Pets Can't Stop Watching 'Flow,' the Oscar-Winning Cat Movie

My cat is a fan of the Two Minute Papers YouTube channel because of the way pointers sometimes move around the screen. It's gotten to the point where the cat will come running when he hears "I'm Doctor Károly Zsolnai-Fehér..."

I watched The Lion King with my cat. He seemed to enjoy it. He watched all of it and even got up to help Simba at one point.

Unfortunately he's not with me anymore. Wish I could watch Flow with him. I'm sure he would like it.

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/movies/flow-movie-pets-os...

I believe there are species-specific components of what pet animals like and dislike in the TV space. But I bet there are also cross-species effects.

Flow is animals being self-actualised. It's not strongly human focussed is it?

It would be possible to write this down to soundscape and flow/colour/movement but that denies the interpretive quality of what animals see portrayed on TV and we have other reasons (Lion King) to think they see even cartoon animals as animals, and display emotional responses to what they see, not just motion stimulus-response, but some "intellectual" model of the story/narrative/events.

I wonder if an TV show could de-sensitize cats to Cucumbers and Zuccini with a narrative purpose in the story? Or, could reflect the "I'm going to sit in this box because it makes me feel good" vibe.

I've head the kinds TV show Bluey is especially good for dogs as it's mostly in their visible colour spectrum - I must say, our dog does seem to watch it when we have children over and it's on.

Watched the movie after it won the Oscar for best animated film and yea, can confirm, my black cat was totally entranced by it.

Huh. Guess Preston Rhinelander from Scrooged was onto something.

I haven't seen the film, but I wonder if our pets' reliance upon us as a product of their domestication plays a factor in their requiring and rendering help.

I should see it.

Oh yeah. Cat family movie nite!

Confirmed at our household. Carmen, our dog, never watches tv, but she was entranced by Flow. She kept staring at it, then looking at us, and then looking back at the tv, like “Are you seeing this?”

My cat likes mice, birds, fish on tv.

He actually also likes computer games and anything with little moving things and jumps at the TV.

If it’s mice running off screen he goes and looks behind the tv to see where they went.