Flushed Away (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Audio Commentary-Directors David Bowers and Sam Fell Featurette-Making Of-The Music of Flushed Away Featurette-Making Of-Meet the Cast Music Highlights-Dreamworks Jukebox DVD-ROM Extras-Underground Adventure/Printables/Super Slug Stuff Featurette-Slug Songs/Slug Cam/Slug Games Web Links-Flushed Away Site
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	81:11 (Case: 84)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Bowers Sam Fell
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Hugh Jackman Kate Winslet Ian McKellen Jean Reno Bill Nighy Andy Serkis Shane Richie
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Harry Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    2006 was the year when animated features reached saturation point in the market. Suddenly the sure fire success of colourful talking animals became a liability for the studios. Several high profile films hit the dirt but perhaps none more so than Flushed Away. For this little film cost $130 million to make and its failure at the box-office led to a split between Aardman Animation and Dreamworks.

Perhaps the timing was the real problem. Flushed Away debuted to good reviews at the same time as the mega-hit Happy Feet. Kids and their parents chose penguins over rats.

Flushed Away was the first film from Aardman to use CGI rather than stop-motion animation. Viewers could be forgiven for not noticing, however, as the filmmakers used sophisticated software to make the characters move a little bit like stop-motion creatures. The effect is quaint and a bit retro.

Flushed Away is the story of a pampered city rat called Roddy St James (Hugh Jackman). Roddy lives in snooty Kensington in London and literally sleeps in a gilded cage. He is the master of his kingdom, a world of GI Joes and Barbie dolls - plastic and lifeless. When his owners go on holidays, Roddy lives out all his fun fantasies with his plastic companions and the fun is over by nightfall on the first day.

Fate intervenes in the form of Sid, a sewer rat with a big appetite and the manners of, well, a sewer rat.

Sid makes himself at home turning the house into a sty. Roddy chances his arm at tricking Sid into taking a swim in "the jacuzzi" but Sid double tricks him and soon Roddy is flushed away into the sewers.

Roddy is suddenly in a new and frightening world. His one objective is to get back "topside" and oust Sid. Enquiries point him in the direction of Rita (Kate Winslet) a tough talking rat who plies a trade in the sewers with her boat , the Jammy Dodger, collecting treasure. This has brought her into conflict with Toad ( Ian McKellen), a Mr Big in the sewers, who is desirous of taking her prized ruby and adding it to his Royal jewel collection.

Roddy's intervention helps complicate things and soon the pair are forced to flee to escape the clutches of the Toad and his evil henchmen (Bill Nighy and Andy Serkis), not to mention Le Frog (Jean Reno) a hitman cousin from France.

Meanwhile Toad has even more evil plans under his belt - including a secret plot to wipe all the rats out of the sewer and replace them with a new toad order!

The pair struggle through scrape after scrape and come to like each other, despite their differences, and Roddy comes to realise that perhaps splendid isolation is not all it is cracked up to be.

Flushed Away is brightly and freshly animated. It is full of in-jokes and pop-culture references. Indeed, the one-liners come so thick and fast that it really does benefit from repeat viewing. Jackman is in fine form as the toffy Roddy and Winslet is almost unrecognisable as the tough Rita with, naturally, a heart of gold. There are a wealth of minor roles that are carried with conviction. The breakout creatures, however, are the singing slugs who pop up from time to time as a visual gag and sing songs relevant to the on-screen action. The slugs are memorable and hence the proliferation of them in the extra features.

The action in the film is fast and furious and it is suitable for the under 10 brigade as well as the young at heart. If there is a criticism it is that the film barely runs (less credits) for 70 minutes. The characters are interesting enough for another sub-plot.

Otherwise Flushed Away is a great kids film which can be enjoyed by anyone who likes the Aardman style of animation and humour.

Video

 Flushed Away comes to DVD in a 1.85:1 transfer which is consistent with its original cinematic aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

In the cinema the film was an explosion of colour and that look has translated to the DVD. Yet the filmmakers have taken a step back from lifelike to keep the movie looking as though it is claymation. This means that some of the surfaces are a little rough by design.

The film is bright and colourful and the skin tones of each type of creature are consistent and true. There are no defects with the original digital master or the final transfer.

The production design is also full of eye candy with little jokes peppered around the "sets".

Check out the sewer chase scene at 41.24 for a look at how fun and colourful the film can be.

There are English subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
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Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Flushed Away has a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack running at 448Kb/s.

The dialogue is clear and synced to the lip movements.

The sound mix is reasonably expansive and the surrounds see some action from time to time. It is not an aggressive mix though. The subwoofer only sparks into life intermittently.

There is a range of music on offer which helps drive some of the action scenes. Bohemian Like Me, by The Dandy Warhols is a great background to a chase through the sewers and Jets Are You Going To Be My Girl? helps make Roddy's first slide down the drainpipe memorable. The main score is pretty good too , combining light and fluffy with a few serious moments.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Many kids DVD's promise "hours of fun". This one delivers.

Audio Commentary

The commentary is by directors David Bowers and Sam Fell. Whilst they sound like fun, interesting guys the commentary is not that great. To be fair it is always difficult to give a commentary on animated features as so much work goes on in darkened computer labs and not on set. The actors are trundled in to do their bits so there is little of the vibe to talk about.

The two do share stories of the development of the project and the late addition of the slugs as well as subtle changes in characterisation. They did struggle to make it understandable by an American audience and they , like me, agree that it was probably a bit "too pacey".

Featurette- The Music of Flushed Away

Music in the film comes in two varieties - the enthusiastic score and the regular musical interludes. The music is eclectic and we see some of the scoring process.

Featurette Meet the Cast

Meeting the cast is a lot of fun as the filmmakers give us a split screen with the animated character and the actor doing the part. All the leads are featured and even though the piece is pretty lightweight it is still engaging enough for a viewing or two.

Music Highlights Dreamworks Animation Jukebox

The Dreamworks Animation Video Jukebox presents excerpts from six Dreamworks animated features - including La Vida Loca from Shrek 2 and I Like To Move It from Madagascar.

DVD-ROM Extras

Featurette Super Slug Stuff

The slug games were a lot of fun.

Web Links

Dreamworks Kids Bonus Materials

More stuff for kids! Learn how to build a slug, dance to the Flushed Away Jukebox, draw Roddy and play the maze of pipes game.

Previews

Actually, this is one preview only - for the DVD release of Dora the Explorer.

 The DVD's issued in each region appear to be the same with the exception of some minor subtitle and language differences.

    Flushed Away is a fun light kids film that deserved better treatment at the box office.

The DVD is a great transfer both sound and vision.

The extras are so comprehensive I won't ever look the same way at a slug again!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
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