| Flushed Away | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
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| Screenplay by | |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Harry Gregson-Williams |
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Running time | 85 minutes[3] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $149 million[5] |
| Box office | $178.3 million[5] |
Flushed Away is a 2006 animatedadventurecomedy film produced byDreamWorks Animation andAardman Features. The film was directed byDavid Bowers andSam Fell, and written byDick Clement,Ian La Frenais,Chris Lloyd,Joe Keenan andWill Davies. The film stars the voices ofHugh Jackman,Kate Winslet,Ian McKellen,Shane Richie,Bill Nighy,Andy Serkis andJean Reno. In the film, a pamperedfancy rat named Roddy St. James is flushed down the toilet in his Kensington apartment by a sewer rat named Sid, and befriends a scavenger named Rita Malone in order to get back home while evading a sinister toad and his hench-rats.
Flushed Away was the third and final DreamWorks and Aardman co-production followingChicken Run (2000) andWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Director Fell conceived the concept of rats falling in love in the sewers while working onChicken Run. In 2001, Fell developed a story and pitched it to DreamWorks. The project was announced in July 2002, followed by comedy writing duo Clement and La Frenais being contracted to write the script, which had the working titleRatropolis. In 2003, Bowers joined Fell as co-director. It was the first Aardman project made primarily in CGI animation instead of using their usualclaymation – this was because using water onplasticine models could damage them.
The film's premiere was held on 22 October 2006 during theTokyo International Film Festival, followed by awide release in the United States byParamount Pictures on 3 November 2006, and in the United Kingdom byUIP on 1 December. It received positive reviews from critics, but was abox-office disappointment, grossing $178 million against a $149 million production budget, resulting in an estimated loss of $109 million for the studios. The failure led to Aardman ending its collaboration deal with DreamWorks. The film received nominations for theBAFTA Award andCritics' Choice Award for Best Animated Feature. It received eight nominations at the34th Annie Awards, winning five, including forthe screenplay and, for McKellen,Voice Acting.
Roddy St. James is a pampered pet rat who lives in a largeKensington apartment. One night, while his owners are away on holiday, a sewer rat named Sid arises from the sink's drain and determines to stay and watch the2006 FIFA World Cup final. Imagining a world where Sid takes over his "sweet life", Roddy attempts to get rid of Sid by flushing him down theJacuzzi-brandtoilet, falsely claiming it to be an actual Jacuzzi. But Sid is not fooled and flushes Roddy instead.
Roddy finds himself in Ratropolis, a sewer city made out of various bits of junk, resemblingLondon. He is told to seek out Rita Malone, an enterprising scavenger who works the drains in her authentic boat, theJammy Dodger and who might be able to help him get home. Roddy and Rita are abducted by rats Spike and Whitey and brought before their boss, the Toad, as Rita stole back a prizedruby originally scavenged by her father. The Toad plans to have Roddy and Rita frozen withliquid nitrogen, but the pair escape. Rita takes the ruby, and a unique electric master cable needed to control Ratropolis' sewer floodgates.
Roddy deduces that the ruby is a fake and easily shatters it, snarling Rita. Roddy offers Rita a real ruby if she takes him back to Kensington, to which she agrees. The pair first stop to visit her family before setting off. During Roddy's stay, he overhears a conversation that leads him to believe that Rita is selling him out to the Toad, so he reneges on the deal and steals theJammy Dodger. When Rita catches up to him, she clears up the misunderstanding. The pair evade pursuit from Spike, Whitey, and their accomplices.
Incensed at his minions' repeated failures, the Toad sends for his French cousin, Le Frog. It is revealed that the Toad wasPrince Charles' favorite childhood pet until he was abruptly replaced by a rat and flushed down a toilet, resulting in his hatred of rodents. Le Frog and his subordinates intercept Roddy and Rita to retrieve the cable, but the duo manages to escape out of the sewer drain and back to Roddy's apartment in Kensington, though theJammy Dodger is destroyed.
Roddy delivers Rita the promised ruby as well as an emerald to build a newJammy Dodger, then shows her around his apartment. She at first believes he has family but notices his cage and realizes he is a pet and alone. Rita tries to persuade Roddy to come with her, but he is too proud to admit his loneliness and rebuffs her. Rita leaves the apartment via the toilet only for her to be kidnapped, with the Toad taking back the master cable. Roddy joins Sid to watch the game. When Sid mentions half-time, Roddy pieces together the Toad's plan: to open the floodgates during half-time of the World Cup, when all the humans will most likely be using their toilets, allowing the ensuing, enormous wave of drainage to destroy Ratropolis, allowing the Toad to use the depopulated city as a home for his tadpole children. Roddy entrusts Sid with his home and cushy position and has Sid flush him back down the sewers again. He frees Rita, and together they defeat the Toad and his henchman by getting Toad and Le Frog's tongues stuck to moving gears and freezing the wave of drainage with liquid nitrogen. Hailed as a hero, Roddy agrees to stay in Ratropolis with Rita. Soon after, the two, as well as Rita's family, set off on theJammy Dodger II.
In a mid-credits scene, when the daughter of Roddy's owners, Tabitha, finds Sid on the couch, she introduces him to their new cat, which scares him in horror.
The idea for a film about rats that fall in love in sewers was proposed by animatorSam Fell during the production of Aardman Animation'sChicken Run (2000).[6] At the time, Aardman encouraged everyone at the company to come up with ideas for features for the DreamWorks partnership.[6] In 2001, Fell, along with development executive Mike Cooper, and producerPeter Lord developed the concept into a story beforepitching it to DreamWorks.[6] 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.".[6] After the film was announced, Comic writing duoDick Clement andIan La Frenais were contracted to write the script,[6] which had the working titleRatropolis. In 2003,David Bowers joined in to direct the film with Fell. Other writers were also later brought in to help write the script, includingFrasier writersChristopher Lloyd andJoe Keenan, andTwins andJohnny English writerWilliam Davies.[7]
Traditionally, Aardman had usedstop-motion for their animated features, but it was complex to render water with this technique, and using real water could damageplasticine models. It would have also been expensive to compositeCGI into shots that include water, of which there are many in the movie, so the company chose to makeFlushed Away their first all-CGI production.[8] 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 andThe Curse of the Were-Rabbit led to the split between the two studios.[9]
On Halloween (31 October) 2006, theFlushed Away: Music from the Motion Picture soundtrack was released byAstralwerks.[10]
| No. | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Be Seeing You My Friend" | 0:04 | |
| 2. | "Dancing with Myself" | Billy Idol | 4:49 |
| 3. | "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" | Jet | 3:34 |
| 4. | "She's a Lady" | Tom Jones | 2:54 |
| 5. | "Ice Cold Rita" | Hugh Jackman & The Slugs | 0:44 |
| 6. | "Bohemian Like You" | The Dandy Warhols | 3:32 |
| 7. | "Marcel / That's Not Rice You're Eating" | Harry Gregson-Williams & The Slugs | 0:55 |
| 8. | "What's New Pussycat?" | Tom Jones | 2:17 |
| 9. | "Yakety Sax" | Boots Randolph | 2:01 |
| 10. | "Mr. Lonely" | The Slugs | 0:27 |
| 11. | "Don't Worry, Be Happy (with The Slugs intro)" | Bobby McFerrin | 4:22 |
| 12. | "Proud Mary" | Tina Turner | 5:25 |
| 13. | "Wonderful Night" | Fatboy Slim | 2:37 |
| 14. | "Life in the Sewer" | Harry Gregson-Williams | 4:40 |
| 15. | "Beware...Beware" | The Slugs | 0:35 |
| Total length: | 36:16 | ||
Flushed Away was released onDVD on 20 February 2007. It includes behind-the-scenes, deleted info, Jammy Dodger videos and all-new slug songs.[11] It was released in the UK on 2 April 2007,[12] where it was also packaged with a plasticine 'Slug Farm' kit. The film was released onBlu-ray byUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment on 4 June 2019 around the world except for the UK.[13] As of October 2010, 4.9 million units were sold.
In July 2014, the film's distribution rights were purchased byDreamWorks Animation fromParamount Pictures and transferred to20th Century Fox[14] before reverting toUniversal Studios in 2018, followingNBCUniversal's 2016 acquisition of DreamWorks Animation.
Flushed Away has an approval rating of 72% onRotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 6.7/10, based on 137 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Clever and appealing for both children and adults,Flushed Away marks a successful entry into digitally animated features for Aardman Animations."[15]Metacritic, which assigns aweighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 74 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[16] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[17]
Todd McCarthy ofVariety gave the film a negative review, saying "As directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, first-time feature helmers with long-term Aardman affiliations, the film boasts undeniably smart and eye-catching qualities that are significantly diluted by the relentlessly frantic and overbearing behavior of most characters; someone is always loudly imposing himself upon another, to diminishing returns of enjoyment."[18]Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, saying "Flushed Away lacks the action-contraption dottiness of a Wallace and Gromit adventure, but it hits its own sweet spot of demented delight."[19]James Berardinelli ofReelViews gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's better than 90% of the animated fare of the last few years. It's refreshing not to have to qualify the movie's appeal by appending the words, 'for the kids'."[20] Jan Stuart ofNewsday gave the film two out of four stars, saying "Despite the efforts of five writers and Aardman's trademark puppets, with their malleable eyebrows and cheeks bulging like those of amumps sufferer, none of these characters are particularly endearing."[21] Ann Hornaday ofThe Washington Post gave the film a positive review, saying "Flushed Away, Aardman's first computer-generated cartoon, does away with the clay but leaves the craft and emotion intact, resulting in a film that earns its place among the Aardman classics."[22] Peter Hartlaub of theSan Francisco Chronicle gave the film three out of four stars, saying "The short attention spans of directors David Bowers and Sam Fell are mostly forgivable because the movie is filled with so many entertaining characters."[23]
Richard Corliss ofTime gave the film a negative review, saying, "Deficient in the comedy of reticence and discouragement that is Aardman's (or maybe just Nick Park's) unique strength. I don't want to say the Englishmen were corrupted, but I think they allowed their strongest, quirkiest instincts to be tethered."[24] Ted Fry ofThe Seattle Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "Fans of Wallace and Gromit may be puzzled by a visual disconnect inFlushed Away. They will certainly, however, be delighted by the unrelenting whimsy and fast-paced gags of a story that never slows down to think about where it's going next."[25] Ty Burr ofThe Boston Globe gave the film two and a half stars out of five, saying, "Kids will probably be in stinky-sewage heaven with the new computer-animated critter comedyFlushed Away, but even they may realize they're up the proverbial creek in a boat with a faulty motor."[26] Jack Mathews of theNew York Daily News gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying, "ThoughFlushed Away duplicates the stop-motion, clay animation look of Aardman's earlierChicken Run andWallace & Gromit, it was made using computer software, and its liberated action sequences are truly dazzling."[27]
Flushed Away collected $64.6 million in the United States, which was below the average of other CGI films from DreamWorks Animation, and $113.6 million from international markets for a worldwide total of $178.2 million, making it the 24th highest-grossing film of 2006, and the sixth highest-grossing animated film of 2006.[5] The film opened at number three in its first weekend, with $18,814,323, behindBorat andThe Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.[28] Produced on a budget of $149 million,[5] poor box office reception resulted in a $109 million write-down for DreamWorks Animation,[29] and in turn, a termination of the partnership with Aardman Animations.[30]
Coinciding with the film's release, a video game adaptation was released for thePlayStation 2,GameCube,Game Boy Advance, andNintendo DS. Although it received negative reviews from critics, the game received anAnnie Award forBest Animated Video Game.[31]
