Flushed Away (Widescreen Edition)

Average customer rating: 4.5

Flushed Away
A cute, odd film with a certain spark of British charm
Good, but not up to Aardman's highest standards...
movie review
Pretty good...

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Flushed Away (Widescreen Edition)
Starring: Hugh Jackman , Kate Winslet , Ian McKellen , Bill Nighy , and Jean Reno
Director: Henry Anderson , David Bowers , and Sam Fell
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Animated
Product Group: DVD
Binding: DVD
ASIN: B000M343BC
2007-02-20

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Flushed Away is a rip-roaring nautical adventure with a twist: The heroes are a pair of rodents braving the sewers underneath London. Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman) is an upper-crust house-mouse who finds himself flushed into the subterranean sewers. Eager to return to his posh home, he enlists the help of a boat-captain rat named Rita (Kate Winslet), who has troubles of her own; namely the kingpin of the underworld, the Toad (Ian McKellen), and his henchmen including the French mercenary Le Frog (Jean Reno).

While technically Flushed Away could be considered part of the wave of celebrity-voiced, anthropomorphic-animal movies that hit in 2005-2006 (Madagascar, Over the Hedge, The Wild, etc.), it doesn't inspire the same sense of déjà vu. For one thing, its voice actors are less recognizable than the likes of Bruce Willis and Chris Rock. For another, its look is very distinctive. Like Nick Park's Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, it's a joint production of DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features, and although Park isn't involved, it retains his trademark blocky look of clay animation. But animating the movie by computer rather than by hand allows for some eye-popping tableaux, such as floodwaters rushing through the sewers and an entire town of little animated characters. It's a crazy thrill ride loaded with inside jokes and enough crude humor to earn a PG rating, and the band of singing slugs is also a hoot. --David Horiuchi

On the DVD
It's no surprise that the singing slugs are the stars of the DVD's bonus features. They're featured in two music videos (less than a minute total), and in a 13-minute segment an Aardman animator builds a slug out of plasticine. (In contrast, the lesson on drawing Roddy is a mere two minutes.) A song jukebox jumps to 10 musical points in the film, though the non-slug background music isn't really worth the jump. On the human side, there are eight-minute featurettes on the music and the voices, a set-top game that is easier to control than most such featurettes (and easier to beat too), and a commentary track by directors David Bowers and Sam Fell in which they have a grand old time remembering their inside jokes and showering love on the Spike and Whitey characters. The DVD-ROM has access to 21 more online games. --David Horiuchi

<hr> Fun Facts from Flushed Away

<ul>

In Tabitha's room, there are a variety of dolls from previous DreamWorks Animation films, including a Gromit and several bunnies from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, an Alex the Lion from Madagascar, and a Dragon from Shrek.</li>

Many characters from past films make cameos in Flushed Away. For example, a Chicken Run chicken is on the second page of the Toad's scrapbook, Gromit's head is a pencil top in the Jammy Dodger, the penguin from Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers is on a stamp on the Jammy Dodger, and a poster of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is on the side of a bus in Kensington.</li>

There are officially 60 million rats in the UK. That's one rat for every person.

The various boats in the film are made up of flotsam and jetsam that rats could conceivably find in the sewer. For the double decker bus: Ice chest, retro flipping numbers alarm clock, bike lamp, buckle, oil drum, soup can, license plate, rope, plastic suitcase, jerry can. For the mini cooper: Soda can, battery, sardine can, butter knife, old lights.

Simulating the toilet water and making it look realistic proved to be a challenge. After much consideration, it was finally discovered that what was missing was caustics, or the use of light reflection off the bottom of the bowl. This was added and everyone was happy because they could finally get their mind out of the toilet. </li></ul><hr> Stills from Flushed Away (click for larger image) <table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="100%" cellspacing="4">

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Product Description

Set on and beneath the streets of London, Flushed Away is the story of Roddy, an upper-crust "society mouse," who is rather rudely evicted from his Kensington flat when he is flushed down into Ratropolis, the bustling sewer world found under London's streets. There, he meets Rita, an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Together they must navigate their way through a busy city filled with dangers for any mouse, including terrifying rapids, treacherous whirlpools and, most of all, the villainous Toad and his hench-rats Spike and Whitey. Though completely out of his element at first, the privileged Roddy finds himself an unlikely hero when he learns that Ratropolis is in danger from the world above.

Customer Reviews:

Flushed Away .......2007-06-11

Very cute movie that the entire family will enjoy. The little worm things are cute with the noises they make. Had a lot of laughs throughout the entire movie. I would highly recommend.

A cute, odd film with a certain spark of British charm.......2007-06-08

Ok...er...bear with me people.

I never planned on seeing this movie. I hate these overdone CGI animal adventure movies. Doogal. Barnyard. Over the flippin' hedge. Happy Feet (though that one was ok). Besides crappy romantic comedies, they're the most overdone film genre of all-time.

But, as it so happens, I found myself on a bus to Six Flags in Massachusetts one day as part of a college reunion my dad was in (there was a program for the kids, and our group, age 15-17, was going to Six Flags one day), and they were showing this film, "Flushed Away," on the bus.

Meh. I had nothing better to do. Sleep? I just woke up like a minute and a half ago, it was 9:00 in the morning. Study for my exam I was taking off-campus on Saturday? Yeah, right. Watch "Flushed Away" for no apparent reason whatsoever? Sounds like a plan!

Ok, so basically, "Flushed Away" is about this lonely (but almost scarily elated) rat named Roddy who gets flushed down the loo one day and discovers a huge underworld city in the sewers of London where other rats live. He meets this girl scavenger rat named Rita who looks for treasures in the sewers and he keeps ruining things for her on her boat...thus Rita gets a huge sense of resentment for this poor rat. Roddy needs to get back to Kensington (hehe, I love that place) where he lives...but has no plan of doing so. Rita just so happens to have a dilemma as well: she has this quarrel with a big toad named...er...the Toad who stole a ruby from her that was going to make her poor family wealthy again. Roddy agrees to help Rita get the ruby back in return for her help in getting him back to the land "up top." (Kensington)

As you can see from my basic plot summary, "Flushed Away" is an odd film. It has some fantastic voice talent, though, starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, and Bill Nighy. It also is pretty funny with tons of British humour (oh, did I mention the evil Toad is trying to rig all the toilets in London to suck the people in during the half-time break at the World Cup? hehe ) and it reminded me immensely of Nick Park's brilliant "Wallace and Grommit" series. There are references to tons of other adult movies that only we would get. The soundtrack is fantastic as well with some very good tunes, including a track by The Dandy Warhols.

Overall--funny, entertaining, and enjoyable, but probably not worth seeing again. It kind of struck me as one of the kids' animated films that didn't exactly work for me, and (most of them) usually do. Ok for one-time viewing.

3-Stars

Good, but not up to Aardman's highest standards..........2007-06-04

Admittedly, those standards are 'way above anyone else's... I chuckled a few times in this, whereas "Chicken Run" had me in tears. It has the usual Aardman trademark of so many verbal and sight gags and references to other films flung at you that you need several viewings to get them all (and I'd imagine that a non-British audience night not get them all). Ian McKellen's megalomaniac frog was wonderful, as was Jean Reno's "Le Frog", but the singing slugs were the best. Still worth a view (and the kids will love it).

movie review.......2007-06-02

This was a gift for a family taking a long road trip. The movie amused them

Pretty good..........2007-05-17

This is a pretty good movie, I like it alright. It was cheaper to buy it then rent it, after gas and everything. I like the little slugs, they are cute! Worth owning....maybe. Depends on who likes to watch it. I like the british accent, so it was a joy to watch.

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