Humans are nowhere to be seen and the animals have taken over in this gorgeous animated adventure that was the dark horse winner at last month’s Academy Awards. It’s a film full of wonders but not a single word of dialogue in the epic tale of one cat’s adventures after a flood of biblical proportions (presumably a catastrophic result of global heating). As visions of apocalypse go, it’s rather lovely: a world lush with nature, animals learning to get by together. (Charmingly, in his Oscar acceptance speech, director Gints Zilbalodis thanked his cats and dogs.)

Our hero is a slinky black cat with expressive yellow eyes as big as saucers. You get the sense that this feline is more accustomed to the pampered lap of luxury than slumming it in the wild. Alone in the forest, he saunters into a wooden cabin that seems to be owned by an artist. Is this his old home? Where is his human? Then a huge wave crashes through the forest like a tsunami and the cat takes refuge on a clapped out sailboat. Like an ark without a Noah, the boat accumulates beasts: a friendly golden retriever, a mellow capybara, a petulant lemur and a secretary bird.

The animals move like real animals and sound like real animals. But Flow is not a slice of realism. In one scene, a gang of them pull together to save the capybara from peril (typically, the dogs get distracted, darting off after a passing rabbit). The beautiful, painterly computer generated animation looks a little like a Studio Ghibli film. And the strangeness of Flow’s odyssey reminded me of Werner Herzog; though its message about the survival of the kindest is the least Herzogian thing ever.

• Flow is in UK and Irish cinemas from 21 March