Title: Flushed Away Director: David Bowers Staring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Studio: Dreamworks Genre(s): Comedy Rated:     (For some crude humor and some language)   Buy From Amazon.com: DVD (Widescreen) / DVD (Full Screen) / Soundtrack /

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, despite having a PG rating I could not find anything offensive aside from a couple of fart jokes. Recommended for ages 5 and up.

I admit that when it come to movies, I am a big fan of many genre's, directors, and actors, but what I am most fond of is animation. Growing up as a kid, no live action movie could touch any of my animated movies in terms of style, storytelling, and, in most cases, humor. I didn't care how good a comedian was, nothing beat the laughs the Genie from "Aladdin" brought to the screen, and no set could properly re-create the world in "The Nightmare Before Christmas." The latest animated film to hit theaters is "Flushed Away," brought to us by Aardman Studios, the England based studio who is best known as the creators of "Chicken Run" and the Academy Award winning "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." The story revolves around the life of Rodney (Hugh Jackman), an aristocrat rat who lives the life of luxury, but deep down inside is really lonely on the count that he has no one to talk to.

One night, out of nowhere, Rodney gets a visitor from fellow rat Sid, who decides that he wants to live in Rodney's house...permanently. Well, Rodney just will not stand for this, and attempts to try and flush Sid down the toilet in an attempt tp get rid of the unwelcome houseguest. The plan backfires though, and Rodney gets flushed down the toilet, where he gets tangled up with a girl named Rita (Kate Winslet), a mob toad (played by the always brilliant Ian McKellen), and a ruby jewel. When Rodney reveals that the jewel is a fake, he offers to give Rita a real ruby if she'll bring him home. Ah, but Rita has something the mob toad wants, and he'll chase her to the ends of the sewers to get it back. What this item is, and what the mob toad wants to do with it is irrelevant to the enjoyment of this movie.

The storyline is predictable and simple. This, I'm sure, I don't even need to tell you. You're not going to see a movie called "Flushed Away" for it's story, you're going to see it for everything else: Funny characters, jokes, chase scenes, and a climatic epic battle where all the stakes are on the line in a do-or-die situation. These are the things we go to animated movies for, because we know that if done well, they can make all of the special effects live action movies buy look silly and boring in comparison. Take for example, a chase sequence, where rats with toys boats chase our heros in an underground city. The boat our heros are on has a robot hand, a swing, and an emergency button that will speed up the boat to light speed via a fire extinguisher. The chase goes through a city, then a tunnel, then a raging current, getting more and more out of control as the chase goes on.

While the outcome of the chase is predictable, the loops, the turns, and the gadgets used in this chase makes your blood rush with excitement. The chase can progress anyway it wants to, because it is free of the annoyances of things like gravity, friction, and cameras. The chase is free to do whatever it wants to do, and we can savor every second of it's glorious freedom. Then, the movie is filled with side characters that add texture to the world created in this movie. Only in animation can we watch a movies that includes french karate fighting frogs, slugs that bet out al capella, and a plan to use half-time of a soccer game as a means for mass murder. No, I'm not making that last one up. Unlike previous Aardman movies, which were made entirely in claymation and stop motion, "Flush Away" is made entirely in CGI.

Instead of selling out to a new format though, Aardman simply transfers their own unique style into the computer. The characters have the kind of faces you're familiar with in Aardman films, the colors are tinted as to look like clay, and the animation isn't even silky smooth, looking like the kind of movements you'd find in a claymation movie. It's quite an unexpected move, as most studios would take their computers and just go crazy with the look of the movie with lightening and special effects.

Not Aardman. Aardman specializes in the style they created back in the 80's, and they are sticking to that style even if they are using different tools this time around. And it is true that Aardman's unique style of animation gives the sets, characters, and situations life beyond what they normally would have gotten in less capable hands. If there's one downside to the movie, it may be the fact that the main characters are simple. Of course, we don't expect the main characters to be complicated philosophers, but the animators have surrounded these by-the-number protagonists with wildly imaginative and funny side characters. The mob toad gets a puffy cheek when he gets furious at his henchmen. The french frogs are so prepared for life, they actually practice their surrender gestures.

The most memorable side characters though are the slugs that pop up in various points of the movie and belt out in song. The running gag is beat into your skull, but it works every time. These characters are so memorable and filled with life, that the main characters dullness only sticks out more, and we wish the animators had bothered to give them something more to do then drive the boat in the movie. About a month ago, Dreamworks and Aardman announced that after making three successful movies, they would be splitting up their partnership and going separate ways. Judging by the quality of this movie though, Dreamworks should be getting on their knees and begging Aardman to stay with them. Dreamworks own films may be able to stand on their own, but why let talent like this go so easily?