Flushed Away

Flushed Away is a 2006 British-American computer-animated comedy film made by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations; it is directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, executive produced by Steven Spielberg, and written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, and Simon Nye. It is the third and final partnership between Aardman Animations of Wallace and Gromit fame, and DreamWorks Animation, and is Aardman's first completely computer-animated feature as opposed to the usual stop-motion.

The film was well-received, but only grossed $178 million worldwide against it's $149 million budget.

Plot

Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman) is an upper crust pet rat who makes his home in a posh Kensington flat. When a sewer rat by the name of Sid (Shane Richie) spews out of the sink, greets Roddy, and decides to stay at his house and enjoy the environment, Roddy plans to make Sid leave by taking him to the toilet and tries to convince him that it's really a "big jacuzzi". While being an ignorant slob, he does know his plumbing (due to being a sewer rat). Instead, he pushes Roddy in and flushes him away into the sewers (but before doing so, very important, he warns Roddy to hold his nose and laughs).

There, Roddy meets Rita Malone (Kate Winslet), an enterprising scavenger rat who works the drains in her boat the Jammy Dodger. Rita doesn't like Roddy initially, but ends up taking him along as The Toad sends his henchmen, Spike and Whitey, after her because she had stolen back her father's prized ruby a long time ago. The Toad despises all rodents to the point of hateful obsession, blaming rats for his fall from grace (he was once Prince Charles' pet). He decides to have them frozen with liquid nitrogen. However, the Toad's plan fails. Worse, during their escape, Rita takes a unique electrical cable. The cable is required to control the Floodgates. The Toad's evil plan is to open the gates during halftime of the World Cup, drowning the rats and their underground city in sewage. He can then use the depopulated city as a home for millions of his own tadpole offspring.

Roddy finds that the ruby is a fake and breaks it in front of Rita, enraging her, for she can now not get the money she needs for her large family. Roddy offers her a real ruby if she takes him back to Kensington. Accepting the offer, the pair first stop to visit her family before setting off. During Roddy's stay, he overhears a conversation that causes him to think that Rita had double-crossed him, so he steals the Jammy Dodger. When Rita catches up to him, he is able to clear up the misunderstanding.

The pair evade Spike and Whitey pursuing in a remote-controlled toy boat, with Thimblenose Ted and others on eggbeater jet skis. During this scene, Roddy and Rita share a quick love moment. Incensed at his minions' repeated failures, the Toad sends his French cousin Le Frog (Jean Reno) and his henchfrogs to go after Roddy and Rita.

Le Frog and his subordinates intercept the duo and retrieve the cable, but Roddy and Rita use a plastic bag to lift themselves out of the sewer (snatching away the cable during the ascent) and get Roddy home, though the Jammy Dodger has to be sacrificed. Back home, Roddy pays Rita the promised ruby and an emerald, then proceeds to show her around his house. She at first believes he has family in the home, but noticing his cage, she realizes he's a pet. Roddy tries to pass Sid off as his brother, but Sid and Rita know each other. Rita tries to persuade Roddy to come with her, but he is too proud to admit that he is lonely. By now, they have fallen in love but have not told each other their feelings. She departs, both of them brokenhearted, but is soon captured by the Toad.

Talking to Sid about half-time, Roddy pieces together the Toad's plan. He gives Sid his cushy position and has Sid flush him back to the sewers to find Rita and save the city. Together, they defeat The Toad and freeze the wave of sewage generated by the flushing of countless toilets during the FIFA World Cup half-time with liquid nitrogen before it drowns the entire rat population.

Rita and Roddy build the Jammy Dodger Mark Two and set off in her with Rita's entire brood. A newspaper article reveals England had lost on penalties. Rita and Roddy become boyfriend and girlfriend. Later while the credits start, Roddy's former owner comes back with a new pet (a cat), which frightens Sid.

Voice cast

• Hugh Jackman as Roddy St. James
• Kate Winslet as Rita Malone
• Shane Richie as Sid
• Ian McKellen as The Toad
• Jean Reno as Le Frog
• Andy Serkis as Spike
• Bill Nighy as Whitey

Music

• Billy Idol — Dancing With Myself
• The Dandy Warhols — Bohemian Like You
• Tina Turner — Proud Mary
• Tom Jones — What's New, Pussycat?

Full list

Trivia

• This movie was done in Aardman Animation's house style of clay animation, but using CGI as the extensive flowing-water shots would have been unfeasible if not impossible in actual clay animation.
  • They used software developed for Wallace & Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit which deliberately reproduces flaws in clay animation, such as finger marks. This is similar to the way Pixar uses software which reproduces flaws in cinematography, such as lens flare.
• Tabitha's stuffed toys include Gromit from the Wallace and Gromit franchise, and Alex from the Madagascar franchise.
• Geoffrey Palmer was cast as the deleted role Gilbert. Simon Callow was cast as Sullivan.
• Gilbert and Sullivan are a reference to two popular 19th-century comic-opera composers.
• This is the first DreamWorks Animation film to be released in November.
• The DVDs featured in the opening include all previous Dreamworks Animated movies, several live-action Dreamworks movies, and parodies of non-Dreamworks movies.

Goofs

• The flag shown on screen during the soccer match is the British flag, not the English one.
• The time of play in the soccer match is shown counting down. Time in soccer matches is actually kept counting up, not down.

Gallery

DreamWorks Wiki has a collection of images and media related to Flushed Away.

External links

• Flushed Away on IMDb
• Flushed Away at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia