Flushed Away is a 2006 British-American computer-animated action adventure comedy film, directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell.
Plot[]
Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman) is a decidedly upper crust pet rat who makes his home in a posh Kensington flat. While his owners are away on holiday, Roddy plays around the house. A common sewer rat named Sid (Shane Richie) comes spewing out of the sink and decides to stay, especially as England are playing against Germany in the World Cup final. Roddy plans to get rid of Sid by luring him into the "jacuzzi", which is actually the toilet. Sid may be an ignorant slob, but being a sewer rat, he knows his plumbing; he isn't fooled at all and instead pushes Roddy in and flushes him away into the drain. There, Roddy discovers a city resembling London made out of various bits of junk and meets Rita Malone (Kate Winslet), an enterprising scavenger rat who works the drains in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Rita doesn't like Roddy initially but ends up taking him along while the Toad (Ian McKellen) sends his rat henchmen Spike (Andy Serkis) and Whitey (Bill Nighy) after her because she had stolen back her father's prized ruby a long time ago. The Toad despises all rodents to the point of hateful obsession. He plans to have them frozen with liquid nitrogen inside an ice maker. The pair escape and Rita takes a unique electrical cable that, unknown to everyone but the Toad, is required to control the floodgates.
Roddy finds out that the ruby is a fake and breaks it in front of Rita, enraging her. She lashes out at Roddy and starts throwing things at him, though she eventually calms down and reveals that she was upset because her father (quite literally) broke every bone in his body to get the ruby, but since the ruby was nothing more than a decorative ruby, his major injuries were essentially for nothing. Roddy offers her a real ruby if she takes him back to Kensington. Accepting the offer, the pair first stop to visit her family before setting off. During Roddy's stay, he overhears a conversation that causes him to think that Rita had double-crossed him, so he steals the Jammy Dodger. When Rita catches up to him, she is able to clear up the misunderstanding. The pair evade Spike and Whitey pursuing in a remote-controlled toy boat, with Thimblenose Ted (Sam Fell) and others on eggbeater jet skis. During this scene, Roddy and Rita share a quick love moment. Incensed at his henchmen's repeated failures, The Toad sends for his French cousin; an infamous, if somewhat laid back, mercenary named Le Frog (Jean Reno). During this scene, it is revealed that the Toad was once Prince Charles' pet, but was replaced by a pet rat, and subsequently flushed down a toilet. Le Frog and his subordinates intercept the duo and retrieve the cable, but Roddy and Rita use a plastic bag to lift themselves out of the drain (snatching away the cable during the ascent) and get Roddy home, though the Jammy Dodger is destroyed.
Back home, Roddy pays Rita the promised ruby and an emerald, then proceeds to show her around his house. She at first believes he has family in the home, but noticing his cage, she realizes that he is a pet. Roddy tries to pass Sid off as his brother, but Rita and Sid know each other. Rita tries to persuade Roddy to come with her, but he is too proud to admit that he is lonely. By now, they have fallen in love, but have not told each other their feelings. She departs, both of them brokenhearted, but is soon captured by the Toad. Talking to Sid about half-time, Roddy pieces together the Toad's plan: To open the gates during halftime of the World Cup, when all the humans will most likely be using their toilets, causing a great flood and drowning the rats and their underground city in the drain. He can then use the depopulated city as a home for his own tadpole offspring. He gives Sid his cushy position and has him flush him back to the sewers to find Rita and save her and the city. Together, they defeat the Toad and his henchmen and freeze the wave of drainage generated by the flushing of countless toilets during half-time with liquid nitrogen before it drowns the entire rat population.
Roddy and Rita build the Jammy Dodger II and set off in her with Rita's entire brood. A newspaper article reveals England had lost on penalties. Later while the credits start, Roddy's former owner Tabitha comes back with a new pet cat, which scares Sid.
Voice cast[]
- Hugh Jackman as Roddy St. James
- Kate Winslet as Rita Malone
- Ian McKellen as The Toad
- Andy Serkis as Spike
- Bill Nighy as Whitey
- Jean Reno as Le Frog
- Shane Richie as Sid
- Christopher Knights as Fat Barry
- Sam Fell as Ladykiller
- Christopher Fairbank as Thimblenose Ted
- David Suchet as Mr. Malone
- Meredith Wells as Brandy Malone
- Miriam Margolyes as Granny Malone
- David Bowers as Shocky Malone
Production[]
The idea for a film about rats that fall in love in sewers was proposed by animator Sam Fell during the production of Aardman Animation's Chicken Run (2000). At the time, Aardman encouraged everyone at the company to come up with ideas for features for the DreamWorks partnership. In 2001, Fell, development executive Mike Cooper, and producer Peter Lord then developed the concept into a story before pitching it to DreamWorks. The film was first announced in July 2002, and in what was then a surprise move, it was revealed as being Aardman's very first CGI feature project. Lord described the pitch as "The African Queen with the gender roles reversed". After the film was announced, Comic writing duo Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were contracted to write the script, which had the working title Ratropolis. In 2003, David Bowers joined in to direct the film with Fell.
Traditionally, Aardman had used stop-motion for their animated features, but it was complex to render water with this technique, and using real water could damage plasticine models. It would have also been expensive to composite CGI into shots that include water, of which there are many in the movie, so the company chose to make Flushed Away their first all-CGI production. This is the third and final of three Aardman-produced films released by DreamWorks. Aardman's turbulent experience with DreamWorks during the making of this film and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit led to the split between the two studios.
Trivia[]
- This is the 14th movie made by DreamWorks.