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Flushed Away

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Flushed Away (2007), starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet,  Ian McKellen

Set on and beneath the streets of London, Flushed Away is the story of Roddy. He’s an upper-crust “society mouse,” rudely evicted from his Kensington flat when he is flushed down into Ratropolis. That’s 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. Completely out of his element at first, the privileged Roddy finds himself an unlikely hero …. After learning that Ratropolis is in danger from the world above.

Editorial review of Flushed Away, courtesy of  Amazon.com

Rita (Kate Winslet) and Roddy (Hugh Jackman) in Flushed Away

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).

Review

The villains searching ... where could those pesky heroes be? in a scene from Flushed Away

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 deja  vu.

Voice actors

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


Trivia for  Flushed Away

  • In Tabitha’s room, there are a variety of dolls from previous DreamWorks Animation films. These include a Gromit and several bunnies from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, an Alex the Lion fromMadagascar, and a Dragon from Shrek.
  • 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 scrapboop. 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.
  • At the beginning of the film, when Roddy is going through his wardrobe, the outfit he forgoes for the Elvis Presley-style rhinestone jumpsuit is a replica of the original Wolverine outfit from the comic books. Wolverine is another role that Hugh Jackman made famous.
  • The frog dressed as a mime is named Marcel. This is a reference/homage to famed French mime artist Marcel Marceau. The frog in question is dressed as Marceau’s famed character named Bip.
  • While Roddy and Rita are in the fridge, one of the frozen rats is Han Solo, posing in his famous pose.

Pun alert!

  • 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.

Updated April 11, 2022

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