Flushed Away (2006)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Yes, flushed away is an overlooked treasure. High-class vermin, Roddy, is a beloved rat who has it all: Expensive food, a nice car, a big house,a master bed, gold, jewels, a big family and a lot of friends. Sadly, his family is a human who locks him in a cage, and his friends are all dolls. Roddy may seem happy, but he is secretly a sad, broken rat inside, and is desperately alone, yet he doesn't know what he needs in life. His neurotic existence is shattered to pieces when Sid, a plump, vulgar, sewer rat shows up, and crashes on his turf. Eager to rid his palace of the obese, crude perpetrator of pestilence, Roddy attempts to give Six a royal flush, but Sid is simple, not stupid, and turns the tables on Roddy, sending him down the toilet, instead. Thrust into an underground world, Roddy must swallow his pride, form an uneasy truce with junk-scavenging Rita, a pirate who scours the underworld to find enough treasure to scrape by. She begrudgingly agrees to help Roddy, for a hefty fee. Their quest is hindered by two gangsta rats, an insane, speciecist toad who harbours an intense hatred of all rodents and has a dark agenda to destroy the underworld, and a xenophobic frog from France. What it amounts to is an insanely funny, fast-paced adventure, that keeps you laughing all the way through. From the singing slugs, to various sight-gags, this movie entertains all ages, and has a BIG cast of funny characters. Being from aardman, the plot is erratic, but in a good way, as events and circumstances change, and it never follows a set path. I highly recommend it. It avoids clichés, and being formulaic, and fires obscene premises towards the viewers. This loud, dazzling, movie promises to entertain.

Flushed Away isn't the WORST Aardman film I've seen. I don't know WHAT is. But it's really not my favorite out of the Aardman Animations. I just don't like the toilet humor, or some of the characters. Yes, the voice acting is good, and the animation is incredible, but personally, I don't think it would be a great idea to make a movie about a mouse who got flushed. I've seen films worse than this. It's not REALLY Aardman's worst production (*coughs* Chop Socky Chooks), but it's just not my cup of tea. If you liked it, good for you, but I just consider it a mixed bag. In my opinion, it was considered CLOSE to being Aardman's worst film, but not quite. Although it looks better than Chop Socky Chooks, I just couldn't feel like watching it anymore.

Roddy is a snobby, rich rat living a life of luxury while his beloved owners are away on holidays. One day Sid, a slobby, overweight sewer rat, comes up out of the drain and mayhem ensues, leaving Roddy flushed down the toilet and heading for a miniature London built by sewer rats out of everything humans have flushed.Roddy is terrified and disgusted by this new environment, and comes to meet Rita, a rebellious female sewer rat living on a lovable little boat with a toy robotic arm attached (the boat appears to be sentient, no idea how). Roddy requests she take him home and offers her money, but at that moment two rats, tiny Spike and former lab rat Whitey, both hit men in the city, show up and kidnap both rats. This introduces Toad, the large crime boss responsible for controlling much of the city. Rita and Roddy manage to escape, and despite their differences have to work together to help Roddy... yet Roddy, after meeting Rita's large welfare family, feels the strange need to help her out in return, and maybe he isn't as happy living "up top" as he thought he was...Okay, the title is Flushed Away, and the film involves sewers, so of course there's some mild crude humor but nothing that makes it too rude to enjoy. Nearly every character has something to like about them, there are various funny moments that don't rely on gross jokes to be entertaining, and the animation, especially of the rat-populated sewer London, obviously took a lot of work. The soundtrack was pretty good and I think it's a great example of original animated film.

I saw this in the cinema when it first came out and I enjoyed it more than I did the trailer, which was funny but the film had more to it. Re-visiting this film today for the first time in a few years, I watched it in a different way than I ever did before by pointing out how London was represented as an underground sewer city (one of the key ideas of my London-in-film university assignment) and some patriotic elements.The animation here is not quite as exceptional as that in other Dreamworks (the 'Madagascar' and 'Shrek' franchise) and Aardman ('Wallace and Gromit,' 'Chicken Run') productions what with the odd jerky character movement and lip-sync but I liked how the characters were modelled to resemble those from the likes of 'Wallace and Gromit' and 'Creature Comforts.' The underground sewer replica of London was the most creative background but I also liked the view from the Thames as Roddy and Rita floated above it with the London Eye intact. My favourite characters are Roddy, Sid, Rita, the Toad, Le Frog and the amusing singing slugs, all of which are well-voiced by their respective cast members. The film has some clever links such as the opening shots of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus and Tower Bridge connecting to their underground sewer replicas and Rita's grandmother's love of Tom Jones leading to 'What's New Pussycat?' being played over the closing credits. In addition to 'What's New Pussycat?,' other highlights of the soundtrack were 'Dancing By Myself' by Billy Idol and Generation X, the backing track of Jet's 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl?' that plays as Roddy makes his way to the sewer, 'Bohemian Like You' by Dandy Warhols and, of course, the brief musical numbers by the singing slugs, especially 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' and 'Mr Lonely.' I also enjoyed spotting the pop culture references to James Bond (Roddy watching a fictional Bond-style movie called 'Die Again Tomorrow'), 'Finding Nemo' (the fish asking Roddy if he's seen his dad) and 'Mary Poppins' (a female rat selling fly food in a similar manner to the bird lady).Overall, this may not be Dreamworks's or Aardman's best but it has an original story, a suitable title, some clever links, a rocking soundtrack and some funny moments. 8/10.