A while back I saw an early trailer for Flushed Away that, while funny, looked horrible. The CGI animation looked years behind anything that we've grown accustomed to over the last few years, and it seemed as if Aardman Animations first foray into a CGI feature film was a bit of a misstep.
Well, I'm happy to say that my initial misgivings were ALMOST unfounded.
The plot is relatively straight-forward. My man Hugh Jackman voices Roddy St. James, a well-kept pet mouse, living a posh but lonely life in a nice London townhouse. While his "family" is on vacation, Roddy gets invaded by Sid, a sewer rat up from the depths of London's underbelly, who immediately makes himself comfortable in Roddy's domain. An effort to flush Sid down the "whirlpool" backfires, and Roddy finds himself swept down into the sewers, where he meets an entire city full of mice, rats, frogs, slugs, and other icky creatures far beneath his stature.
Roddy soon crosses paths with Rita, played by Kate Winslet, a plucky Lara Croft-type mouse who's being chased by some thugs of The Toad (played by Ian McKellan who has clearly been spending too much time with Patrick Stewart) regarding some jewels. Roddy's desire to be with company overrides his fear of getting his hands dirty, and soon he's off on a rollicking good adventure.
Flushed Away ends up being an amusing tale, full of the charm that we've come to expect from the British studio that gave us Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, although I'm afraid a lot of the humor will go right over the heads of most American audiences. There's a subtlety to Aardman humor that is easily missed, which is one of the reasons Chicken Run did so poorly, despite the fact that it's a terrific WWII prison camp escape yarn.
The other problem with the humor is that it is distinctly British. For someone who grew up with two brothers constantly spouting off Monty Python skits, it's not an issue, but again, I think most American audiences will find it as over their heads as London Bridge.
The CGI, while much improved from the original trailer, still looked a bit odd in places. I think this was due to a conscious effort to make the film LOOK like it was being animated using clay figures and stop motion. This was semi-successful. I think the animators were having a hard time with this concept, as the effort is uneven. It's most noticeable in the movement of the character's mouths, which had a distinct stop-motion look to them for the most part, but other movements were a bit to fluid and CGI-ish. It's hard to describe, but it's one of those things you'll notice when you see it. What's cute is that the CGI models actually do look like clay, with subtle thumbprints and pits and dimples here and there. If you watch the credits, you'll see a number of people attached to the project as "surfacers."
The voice acting is solid, with Hugh even getting a chance to sing like we all know he loves to do. Bill Nighy and Andy Serkis have a nice "Mutt-n-Jeff" chemistry in their scenes together as the thugs, and Jean Reno as Le Frog is the butt of some great jokes about the French.
There's a running gag in the film with the little slimy sewer slugs providing the sound effects and music that never gets tired, and is even used all through the closing credits, and is just so darn cute and whimsical.
Keep your eyes peeled for a TON of sight-gags as well. The London underbelly scenes are loaded with them. This is one of those films made for DVD where you can freeze-frame and catch everything. Look closely for a humorous wardrobe gag early in the film when Roddy is looking through his closet of doll clothes for something to wear.
