ShareThisBy CARLA MEYER
Friday, November 17, 2006
Several writers collaborated on "Flushed Away," emerging with ... a tuxedo-clad mouse as a lead character. The computer-animated film he's in doesn't seem especially inventive, either, though it's lively enough to engage the little ones for stretches and clever enough to keep parents alert.
Following the animation template of a far-from-home loner (voiced by Hugh Jackman) discovering his tribe, "Flushed Away" is remarkable in just one way. This collaboration between Aardman Features ("Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit") and DreamWorks Animation ("Shrek") turns sewer-residing vermin into likable, if never especially cuddly, animated creatures.
Natty mouse Roddy seems to have it easy. He lives in a posh London flat and gets all the food he wants. But he lacks pals apart from the little girl who keeps him as a pet. When the girl and her family leave on a trip, Roddy enlists the girl's dolls to tool around with him in a toy car. Since this isn't "Toy Story," the dolls remain inanimate. Poor little mouse.
Up from the pipes comes a far less refined rodent, the obnoxious rat Sid (Shane Richie), who immediately pegs Roddy as a cream puff standing between him and cupboards full of human food. Sid's arrival also calls attention to Jackman's modest pizazz levels.
Whereas Richie and the other actors lend great oomph to their roles, Jackman delivers a more restrained performance. As a result, the film's lead character registers more faintly than the rest.
Flushed down a toilet by Sid, Roddy ends up in the sewer, where a miniature London, complete with Big Ben, awaits. Keeping the inevitable bathroom humor to a minimum, directors David Bowers and Sam Fell bring a nice sense of detail to this world. Discarded kitchen mixers double as Jet Skis, and what appears to be a cooking tin becomes a sewer-going vessel owned by Rita (Kate Winslet), a sassy working-class skipper in Union Jack pants.
Having taken a ruby from the crime lord Toad (Ian McKellen), Rita's on the run from his toadies. Roddy, in the wrong place at the wrong time, also draws the criminals' attention.
Chases through sludgy waters provide ample opportunity for characters to smack against hard surfaces _ guaranteed laugh getters among the preschool set. But though the animation remains vivid throughout, the limited underground setting renders action scenes claustrophobic at times.
A chorus of singing slugs pops up regularly to punctuate the action. Every animated film seems to require little creatures whose sole purpose is comic relief. In many instances, rodents or rodent-like characters fill this bill. But a film with rodents as the main attraction had to go smaller and slimier.
"Flushed Away" mixes sophisticated humor in with its more basic gags. For instance, it's basic to have Rita's granny throw her underwear at Roddy because she thinks he's Tom Jones, and sophisticated to think kids, or their young parents, will get the reference.
But Anglophiles of all ages will appreciate "Flushed Away." As it happens, Toad (lent a mix of bluster and insecurity by McKellen) is a monarchy buff with a cherished collection of mementos retrieved from the sewer.
The Toad's intense hatred of rodents harks back to his youth, when he was Prince Charles' beloved pet. That's before a pet rodent eclipsed him in the prince's favor and reduced him to a toad-size but temporary clog in the Buckingham Palace pipes. Prince Charles touched toads and rodents? As an exposi of royal life, "Flushed Away" rivals "The Queen."
Animated films can take years to complete, and judging by some gags, "Flushed Away" was in the works for a while. A bit about French toads (kind of like frogs, wink, wink) being less than lionhearted plays as stale. Making fun of the French is so 2003.
Graded: 2 1/2 stars
Running time: 86 minutes
Rated: PG
(Contact Carla Meyer at cmeyer(at)sacbee.com.)
