"Now you hop in, and I'll press this lever
      to get the bubbles going..."
 

    Roddy St James is a “society rat” living a pampered life as a pet in a
    posh Kensington flat. His days are simply perfect until salacious Syd
    enters his abode. Roddy wants rid of his uninvited guest, but his clever
    scheme to flush the carbuncle away backfires horribly, and Roddy's own
    world is turned upside-down, head over heels and right around the
    U-bend, as he tumbles through the sewer system and into the heart of a
    sprawling underworld known as Ratropolis. Here he falls in with a sewer-wise
    rat called Rita, and falls out with the villainous Toad, and hench-rats Spike
    and Whitey. When the latter fail to nab Rita and Roddy, Toad calls in his
    arch cousin from France, Le Frog, to get the job done...

    From the pen of veteran writers Dick Clement and Ian LeFrenais, "Flushed
    Away" was the third film to be produced as part of Aardman Animation's
    ongoing production agreement with DreamWorks SKG. The project was
    first announced in July 2002, and in what was then a surprise move, it
    was revealed as being Aardman's very first CGI feature project. The
    production was subsequently undertaken in Glendale, CA in the studios
    of DeamWorks Animation, with ne'er a stop-motion camera in sight.
    Incidentally, the studio defended their decision to go CGI by pointing
    out just how water-soaked the story was - water being notoriously
    tricky to animate using stop-motion techniques.

    Stars giving voice to the characters were revealed throughout the
    production schedule. They included Hugh Jackman as Roddy, and Ian
    McKellen as Toad, alongside the likes of Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis and
    Jean Reno. For a while Nicole Kidman was mooted as the voice of Rita.
    But Kate Winslet subsequently filled the role...

    When the first trailers and ads for the film were launched, the billing was
    noticeably DreamWorks-centric. Indeed, the posters and trailers proclaimed
    that the film was from the creators of "Shrek" and "Madagascar". The four
    time Oscar-winning studio from Bristol were seemingly overlooked. But there
    was a marketing tactic behind this apparent "snub". Aardman's previous
    film for the studio, the magnificent Curse of the Were-Rabbit underwhelmed
    Stateside, despite being the best-reviewed film of 2005 and subsequently
    collecting an Academy Award. Such are the ins-and-outs of movie marketing.
    Still, things had been corrected by the time of the film's release, with  
    both studios receiving equal billing on the final posters and previews.

    "Flushed Away" opened in US cinemas on November 3rd 2006 and
    it swum off with a little over $64m. Worldwide it took just over $176m.
    But this had to be offset against a $149m production budget, and thus in
    Hollywoodland, were boffo box office overrules everything, the film was
    once again considered something of a failure.

    In February 2007, DreamWorks and Aardman decided to terminate their
    production partnership. And whilst "Flushed Away"'s box-office wasn't
    the deciding factor, it surely played its part in the boardroom decisions.

        

    Now, after all that preamble you might be forgiven for thinking this film
    is a flop. Far from it. There are plenty of delights to be had in this water
    bound tale. That unique Aardman look is to the fore in the characters
    and set designs. There are those familiar overbites, expressive mouths
    and hand gestures. And even though they're rendered on a computer,
    the characters look and move beautifully. Hells bells, there are even
    thumbprints and blemishes worked into the textures of the stars, to
    appease those who feared for this computerized transformation.
    The sets are stuffed-to-busting with invention, witty references, spoof
    product names and cameo billings. And there are those little asides
    and moments that only Aardman can bring to the production table.
    You know the kind. The ones where there's a pause in the tale, where
    a character simply stops to think and blink and muse in such an
    affecting way. It's genius. It's 100% Aardman.

    You know, folks don't always get the subtlety of Aardman's work.
    They see a pause, and not necessarily the awkwardness within it.
    They don't always see the frailty of the character, the fragility of a
    relationship that's exposed by a twitch of the mouth, or a blink of
    an eye. There was a danger the DreamWorks machine would simply
    roll all that out of the production. But it's still here, thank goodness.
    And so too are those wonderful little character traits like - well - Rita's
    cute habit of adjusting her pants when she gets up from a seated position.
   
    And yet, even though all the Aardman boxes are ticked, there's
    something missing from this film that's hard to pin down. It's there, on
    the periphery. Something ever-so slightly out of place. Think of those
    previous moments of magic in "Chicken Run" and "Were-Rabbit".
    Ginger, on the roof of her hut, dreaming of escape. Or those moody, 
    moonlit streets patrolled by PC McIntosh. Or those flirty hand gestures
    between Lady Tottington and Wallace. Aren't they great? Roddy has
    his own magic moment in his penthouse, at the start of the film, when
    he is reminded of his social isolation. It's echoed later in the movie too.
    Indeed, it's running down the backbone of the story. It's lovely. And yet...

    When you're watching a stop-motion movie, particularly an Aardman movie,
    part of you remains in awe of the extraordinary effort involved, and how
    much time and preparation has gone into each shot. It's all hand made,
    and it's such hard graft. But once it becomes a series of rendered pixels,
    wrongly or rightly, you end up distancing yourself from the creation.
    That blinking, twitching charm has gone. It's Aardman, all right. But it's
    just computers. Someone taps a keyboard and the software takes
    control. In other words, it's lost its uniqueness. Now, Roddy and Rita,
    they shine. They're great characters, beautifully rendered and very well
    voiced. But they  don't sparkle like they used to, because you can't
    help but wonder how they might have looked as stop-motion stars:
    Inanimate model mice, brought to life by Godlike hands.

    Aardman's reputation was built upon films which beguiled the audience.
    Unfortunately, "Flushed Away" is saddled with the curse of being just
    another CGI adventure. And when Roddy's musing in his penthouse,
    we see those thumbprints, we see those blemishes and we're reminded
    of what Aardman used to be: What this film might have been. By
    sticking so rigidly to their previous design, the film makers have
    almost pulled the rug from under their own film. Note the word "almost".
    That's because, if you can push such thoughts aside you'll find yourself
    watching a very good film, that's smarter and savvier than so many of
    the current crop. It's got charm and an effervescent wit, and singing 
    slugs to boot...

    "Flushed Away" really is quite a treat. Just don't think about plasticene!

 

    Cracking detail!

    "Flushed Away" is stuffed-to-busting with Aardman nods in the
    background detail. Take a deep breath now...

    » In the opening scenes, we get to see alot of Tabitha's bedroom.
        And Tabitha's quite the Aardman fan. Her room is festooned with
        a large Gromit soft toy, two Captain Cuddlepuss plush toys
        (from "Creature Comforts"), two more of Alex the Lion (from
       "Madagascar", not Aardman, but still DreamWorks-related)
        and a further twelve - yes, twelve - plush toy bunnies, straight
        out of "Curse of the Were-Rabbit".

    » When Roddy is rummaging through his penthouse wardrobe, he
        pulls out a clothes hanger sporting a green tank top and red tie,
        made famous by our inventor friend Wallace (of Wallace &
        Gromit fame).

    » There's a photo of Shaun the Sheep on the living room bookshelf.

    » There's also a framed photo of Wendolene at the end of the
        family's DVD collection. And as well as a shed-load of spoof titles
        (including one very familiar piddling title) there's a big run of
        genuine DreamWorks titles, and copy of "Chicken Run" to
        be seen.

    » When Roddy first meets Syd we catch a glimpse of a kitchen
        calendar, depicting some familiar "Creature Comforts" penguins.

    » In Ratropolis, Feathers McGraw and Preston are seen dueling on a
        console screen, behind the toast-wearing Prophet.

    » One of the dogs in the portrait in Toad's abode, to the left of his fireplace,
        looks suspiciously like Trixie from "Creature Comforts".

    » Toad's freezer displays a fridge magnet of Wallace in his football kit!

    » Shaun the Sheep is depicted on a tin below decks of the Jammy
        Dodger. Said item is subsequently thrown at Roddy.

    » Gromit's also there. This time, he's a pencil-topper atop a
        yellow pencil.

    » Amongst the newspaper headlines plastered to Rita's family houseboat
        is an article referring to a "Mysterious Veggie Monster" aka
        our old friend, the vegetable-munching Were-Rabbit!

    » One of Rita's spoon-flicking brothers wears a Gromit Tee-shirt.
        Meanwhile, her brother Shocky sports an image of Rex the Runt.

    » Toad's Henchman have a anatomical diagram of a squirrel pinned
        to their wall. It's Latin name: Squirellous Aardmanclus
      
    » The first illustration in Toad's book features lookalikes of Trixie
        and Clement bloodhound (from "Creature Comforts") and Bunty
        (from Chicken Run).

    » And finally! - When Roddy returns to Tabitha's bedroom we
       can see that her bookshelf includes a Wallace & Gromit book,
       next to a copy of Aardman's popular studio history,
       "Cracking Animation"...

 

     In the news

     The Hound: Feb 2007               The Hound: October 2004
     The film wins 5 Annies...                  Nicole Kidman joins the film?...

     The Hound: Sept2006              The Hound: August 2004
     The fine new poster...                      Ian McKellen hops on board...

     The Hound: July 2006              The Hound: July 2002
     The new trailer...                             The film is announced...

 

     Flushed Away on DVD

     Flushed Away
                Region 2 / Paramount / April 2007

      Flushed Away (Widescreen Edition)
                Region 1 / DreamWorks / February 2007

 

    directors:     Sam Fell (Aardman)
                       David Bowers (DreamWorks)
    producers:   Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Cecil Kramer
    story:          Sam Fell and Peter Lord,
                      Dick Clement & Ian LeFrenais
    screenplay: Dick Clement & Ian LeFrenais,
                      and Chris Lloyd & Joe Keenan,
                      and Will Davies
    music:        Harry Gregson-Williams
    voices:        Hugh Jackman (Roddy)
                      Kate Winslett (Rita)
                      Ian McKellen (Toad)
                      Andi Serkis (Spike)
                      Bill Nighy (Whitey)
                      Shane Richie (Syd)
                      Geoffrey Palmer (Gilbert)
                      Simon Callow (Sullivan)
                      Jean Reno (Le Frog)
                      Kathy Burke (Rita's Mum)
                      David Suchet (Rita's Dad)
                      Miriam Margolyes (Rita's Grandmother)
                      John Motson (Football Commentator)

 

      On the web


     Flushed Away 
      The official site...

      Aardman Animation
      Bristol's finest export...