sharp edges in there.
WithFlow, I didnt want to force those deeper themes.
The climate change aspect is there but for a kid, I dont know how much they understand it.
When they get older, hopefully theyve had their science classes and learned about that stuff.
Youre like,Oh my god, Im nervous about showing them a movie?
Im confident the message of overcoming differences comes through, though, just by how the boys felt after.
The thing Ive realized is youre not going to get that information from them when youre talking about it.
The way they were walking around, how they carried themselves theyre seeing things a little bit differently now.
There wasnt a feeling of sadness at all when we left the theater.
The one question I asked was, So what do you think happened at the end?
because I dont even understand what happens when the bird lifts up.
For them, it was just a matter of fact: He didnt float up, he stayed.
And I was like, You know what?
You only feel that way if you understand that everybodys working together, irrespective of who they are.
Thats built in so deeply that the movie wouldnt be successful if it didnt have that.
What was really special aboutFlowwas the fact that my sons took it in without any artifice.
They were into it the whole time and I was just excited that something like this was possible.
Its telling a story and doing it really well with great characters.
And its also just fantastic-looking, in the truest sense of the word really beautiful and unique.
I havent stopped thinking about it and it stuck with them, too.
