Flow Needs to Release the Capybara Cut

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In my perspective, capybaras and silent film actors share a striking resemblance. Both are delightful to observe on screen, yet their vocal abilities were perfectly suited for the era of silent cinema. The creators of the animated film Flow, a Latvian production featuring animals navigating a post-human world, encountered a similar predicament while striving for realism during voice recording with an ensemble including a cat, a dog, a lemur, and a bird. As Gints Zilbalodis, the director, expressed in a post, “In Flow, we utilized authentic animal voices. However, this proved challenging only with the capybara. Capybaras don’t vocalize extensively, so we had to tickle it to get a response, but the tone was high-pitched and didn’t align with our laid-back, hippie-like character.” Ultimately, the team opted for a baby camel to fill the role instead.

In another scenario, one might wonder how a capybara would have sounded in a movie setting. Zilbalodis posted a video showing a tickled capybara making sounds reminiscent of a barking dog rather than a rodent. Zilbalodis further explained, “I believe we made the correct decision to use a baby camel’s voice instead.” However, one might argue that the capybara was simply anxious and should have been given multiple attempts to re-record before being replaced by an equally charming baby camel. With the streaming premiere of Flow on Max coming up this Valentine’s Day, there is a possibility for an alternative version featuring real capybaras. Here’s hoping!

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2025-02-09 02:53