Flushed Away (2006)

The story of an uptown rat that gets flushed down the toilet from his penthouse apartment, ending in the sewers of London, where he has to learn a whole new and different way of life.

Directors:

David Bowers, Sam Fell

Writers:

Dick Clement (screenplay), Ian La Frenais (screenplay),

Stars:

Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 6 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hugh Jackman	...	Roddy (voice)
Kate Winslet	...	Rita (voice)
Ian McKellen	...	The Toad (voice)
Jean Reno	...	Le Frog (voice)
Bill Nighy	...	Whitey (voice)
Andy Serkis	...	Spike (voice)
Shane Richie	...	Sid (voice)
Kathy Burke	...	Rita's Mum (voice)
David Suchet	...	Rita's Dad (voice)
Miriam Margolyes	...	Rita's Grandma (voice)
Rachel Rawlinson	...	Tabitha (voice)
Susan Duerden	...	Mother (voice)
Miles Richardson	...	Father (voice)
John Motson	...	Football Commentator (voice)
Douglas Weston	...	Newspaper Seller (voice)

Storyline

Roddy is a decidedly upper-crust "society mouse" who lives the life of a beloved pet in a posh Kensington flat. When a sewer rat named Sid comes spewing out of the sink and decides he's hit the jackpot, Roddy schemes to rid himself of the pest by luring him into the "whirlpool." Sid may be an ignorant slob, but he's no fool, so it is Roddy who winds up being flushed away into the bustling sewer world of Ratropolis. There Roddy meets Rita, an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Roddy immediately wants out, or rather, up; Rita wants to be paid for her trouble; and, speaking of trouble, the villainous Toad - who royally despises all rodents equally, making no distinction between mice and rats--wants them iced... literally. The Toad dispatches his two hapless hench-rats, Spike and Whitey, to get the job done. When they fail, the Toad has no choice but to send to France for his cousin - that dreaded mercenary, Le Frog.

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Plot Keywords:

sewer | toad | rat | frog | mouse | 

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Taglines:

Someone's Going Down

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for crude humor and some language

Details

Official Sites:

DreamWorks [us] United International Pictures [fr]

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 November 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ratropolis

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$149,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£3,106,874 (UK) (1 December 2006)

Gross:

$64,459,316 (USA) (23 February 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks Animation, Aardman Animations

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For security reasons, early prints of the film were shipped under the title "Leech".

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Goofs

As the movie opens, the little girl pours a whole box of rat food (and its box) into the dish at the front of Roddy's cage. When Roddy slides down to the front of the cage minutes later, neither the food, nor the upturned box is anywhere to be seen.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mother: Car's here.
Father: It's nine o' clock already, we're going to miss our flight.

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Crazy Credits

The last line of the credits is: "No slugs were a-salted in the making of this film."

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Connections

References A Clockwork Orange (1971)

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Soundtracks

"What's New Pussycat?"
Written by Burt Bacharach & Hal David
Performed by Tom Jones
Courtesy of Decca Music Group Limited
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Another smash from Aardman!

Like a lot of film reviewers, I had a lot of reservations about this film when I first saw the trailer. At first I thought it was going to be just another hastily made CGI cartoon about edgy cartoon animals, filled with top 40 or dance songs and full of topical jokes. The fact that as I waited for the movie to start, half the trailers were for more CGI cartoons about edgy cartoon animals and the other half was for films about trash talking fairy tale characters.

Thankfully this movie was a blessed reprieve from all of that. In Flushed Away, Aardman studios has made yet another family classic that will still be as entertaining ten years from now as it is today. Granted, it's loaded with a lot of pop songs and oldies, but most of them are sung by a chorus of slugs (which makes for one of the best running gags I've seen in a while).

The story actually felt pretty fresh for a family movie, or any movie for that matter. While it's by no means unpredictable, it doesn't feel too much like it's treading over the same ground most family films seem to go over these days. The jokes were surprisingly clever too. While there's the usual slapstick humor, there's also plenty of highbrow jokes thrown in the mix. (How often do you find references to Kafka in an animated feature, after all?) What I liked best about this movie was that Aardman stayed true to its roots of making stop-motion films. My initial worry was that they had sold out and were going to just make CGI films from here on out like everybody else, but when you watch this film, you'll see that they do as much as possible to maintain the look of their other animated films like Chiken Run and Wallace & Gromit. Overall this is a great selection to take your family to see, and worth seeing even if you're a grown up too.