Flushed Away
Once again, we’ve seen- or at least seen released- a slew of animated films this year (“Monster House,” “Ant Bully,” “The Wild,” “Curious George,” “Doogal,” and “Open Season” have all gone unseen by me…some for a good reason), but I have the feel that this year’s Best Animated Feature nominees will come out of the ones I have seen…all for good reason. The only one purely from the studio that released it is “Over the Hedge,” Dreamworks’ best- and best-looking- animated feature since the underrated “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” (or, if you prefer to go just CGI features, the first “Shrek”). The other two are from independent animation studios- this summer brought Pixar’s “Cars” (though that studio’s independence is now questionable with their new deal that brings them fully into Disney, the studio of “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo” is still the creative engine); this fall has now brought “Flushed Away,” the first CG-animated feature from England’s venerable Aardman Animation, who just won their third Oscar last year for their wonderful claymation adventure “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”
Don’t worry about the switch from plasticine to CG, though- it was necessary to tell the story, which is a damn entertaining one about a pampered pet rat named Roddy (Hugh Jackman, loose and losing his calm with sly charm and wit) who gets an obnoxious visitor to his posh home from the underground named Sid who takes over the place and flushes Roddy down the toilet into the sewer. To get back to the surface, Roddy enlists the help of a scavenger rat named Rita (Kate Winslet, warm and winning as always, and putting aside her pitch-perfect American accent for the natural British one it’s almost difficult to remember that she actually speaks), whose gotten herself in deep with a criminal frog (Sir Ian McKellen, brilliantly blustery) with a score to settle for the rodents that live below. From that description alone, you’ll see how necessary the switch to CG was, and Aardman makes the transition smooth for the viewer who fell in love with their imagination and heart thanks to successes like the Wallace & Gromit films and 2000’s delightful “Chicken Run.” There’s their always endearing character design- with highly pronounced teeth- and character animation that almost feels- in the movements- like the stop-motion they made their name on, but more than that, there’s the engaging story (peppered this time with the type of big adventure sequences we’re used to from CG films, none of which feel gratuitous)- complete with a sweet courtship between Roddy and Rita which Jackman and Winslet capture effortlessly- and well-conceived characters (watch out for the slugs- Aardman turns what could’ve been a one-joke gag into an inspired bunch of scene-stealers) that holds it all together, and reminds you that regardless of the technique they use, Aardman is to Dreamworks as Pixar is to Disney, and both are to their medium. They’re class acts who never let visual wizardry get in the way of telling a highly entertaining story. For them, the latter informs the former, which then strengthens the latter by giving it depth in what they can achieve in the former. If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry, and just be happy that the folks at Aardman (and Pixar) are around to ensure we’ll always have something for the whole family to look forward to.
