Flushed Away

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Flushed Away
Flushed away poster
Directed by	David Bowers Sam Fell
Written by	Dick Clement Ian La Frenais
Starring	Hugh Jackman Kate Winslet Ian McKellen Andy Serkis Bill Nighy Jean Reno
Music by	Harry Gregson Williams
Distributed by	DreamWorks Animation
Release date(s)	November 3, 2006
Running time	1 hr. 24 min.
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IMDb profile

Flushed Away is an animated film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell. It is a co-production between Aardman Animations and DreamWorks Animation, and is Aardman's first completely computer-animated feature as opposed to the usual stop-motion. The film stars the voice talents of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Andy Serkis, Bill Nighy, Ian McKellen, Shane Richie and Jean Reno. The screenplay was written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Christopher Lloyd, Joe Keenan, and William Davies. The film was released in movie theatres on November 3, 2006, and is distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was rated PG by the MPAA for crude humor and some language. It is distributed in Switzerland, Spain, and Netherlands by Universal Pictures.

Taglines:

Plumbing Soon.
Someone's Going Down.
Apart They're Hopeless. Together They're Electric!
An incredible adventure set down the toilet.
Enter a whole new world right under our feet.

1 Characters and cast
2 Synopsis
3 Reaction
- 3.1 Critical response
- 3.2 Box Office performance
4 DVD Release
5 Cultural references
6 Trivia
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Characters and cast

Roddy St. James - an English rat (Hugh Jackman)
Rita Malone - a scavenger sewer rat (Kate Winslet)
The Toad - an English toad, crimelord (Ian McKellen)
Le Frog - a French frog, The Toad's cousin (Jean Reno)
Le Frog's henchmen
Spike Leslie - a henchrat (Andy Serkis)
Whitey - a henchrat (Bill Nighy)
Fat Barry - a henchrat
Thimblenose Ted - a henchrat (Christopher Fairbank)
Ladykiller - a henchrat
Harold - a rat warning people about the flood
Officer Colin - a Police rat
Marcel - French frog, mimer
Sid - sewer rat who ends up in Roddy's house (Shane Richie)
Fergus - Rita's large younger brother
Shockey - one of Rita's brothers
Liam - one of Rita's brothers
Tabitha - Roddy's human owner
Mr. Malone - Rita's father (David Suchet)
Mrs. Malone - Rita's mother (Kathy Burke)
Granny Malone - Rita's crazy grandmother (Miriam Margolyes)
Rodint - rat artist
Hamster butlers Sullivan & Gilbert (two characters which were originally intended for the movie but cut out, although they appear in the video game and teaser trailer).

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Roddy St. James is a decidedly upper-crust pet rat who makes his home in a posh Kensington flat. When a common sewer rat named Sid comes spewing out of the sink and decides he’s hit the jackpot, Roddy schemes to rid himself of the pest by luring him into the "jacuzzi", which is actually the toilet bowl. Sid may be an ignorant slob, but being a sewer rat, he’s no fool when it comes to knowing a loo. He plays along and instead pushes Roddy in and flushes him away into the bustling underground city of rats in the drains of London. There Roddy meets Rita Malone, an enterprising scavenger rat who works the drains in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Rita does not like Roddy at all initially, but ends up taking him along as the villainous Toad sends his hench-rats Spike, a short, jumpy rat, Whitey, a large albino former lab rat, and "Thimblenose" Ted, a zombie-like rat with a thimble for a nose, after her because she had stolen back her father's prized jewel a long time ago. Toad—who royally despises all rodents—wants them iced…literally. He fails in this mission but it does not matter to him as Rita has taken his uniquely-designed electric cable in their successful bid to escape. Rita uses the cable as a belt but does not know its significant value to the Toad who needs it to operate the Floodgates so as to drown all the mice living in the "city" before he can set up home of millions of his own tadpole kids.

After all the trouble of outwitting Toad and his hench-rats, Roddy finds that the ruby is a fake and breaks it in order to prove to Rita. She becomes very angry but consoles herself after Roddy promises that if she gets him back home, he will reward her with a real ruby. She goes back to visit her family before setting off and they take to Roddy warmly except for her.

After another failed attempt by Spike and Whitey in a remote-controlled toy boat--with Thimblenose Ted and others on eggbeater jetskis--to capture Roddy and Rita, the Toad has no choice but to send to France for his cousin--an infamous, if somewhat laid back and degenerate, mercenary known as Le Frog. He brings along his hench-frogs to finish the duo off and get the belt. He fails after Rita grabs it away from him as she and Roddy parachute their way out of the sewer, at the expense of Ritas' beloved ship, and land safely inside Roddy's mansion. Roddy keeps his promise and even rewards Rita with an additional emerald so that Rita can build another Jammy Dodger. She believes that he has friends and relatives at home until she sees his cage and realises that he is a pet. Sid who still runs amok at Roddy's home, is introduced to Rita as "Rupert" - Roddy's non-existent brother. Unfortunately for Roddy, Sid and Rita know each other personally. She leaves him to get back to the sewers.

In a confrontation with Sid who tells him that he is holding his bladder until half-time as he does not want to miss the World Cup finals- Roddy realises the belt's value to the Toad when he recollects a prophetic Rat telling him that the floodgates won't hold after half-time because humans will only use the toilets during that break and flush their loos collectively. He resolves to leave the mansion to Sid while he rescues Rita and the town. Roddy saves the day when he freezes the wave before it is able to wash out the rats who are too engrossed watching the World Cup.

He helps Rita and her family build a Jammy Dodger II and sets off with her and the entire brood to start their lives anew.

As the credits start, it turns out that Roddy left his human home at the best time as Sid is soon faced with a surprise brought by the little girl named Tabitha, who used to take care of Roddy, a cat!

[edit] Reaction

[edit] Critical response

Flushed Away acquired 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also received a rating of 6.9/10 on IMDB.

[edit] Box Office performance

Flushed Away was an underachiever in the box office, managing only $63,722,310 (as of Feb 7, 2007) in the United States, which was well below the average of the other CGI films from Dreamworks Animation. There is a number of factors to explain the results, such as having to compete with another family film The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause and the adult-oriented Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on its opening weekend and the public's disinterest after an abundance of CGI films. While its worldwide gross has been able to surpass its total budget, it has been postulated that the disappointing result was one of the main reasons Dreamworks Animation and Paramount Pictures decided to split with Aardman Studios. On the other hand, The New York Times published an article about the split on October 3, 2006; a month before Flushed Away was released.^[1] Aardman Studios took all their films with them during the split.

Non-US: $108,690,711. (as of Feb 7, 2007).

Worldwide total: $172,413,021.^[1]

Budget: $149,000,000 ($90,000,000 production, $30,000,000 prints and advertising).^[2]

[edit] DVD Release

Flushed Away was released on DVD February 20, 2007. It included behind the scenes, deleted info, Jammy Dodger videos and all new slug songs. The DVD costs $19.99 in the U.S. and $45.00 in Ukraine. It was also released in the UK on April 2, 2007. It costs £13.97 and comes with a free 'Slug Farm' making kit.

[edit] Cultural references

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As Roddy is choosing his suit at the start of the movie, one of the suits he pulls out is the clothing of Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, also from Aardman Animations. Another outfit is that of Wolverine from the X-Men comic. Hugh Jackman, who voices Roddy, played Wolverine in the X-Men movies. Also, Ian McKellen, who voices The Toad, played Magneto in the X-Men movies.
In a scene where Roddy and Rita are about to be frozen, one of the frozen rats is dressed up like the Star Wars character Han Solo.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is spoofed when a mouse in a raincoat and a hook hand appears giving Roddy advice.
Roddy meets a goldfish while he is in the water. The fish says "Have you seen my dad?", referencing the Disney-Pixar movie Finding Nemo.
Roddy swimming in the toilet pipes references Trainspotting and background music closely resembles Iggy Pop's Lust For Life from the same movie. This is immediately followed by the Caddyshack Baby Ruth reference.
Roddy bumping into a match-breather rat is a reference to Aladdin. This was actually cut from the film because it was only seen in the trailer for the film.
Le Frog's entrance spoofs Spider-Man's entrance.
Le Frog's appearance in his jacket, moustache and the fact that he is French, is referred to Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the movie Pink Panther.
One of Le Frog's henchfrogs named Marcel is a mime artist wearing a striped pullover. An obvious allusion to Marcel Marceau.
Roddy spoofs the opening sequence of nearly all James Bond films during the opening sequence of the movie. The movie he watches as well, titled "Die Again Tomorrow" is an obvious parody of the Bond films Die Another Day, Never Say Never Again and Tomorrow Never Dies.
As Roddy and Rita travel down the sewer in the Jammy Dodger, they almost collide with a couple of rats with a thick southern accent. They loop around the top of the sewer to avoid them. A similar stunt is performed in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, which features a southern sheriff and a car performing a flip as it jumps a bridge. The stunt is also quite reminiscent of the Minis driving down the sewer tunnel in the film The Italian Job. A similar stunt is done (via special effects) with a car in a tunnel in the movie Men In Black.
The spaghetti kiss/swallow between the two slugs mimics a famous scene from Lady and the Tramp.
When Roddy first enters Ratropolis during the zoom out an old lady can be seen and heard saying "Feed the flies, tuppence a bag!" a clear reference to Mary Poppins.
Also during Roddy's arrival, he flies through the air in a blanket and underwear and the rats down below call out, "Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is that guy wearing my underpants?" teasing the Superman sequence.
The phrase "To the Ratmobiles!" is a parody of the "To the Batmobile" from the Batman series starring Adam West. The image of the two rats heads appearing in a swirl is also a play on the show. The music played is directly from the Batman TV show.looks exactly like the sports car from the movie Stuart Little.
The shadow of one of the rats is seen against a wall, echoing a famous shot from Nosferatu the Vampire.
Behind the stove in Rita's family home, a cockroach reads the French translation of Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, a surreal tale about a man turned into an unspecified type of vermin, which is, due to a quirk of translation, often assumed to be a cockroach.
Rex the Runt, another Aardman Animations character, appears on a t-shirt worn by a bystander at the end of the film.
Le Frog, the hit man hired by The Toad might be a nod to Jean Reno's eponymous role in the 1994 film Léon: The Professional.
During the World Cup Final sequence, a rat with a Texas accent and ten gallon hat asks where the helmets and quarterbacks are, before finally stating that "these Brits don't know the first thing about football!" This is a reference to the stereotyped lack of American interest in the World Cup.
As the Jammy Dodger sinks, its motorised arm waves goodbye to Rita and Roddy in an echo of the death of Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) at the end of Titanic (which was also distributed by Paramount Pictures), to which Kate Winslet's character again bears witness. This is also a reference to the mechanical hand being destroyed in the fire in the movie: Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
DVD copies of Chicken Run, Shrek, and other DreamWorks films can be seen when Roddy browses through the films on a shelf.
Behind the plush bunny in Roddy's room, on the book shelf, is the 'Cracking Animation' book, featuring a picture of Wallace and Gromit on the spine. This book is a real book by Aardman teaching stop motion techniques.
Gromit from Wallace and Gromit makes an appearance in this film as a plush. Alex the lion (Madagascar) and some of the rabbits (Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) also can be seen as plushies. Also, one of the toys was a plush dragon from Shrek 2.
When Rita first enters her family home, there is a newspaper covering the window with an article titled Mysterious "Veggie Monster" scares local gardeners, which refers to a "terrible rabbit of the apocalypse", another Curse of the Were-Rabbit reference.
After the Toad plots to put Roddy and Rita on ice, he tells his hench-rats to "shut that door" (on the freezer) - the catchphrase of British comedian Larry Grayson. His voice also shifts to mimic Grayson's.
When Rita is shouting at Roddy after he smashes the ruby, she pulls up a head which is Gromit's, a previous Aardman film character from Wallace and Gromit.
When The Toad is plugging in the master cable, it is clearly a reference to the laboratory sequence from Frankenstein.
When Roddy is choosing the DVD, there is a picture of Wendoline in a frame on the shelf with all the DVDs. Wendoline is another character from the Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave.
When The Toad grabs a fly and starts to swallow it, the fly yells "Help Me!" This is a reference to Al (David) Hedison in The Fly.
Sid's nickname for Roddy being 'Rodders' could be a vague reference to British sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
The image of peeping guy on Rita's dad back resembles Kilroy was here.
On the fridge where The Toads enemies are frozen, there is a magnet featuring Wallace in a soccer uniform from the Aardman short, The Soccomatic, and a magnet of an "Aardman" version of Shrek.
At the main menu in the DVD version of Flushed Away, there are title logos appearing in the bathroom. The title logos were actually film title logos of 2 upcoming films in reality. The logos say Bee Movie and Shrek the Third.
Towards the end where a tidal wave is looming over their town, it could be construed as a reference to the motionless tidal waves unleashed against humanity in the special edition of The Abyss.
Roddy plays golf in the beginning of the movie by hitting "Golf balls" (peas) off of a high structure (a chair) onto a range marked "1 foot, 2 feet, and 3 feet". Hugh Jackman's character Stan has an almost identical golf setup in Swordfish, hitting golf balls off the top of his trailer.
In one scene of the movie, Le Frog tells his men to, "take action." They raise their hands and yell, "We surrender!" This is a reference on how France unconditionally surrendered in World War II.
Five frogs each say, "Bonjour!" in the same rhythm as said in the song "Belle" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.

The main reason that Flushed Away is computer animated is due to the complexity of the water, and because the water can damage the models. Traditionally, Aardman have used stop-motion for their animated features, but it would have been too expensive to composite the shots including water, and since the story involves a lot of it, they chose to go all CGI.^[3] The characters still resemble Aardman's classic plasticine stop-motion characters, as the designs were taken straight from the original plasticine models.
The film's working title was Ratropolis, but the title changed it because of its similarity to the as-yet-unreleased Ratatouille, from Disney-Pixar.
This film's original concept involved pirates, and was pitched to DreamWorks soon after the release of Chicken Run in 2000. However, Aardman were told that there was no market for pirate films (this was before Pirates of the Caribbean was made), and were told to modernize the concept. By the time the writer had done this, the project was temporarily shelved to make way for the production of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and finally came out after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Flushed Away is also the first DreamWorks animated film to have the Paramount Pictures logo displayed on its poster (the poster for Over the Hedge merely had the notice "Distributed by Paramount Pictures Corporation", though the Paramount logo did appear at the end of the film).
Hugh Jackman also stars in another November 2006 animated release, Happy Feet. In both, he sings. Here, he sings the song "Ice Cold Rita" and a Tom Jones song while dancing on the table for Rita's family (a silly lot).
During the World Cup Final, Roddy states "Hey, England is winning! Anything is possible." During the ending sequence however, the newspaper states that England lost during the penalty shoot-out. Incidentially, England were knocked out in the actual 2006 World Cup on penalty shoot-out. However, they lost to Portugal during the Quarter-finals instead of Germany in the final.
Sid is wearing a pair of upside-down underpants under his jacket.
Ladykiller is referring to the drink.
Flushed Away is the second 2006 film in which Ian McKellen portrays someone who dislikes the French.
In the DVD advertisement, in the beginning where you see the main character while he's searching for Flushed Away, you can see other Dreamworks movies, like Shrek 2. There is also a picture of Wendolene from Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave.
The sound of the water station shutting down after the master switch has been removed is the same same as when the Millenium Falcon's hyperdrive doesn't work in the movie The Empire Strikes Back.