Flushed Away
Flushed Away marks the first time that the Aardman studio has moved away from stop motion animation and instead into the medium's most popular form.... computer animation. Working alongside Dreamworks, they still however managed to keep the unique "Aardman style" which proved so popular with the Wallace and Gromit movies and also with Chicken Run. The plot of the film is a simple one. Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman) lives as a child's pet in an expensive area in Kensington, when a sewer rat (Shane Richie) flushes him down the toliet to have the place for himself. What he finds in the sewer is an underground city of rats (virtually a replica of London, but obviously smaller) where he falls for Rita Malone (Kate Winslet) who is on the run from the dastardly The Toad (Ian McKellan). Flushed Away certainly looks more impressive than what the studio has achieved in the past, but ultimately it fails to live up to the standards in term's of character development and pacing. I have a feeling this is due inpart to the animation style, which as I said looks nice but takes a little away from the heart of the clay animated characters of their previous works. With the painstaking amount of time it takes to film each scene in Wallace and Gromit, you can feel all the energy from the animator's going in to each character and the unfolding of every scene. With Flushed Away at times, I felt like I was being rushed through everything at a pace of around 100 miles per hour with chase scene after chase scene that ended up going nowhere. For around 20 minutes of this film (which is around a quarter of the whole flick) nothing seemed to happen but chase scenes which never progressed the plot any further than when the chase started. Wallace and Gromit worked so well because they took the time to flesh
out the characters and give them emotional depth which I felt was largely ignored in Flushed Away. Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman also brought nothing to their characters and they were constantly outshone by the supporting vocal talents of Ian McKellan, Andy Serkis and especially Jean Reno (who was absolutely hilarious as Le Frog). Indeed it's the jokes about the French that got the most laughs out of me, due in part to Reno who wasn't afraid to have a joke about his own nation. The screening I was at was full of kids and they certainly seemed to have a good time. Hell, even a round of applause was virtually unanimous from them at the film's conclusion and this film was certainly aimed more at kids than adults. 
There are a few references that could only be possibly picked up by older audience members though. A screen transition midway into the film referencing the fun 60's Batman TV show, even more French jokes and a couple of nods to James Bond must have totally passed the six year olds by. Flushed Away is a typically British film, with tons of references to football and England's apparent progression into the World Cup and the cockney accents of many of the residents of the underground sewer. rating: 2.5
mmm. I nearly gave Flushed Away a six but the pacing at times was shockingly bad and left me irritated and bored with the film even with it's less than 90 minute running time. Great movie for 5-13 year olds I would say but unlike Wallace and Gromit fails to appeal to an older audience. Looks nice for sure, but not as engaging as Aardman's previous works.