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This has been a year loaded with animated movies. Normally, I’d see that as a good thing, since I happen to love animated movies. But the movies that have come out lately have been more of the same old thing—and that’s just no fun. But when I saw that Aardman, the people responsible for Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, were releasing a new movie of their own, I had high hopes for something…different. I was so excited about this one, in fact, that I made it my number-one draft pick in this season’s Fantasy Moguls draft. And then I crossed my fingers and went to check it out for myself.
Flushed Away tells the story of Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman), a pet rat who lives the poshest of pet-rat London neighborhoods. When his owners go on vacation, Roddy looks forward to having the house to himself—but then a sewer rat named Sid (Shane Richie) shows up and ruins all the fun. When Roddy tries to get rid of Sid, he ends up getting himself flushed down the toilet—and he soon finds himself in the sewers, in a town full of rats. There, he meets Rita (Kate Winslet), the captain of the Jammy Dodger, who agrees to help him get back home.
In order to get back “up top,” however, Roddy and Rita have to escape The Toad (Ian McKellan)—a bitter amphibian with a sad, sad story, who’s determined to get rid of all the rats in the sewer and repopulate it with toads. But Rita has something he needs to carry out his diabolical plan.
Flushed Away is every bit as fun as I hoped it would be. While the plot may not be the most solid, that isn’t really the most important thing when it comes to a kids’ movie, is it? What matters is that it’s funny. It’s full of action and adventure. There’s great music that’ll make you want to get up and dance (or at least it’ll get you moving in your seat—I dare you to sit still through Hugh Jackman singing Tom Jones). The characters are fantastic (especially Jean Reno’s Le Frog and his band of French ninja frogs—and the ever-present band of singing slugs). And, since the majority of the movie takes place in the sewers, there are plenty of toilet jokes (and what kid doesn’t love a good toilet joke?).
You’ll find laughs and surprises around every corner of this movie. And while the kids will love it because it’s bright and exciting and silly, adults will love it because of its smart attention to detail (as can be expected from the Aardman gang)—and because it’s filled with inside jokes that only grown-ups will get.
In the sea of animated films that have come down the pipes this year, Flushed Away floats to the top. It’s the most fun I’ve had at a kids’ movie in a long time.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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