Survival movies have captivated audiences since the days of silent film, offering a fascinating look at human struggle in extreme conditions. However, this genre often runs the risk of becoming repetitive by following the same narrative arc: the hero triumphs and survives. The Great Flood, the new Korean thriller from Netflix, proposes an innovative twist that not only renews interest in the genre but also incorporates elements of science fiction into its climactic narrative. A catastrophe with great emotions The plot follows Gu An-na, played by Kim Da-mi, who […]
Survival movies have captivated audiences since the days of silent film, offering a fascinating look at human struggle in extreme conditions. However, this genre often risks becoming repetitive by following the same narrative arc: the hero triumphs and survives. The Great Flood, the new Korean thriller from Netflix, proposes an innovative twist that not only renews interest in the genre but also incorporates elements of science fiction into its climactic narrative.
A catastrophe with great emotions
The plot follows Gu An-na, played by Kim Da-mi, who finds herself trapped in her three-story apartment while a cataclysmic flood ravages her home. The story, which begins as a typical survival tale, quickly transforms when it is revealed that her son, Ja-in, is not actually her biological son, but an artificial intelligence experiment designed to replicate human emotions. As An-na tries to save Ja-in and reach the rooftop for shelter, she becomes embroiled in an intriguing time loop that forces her to relive the same day over and over again.
The narration of The Great Flood is enriched with the use of CGI, creating desolate environments submerged in golden digital dust. As An-na goes through this cyclical experience, she has the opportunity to explore her memories and learn about her own research, which could be key to the survival of humanity. With comparisons to titles like Edge of Tomorrow, Don’t Look Up, and The Poseidon Adventure, this film is not only a thriller and a climate allegory but also an exploration of family ties and identity in a context of desolation. The Great Flood could become the most surprising film of 2025, attracting viewers looking for something more than the classic survival story.
Stories of triumph are always told. It’s a fact: although most of us fail along the way, people don’t want to hear how we did it. They want to hear about the moments of success, of starting from nothing in a garage and ending up building a gigantic tech company, things like that. That’s why the story of Walt Disney is usually told starting from the creation, in 1928, of Mickey Mouse. But before the most famous mouse in history, there was not only Oswald, the lucky rabbit (from 1927), but a series of short films that led to the ruin of […]
Stories of triumph are always told. It’s a fact: even though most of us fail along the way, people don’t want to hear how we did it. They want to hear about the moments of success, starting from nothing in a garage and ending up building a gigantic tech company, things like that. That’s why, the story of Walt Disney is usually told starting from the creation, in 1928, of Mickey Mouse. But before the most famous mouse in history, there was not only Oswald, the lucky rabbit (from 1927), but also a series of short films that led Disney to ruin. Don’t worry: in case you haven’t seen the movie listings lately, it has a happy ending.
Oh, oh, Alicia, in the land of malice
In 1919, a newly adult Walt Disney began drawing illustrations of all kinds, and with his friend Ub Iwerks (who many say, including The Simpsons, was the real creator of Mickey) he opened his own agency of artists. Over time, by 1921, a settled Disney in Kansas launched his own advertisements, which read “Walt Disney, cartoonist. Comic strips, advertisements, animated films”. It worked well enough to create his first animated short for Newman cinema, for which he created the so-called Newman’s Laugh-O-Grams, modernized fables that had moderate success.
Enough -or so he thought- to create a new animation studio, Laugh-O-Grams Studio. The problem is that when he hired new animators, he realized that, indeed, there wasn’t enough money to pay everyone. “No problem”, Disney thought, “we’ll make other shorts for other theaters and that will solve it”. This is how the production of Alice’s Wonderland began. No, the movie that made him famous: a short film that mixed animation and live action and ended up lasting 12 and a half minutes. By the time it premiered, Laugh-O-Grams Studio had already declared bankruptcy and the efforts had gone to waste.
Imagine the situation: 1923, just 21 years old, and he had already caused at least two companies to fail. That was the scenario for Walt Disney, who, with his short film of Alice under his arm, moved to Hollywood hoping to have a little more luck. The short film, by the way, was never screened in theaters, but it is a myth of the industry: in it, a young Alice played by Virginia Davis visits an animation studio, sees several scenes that come to life, and everyone -animators and drawings- ends up dancing with her. Nowadays, this black and white short may not fascinate anyone, but at the time it was a huge hit among the distributors who were able to see it in private screenings.
Or that’s what Disney would have liked: the truth is that at the time it went by without a trace, and no one wanted to buy his Alice’s Wonderland to distribute it… until he learned that Margaret J. Winkler, a New York distributor, was about to lose the rights to the Felix the Cat cartoon series and needed a replacement: she immediately signed a contract to make six more Alice Comedies and finally, Disney and his brother Roy were able to form the Disney Brothers Studio, which soon became Walt Disney Studio. In total, the mogul made 57 short films between October 1923 and August 1927 (most of which are lost), changed the lead Alice several times, and by the end, the formula was repeated so much that Disney himself was fed up with his creation.
The rest is history: although Walt Disney Studios faced bankruptcy several times again, it was never again in as dire a situation as in 1923, without a dollar in his pocket, with a short film under his arm, and no one interested in what he had to offer. And while the story of glory is always more uplifting, the story of failure is infinitely more interesting.
