Product Details

• Actors: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Bill Nighy, Jean Reno
• Directors: Henry Anderson, David Bowers, Sam Fell
• Format: AC-3, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Dreamworks Animated
• DVD Release Date: February 20, 2007
• Run Time: 85 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000M343BC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,675 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Flushed Away (Widescreen Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Flushed Away is a rip-roaring nautical adventure with a twist: The heroes are a pair of rodents braving the sewers underneath London. Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman) is an upper-crust house-mouse who finds himself flushed into the subterranean sewers. Eager to return to his posh home, he enlists the help of a boat-captain rat named Rita (Kate Winslet), who has troubles of her own; namely the kingpin of the underworld, the Toad (Ian McKellen), and his henchmen including the French mercenary Le Frog (Jean Reno).

While technically Flushed Away could be considered part of the wave of celebrity-voiced, anthropomorphic-animal movies that hit in 2005-2006 (Madagascar, Over the Hedge, The Wild, etc.), it doesn't inspire the same sense of déjà vu. For one thing, its voice actors are less recognizable than the likes of Bruce Willis and Chris Rock. For another, its look is very distinctive. Like Nick Park's Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, it's a joint production of DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features, and although Park isn't involved, it retains his trademark blocky look of clay animation. But animating the movie by computer rather than by hand allows for some eye-popping tableaux, such as floodwaters rushing through the sewers and an entire town of little animated characters. It's a crazy thrill ride loaded with inside jokes and enough crude humor to earn a PG rating, and the band of singing slugs is also a hoot. --David Horiuchi

On the DVD
It's no surprise that the singing slugs are the stars of the DVD's bonus features. They're featured in two music videos (less than a minute total), and in a 13-minute segment an Aardman animator builds a slug out of plasticine. (In contrast, the lesson on drawing Roddy is a mere two minutes.) A song jukebox jumps to 10 musical points in the film, though the non-slug background music isn't really worth the jump. On the human side, there are eight-minute featurettes on the music and the voices, a set-top game that is easier to control than most such featurettes (and easier to beat too), and a commentary track by directors David Bowers and Sam Fell in which they have a grand old time remembering their inside jokes and showering love on the Spike and Whitey characters. The DVD-ROM has access to 21 more online games. --David Horiuchi

---

Fun Facts from Flushed Away

• In Tabitha's room, there are a variety of dolls from previous DreamWorks Animation films, including a Gromit and several bunnies from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, an Alex the Lion from Madagascar, and a Dragon from Shrek.
• Many characters from past films make cameos in Flushed Away. For example, a Chicken Run chicken is on the second page of the Toad’s scrapbook, Gromit’s head is a pencil top in the Jammy Dodger, the penguin from Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers is on a stamp on the Jammy Dodger, and a poster of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is on the side of a bus in Kensington.
• There are officially 60 million rats in the UK. That’s one rat for every person.
• The various boats in the film are made up of flotsam and jetsam that rats could conceivably find in the sewer. For the double decker bus: Ice chest, retro flipping numbers alarm clock, bike lamp, buckle, oil drum, soup can, license plate, rope, plastic suitcase, jerry can. For the mini cooper: Soda can, battery, sardine can, butter knife, old lights.
• Simulating the toilet water and making it look realistic proved to be a challenge. After much consideration, it was finally discovered that what was missing was caustics, or the use of light reflection off the bottom of the bowl. This was added and everyone was happy because they could finally get their mind out of the toilet.

---

Stills from Flushed Away (click for larger image)

Product Description

Set on and beneath the streets of London, Flushed Away is the story of Roddy, an upper-crust "society mouse," who is rather rudely evicted from his Kensington flat when he is flushed down into Ratropolis, the bustling sewer world found under London’s streets. There, he meets Rita, an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Together they must navigate their way through a busy city filled with dangers for any mouse, including terrifying rapids, treacherous whirlpools and, most of all, the villainous Toad and his hench-rats Spike and Whitey. Though completely out of his element at first, the privileged Roddy finds himself an unlikely hero when he learns that Ratropolis is in danger from the world above.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It Has A Certain British Charm To It....., November 13, 2006

By 

K. Fontenot "Prairie Cajun Lives!" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Perhaps that's because it's from Aardman Studios, famous for "Wallace And Gromit" and "Chicken Run." Aardman is also well known for their claymation style of animation, which is lovingly preserved, albeit through the use of CGI in "Flushed Away."

The story revolves around Roddy (Hugh Jackman), a family pet who gets flushed into the sewers of London by an unwelcome guest named Sid (Shane Richie). Sid takes over the world "up there" while Roddy is left to fight for his life in the seedy underbelly of London's sewers. In all actuality, though, life in the sewers isn't too terribly bad. When Roddy arrives there, he finds a near replica of London full of busy streets and shops. He decides that he must get home, and seeks out the aid of Rita (Kate Winslet), a female rat who's known for shady dealings. On her tail (pun intended) are the goons of The Toad (Sir Ian McKellan), who says that a ruby he owned which fell from the crown of either Prince Charles or the Queen (I don't remember which) was stolen by her and he wants it back. Of course Roddy thinks that by assisting him in finding the ruby, he'll get help in return to get back home. What he gets instead is more trouble when Rita steals something else from The Toad.

From there, the story becomes a pretty decent action/comic yarn where The Toad's cousin, Le Frog (Jean Reno) and his henchmen try to retrieve the item that Rita has stolen. It's an integral part of a master plan for revenge by The Toad on all of rodent-kind. Along the way, Roddy and Rita become close friends and Roddy decides that he has to help Rita and her family. It's all tied nicely together in the end and is definitely fun to watch.

The voice talents are wonderful. Jackman, Winslet, McKellan and Reno all do wonderful jobs. Andy Serkis, who portrayed Gollum in "Lord of the Rings" and did a lot of the physical movements of Kong in Peter Jackson's "King Kong," plays one of The Toad's henchmen along with Bill Nighy, recent of the latest "Pirate's of the Caribbean" flick.

The humor is, as expected, well grounded in British comedy and uses slapstick at will to enduce laughter from children. There are plenty of crotch injuries, one fart joke, and a few pokes at stereotypical Americans and the French. It's all done with good intentions and there's nothing really offensive here.

It will hold the attention of both young and old, but children will probably enjoy it more than adults. I enjoyed it but I have a tendency to enjoy silly children's flicks like this. I'm also a fan of Aardman's other work, so perhaps I'm a little biased. Rest assured that whenever it leaves the theaters and eventually hits the DVD rack, I'll be one of the first to buy it for myself and my family.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must See!, November 4, 2006

By 

cosmo "failure is always an option" (around home) - See all my reviews

The first two reviews pretty well summed up this great movie! Funny, fast paced and lots of in jokes, past film references, sight gags from other Aardman films, a good story and was well executed!
I highly recommend this movie if you love "Chicken Run", and "Wallace & Gromit". If you have not seen any of Aardmans other shows/movies you will miss a few sight gags, but that is certionly no reason not to see this! So in the end; This movie is a must see and definitely fun for the whole family.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, original, and very funny animated film, October 30, 2006

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

I have to be honest. This probably deserves four stars instead of five, but despite a sometimes-rushed narrative there were so many delightful moments in this film that I couldn't with a light heart give it less. In the never-ending search for new subjects to animate, no one had before attempted to tell a story about sewer rats. Fortunately, the rats in FLUSHED AWAY are remarkably humanoid, largely covered with light-colored skin, and sporting not terribly disgusting tails. So while this is a story of rats, they are rats with all of the unpleasantries associated with the vermin stripped away.

The film was made by Aardman Productions, the company founded on the success of Nick Park's amazing Claymation projects, most famously the Wallace and Gromit films as well as CHICKEN RUN. This film is all CGI, I suspect because most of the scenes are set in the sewer, which is surrounded by water. I'm not sure that it would be possible to do a Claymation project that involves copious amounts of water. Although the film is CGI, all the characters sport the look that we all associate with Nick Park projects. Interestingly, Park does not appear in the credits, although the aesthetic he created permeates the film.

The story tells the ordeals suffered by Roddy, a pet rat owned by a little girl in Kensington in London. When the family is on vacation and the house is invaded by a street punk rat (voiced by Shane Ritchie of THE EASTENDERS), the elegant rat finds himself flushed down the toilet to the sewer, where he discovers an entire community of rats. Wanting to return home, he is directed to a boat owned by a female rat named Rita. The rest of the film deals both with Rita's attempt to help Roddy get home as well as their struggles to evade the minions of a toad sewer lord. The plot is adequate to the task, but what is delightful about the film is the wonderfully fresh and inventive humor. There are also a number of animals used to great effect that have amazingly been neglected by the legions of earlier animal animators, in particular snails, which are used for comic relief and for -- I am not kidding -- musical background. There is also a wonderful gang of frogs that are, of course, French. Led by their chief Le Frog, they are masters of the martial arts and have their very own mime, who provides some of the film's finest comic moments.

One reason the film succeeds so wonderfully is the first cast voiceover talent. Hugh Jackman gets to put some of his talents to use that were never needed in the X-Men films, even getting to show off his outstanding singing voice on a couple of numbers. Kate Winlet is appropriately fetching as Rita and Ian McKellan is marvelously over-the-top as Toad. Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy voice Toad's two main henchmen. One of the great delights of the movie is Le Frog, voiced by Jean Reno.

I think this is a film that can be equally enjoyed by parents and their kids. The preview audience that I saw this with contained probably more adults than it will enjoy upon general release, but the few kids in the audience laughed very hard throughout. So did the adults. There are a number of animated films coming out in the next couple of months for the holidays, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this one might end up being the best -- and certainly the funniest -- of the bunch.