Flushed Away

Flushed Away ***1/2

I knew that "Flushed Away" wouldn't be one of those animated movies that I cringe at having to watch. After all, it's from the same company that brought us the great gift of Wallace and Gromit. It's light, funny, charming, amazing to look at, and the perfect way to spend an afternoon with the youngins. And once again, I love the animated films with the jokes that go way over the little ones heads. The ones that I am often to the only one laughing at, while all the kids in the theatre are just scratching their heads. The animation here is also top notch. It gives off the impression that it was done in the traditional stop motion format, but it was really computer generated. But the animators really did give it the complete feel of clay, even creating imperfections in the characters looks. Some of them had smudges on them that it would appear that clay creates. This was done as a way to expand the horizons for the film makers-I believe I read that water is extremely difficult to create using stop motion techniques. While I would have perferred the full stop motion effect, this is a worthy substitute.

"Flushed Away' begins with Roddy, a pampered pet rat who lives in a mansion on the ritzy side of London. Living in a giant cage with a huge jeweled "R" on the door, Roddy is living the easy life. However, he doesn't have any friends, and when he is alone he spends the time with the various dolls and toys around the house. His party is interrupted by a sewer rat who somehow made it into the house. Roddy tries to get the rat out of the way, but telling him the toilet is a hot tub. The rat does not fall for Roddy's tricks, and instead flushes him down the toilet, right before his farewell of "Be seeing you, my friend." Roddy comes to learn that under the pipes there is an elaborate world of rats, who have created their own little community under the sewer. Roddy just wants to go home, and learns that the only person that could probably help him is Rita, the captain of the Jolly Roger. Rita is in trouble with the mafia, led by Toad. She is in possession of a rare jewel that they will stop at nothing to get. Roddy somehow convinces her to help him get back home, under the condition that he help her escape from Toad. But Toad and his cronies are on the hunt for Roddy and Rita, and the ruby that will make them all rich.

There are multiple moments in this film where I actually did laugh out loud. And they were usually at the recurring gags. The first are the two henchmen of Mr. Toad, Spike and Whitey, played by Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy respectively. While Serkis was delightful, Nighy was hilarious, and everything that his character Whitey said was pure gold. Whitey is the kind of character who is all muscle, and is huge. And yet, he has a heart of gold and usually ends up helping the heros. The second are the sewer slugs, who don't have many lines of dialouge that aren't loud and shrill screams. They would also come up every now and then randomly, and usually during the more somber scenes where they would offer a short ballad. The animation is beautiful, and the choice to use computers instead of clay does end up becoming obvious during the finale, which involves the freezing of a giant wave. I don't think it would be possible to do what they did with clay. And while I would have enjoyed the clay, the choice to use computers was the right one, and in the end it does make this a much better film. The voice casting is fine-High Jackman and Kate Winslet are not wasted in their parts, and it was fun to see Ian McKellen is something a little different. I didn't even know it was him until during the credits. There is no trace of the deep, prophet voice from "The Lord of the Rings," and it is clear that he is having a little fun in the role. And it's easy to see why. There is alot of fun to be had here, and a clear contender for Best Animated Film for this year. But then again, the rest don't exactly set the bar all that high. . .