When it comes on to animated movies, Pixar is the numero uno, But this year Dreamworks “Flushed Away” is just a notch ahead of pixars “cars” .Having checked out the trailer for this movie earlier, got the movie and watched it over the weekend, and was not disappointed. Hugh Jackman is everywhere these days, from Wolverine in summer blockbuster X3, to Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, and Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, now lending his voice to a lead character in the animated film Flushed Away The story is simple enough, yet adequately satisfying by the time the end credits roll. As the trailer suggested, A pet rat Roddy (Hugh Jackman) thought he just had the whole classy apartment to himself, when an unexpected guest Sid (Shane Richie) from the sewers gatecrashes in time for the football world cup final , takes over the house and flushes Roddy away.
All these in less than 10 minutes. So begins a mad journey in an unknown sewer world which replicated the modern London City above it with junk, where he has to figure out friend from foe, and find his way back to where he belongs. The themes of family and friends do not come on too strongly, instead the story preferred to let the character interactions bring forth the messages. Supporting or interfering in his quest are characters like Rita (Kate Winslet), The Toad (Ian McKellen), French Le Frog (Jean Reno), and hilarious mice “hit men” Whitey (Bill Nighy) and Spike (Andy Serkis). But what perhaps is the show stealer, are the sewer slugs.
The movie fits in action, comedy, songs and a lil bit of romance all in the span of about 90 minutes runtime, which was perfect . Despite this animated movie being yet another one of many based on talking animals, Flushed Away doesn’t try too hard to be funny by steamrolling pop culture into the story. Its more of English humor than the in your face American humor which makes it even more enjoyable than most of the animated movies of 2006 (cant comment on all since I have only watched “cars”) . If too many animated flicks left this year has left you jaded with the genre, Flushed Away just flushes away the competition. Worth checking out on the big screen! Will watch it again when it releases in the theatres .