DreamWorks Pictures has done it again. "Flushed Away" is a fantastic film. Its laugh-out-loud wit and charismatic style make it a fun transition to the more lighthearted post-Halloween movie season.
Featuring an ensemble cast of magnificent voice actors, "Flushed Away" also exhibits the animating prowess one would expect from the makers of "Madagascar," "Shark Tale" and the "Shrek" movies. Though the style of the animation in "Flushed Away" has more in common with "Chicken Run," it represents one of DreamWorks' most refreshing and polished performances yet.
It all begins when a domesticated London mouse named Roddy (Hugh Jackman) is flushed down the toilet of his own home by a sloppy and comparatively ill-mannered sewer rat named Sid (Shane Richie). Alone and afraid in the sewers below London, Roddy must find a way back home.
He teams up with a nimble but noble mouse named Rita (Kate Winslet) but becomes tangled in the evil scheme of the local Toad (Sir Ian McKellan), a disgruntled ex-pet of Prince Charles. With the help of several hundred sewer slugs, which have evolved into phenomenal vocalists rather than evolving into practical, legged beings, Roddy and Rita save the entire under-city of London. Oh, and England wins the World Cup, too.
Clearly the humor is very English, but it is ever so delightful. "Flushed Away's" temperance of wit ranges from families of slugs screaming to out-slither a sewer tsunami, moving at a mere inch every few seconds, to a cockroach caught behind a dishwasher reading Kafka's "La Metamorphose," to one of the single most characteristic sects of British humor: making fun of the French.
The jokes are tactful and subtle, yet hilarious, which can no doubt be attributed to the glowing cast as well as American co-director David Bowers ("Shark Tale," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit") and English co-writer Peter Lord ("Chicken Run").
Where most other animated films feature well-orchestrated and elaborate symphonic soundtracks, "Flushed Away" caters toward a more hip audience, with sounds from the likes of Billy Idol, Fatboy Slim and the Dandy Warhols. The film also features a few songs from the iconic Tom Jones, which makes the mood all the more loveable.
"Flushed Away" presents a dignified message about how ideas of wealth and class are not nearly as important as having a loving family. Roddy is used to very expensive and luxurious tastes, but as the only pet in his home, he is very lonely, whereas the world that exists in the sewer below is one of relative filth (it is a sewer, after all), yet Rita has a very close and loving family. As the movie progresses, Roddy becomes less and less concerned with going home and more concerned about his newfound sewer family. The magic of the movie is in Roddy's discovery of a family, regardless of its social class or amount of wealth.
Nevertheless, with so much playful wit and charming livelihood gracing the fair sewers of London, flushless toilets seem an even better idea. So please, when the movie opens this Friday, think twice about ordering that extra-huge soda at the refreshment bar.
