Flushed Away (film)
Flushed Away is a 2006 computer animated
British film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell. It is a partnership between
Aardman Animations of Wallace and Gromit fame, 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 was distributed in Switzerland, Spain, and Netherlands by Universal
Pictures.
The 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: The Curse of the Black Pearl was made), and were told to modernise
the concept. By the time the rewrite was done, the project had to be postponed
to make way for the production of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit;
it was finally released after not only the original Pirates of the Caribbean,
but also its first sequel.
Box office performance
Flushed
Away collected $64,488,856 in the United States, which was below the average of
other CGI films from Dreamworks Animation, but a healthy $111,814,663 from international
markets. Worldwide total: $176,319,242.
Tagline : Someone's Going Down
or
Plumbing Soon
Cast
Hugh Jackman - Roddy -
Kate Winslet - Rita -
Ian McKellen - The Toad -
Jean Reno - Le Frog -
Bill Nighy - Whitey -
Andy Serkis - Spike -
Shane
Richie - Sid -
Kathy Burke - Rita's Mum -
David Suchet - Rita's Dad
-
Miriam Margolyes - Rita's Grandma -
Rachel Rawlinson
- Tabitha -
Susan Duerden - Mother -
Miles Richardson
- Father -
John Motson - Football Commentator -
Douglas Weston - Newspaper
Seller -
Roger Blake - Policeman / Balloon Seller -
Christopher Fairbank
- Thimblenose Ted / Cockroach / Passerby -
Paul Shardlow - Pegleg -
Conrad Vernon - Take Out -
Jonathan Kydd - Barnacle -
Newell Alexander - Tex -
Susan Fitzer - Edna -
Joshua Silk - Fergus
-
Meredith Wells - Rita's Little Sister -
Ashleigh-Louis Elliot - Rita's
Sister #2 -
Ashleigh Ludwig - Rita's Sister #3 -
Christopher Knights
- Fat Barry / Market Trader -
Emma Tate - Fly-Lady / Passerby #2 -
Tom
McGrath - Action Figure / Artist -
Sam Fell - Liam / Prophet / Ladykiller
/ Fanseller -
David Bowers - Goldfish / Fly / Shocky / Henchfrog #1 / Tadpole
-
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Karey Kirkpatrick - Slugs #2 -
Nick Park - Slugs #1 -
Plot
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 lives where he likes, Roddy schemes to get rid of Sid 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 his plumbing. He plays along and instead pushes Roddy in and flushes him away into the sewer. He is startled, and startles a slug, and as the camera pans it reveals an entire community of slugs that is startled.
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 henchrats Spike, a short, jumpy rat, Whitey, a large, dim, albino former lab rat (when Roddy says he is not involved in whatever happens because he does not belong in the sewers and claims he is an innocent bystander Whitey mistakes his name for Millicent Bystander and is thus reffered to from the rest of the movie), 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. The Toad royally despises all rodents, and it doesn't help matters any when Roddy accidentally knocks over and destroys his collection of Buckingham Palace souvenirs. He decides to have them iced…literally. He attempts to freeze them with liquid nitrogen, but fails due to Rita’s plan to get out of their (Rita and Roddy) situation. This is incidental to the Toad, because in their successful bid to escape, Rita has taken a uniquely-designed electric cable. During the escape, Roddy accidentally tears Rita's belt, and accidentally pulls down her pants. After this she uses the cable as a replacement, completely unaware of its significant value to the Toad. It is essential to the operation of the Floodgates, and therefore to his plan—to open the gates during halftime of the World Cup, and the ensuing mass bathroom break will flood the "city" and drown its population. He can then use the depopulated city as a home for millions of his own tadpole offspring.
Roddy (right) and Rita (left) arguing
over the ruby.After all the trouble of outwitting Toad and his henchrats, Roddy
finds that the ruby is a fake and breaks it in front of Rita, enraging her, for
she can now not get the money she needed for her family. Sorry about the development,
Roddy promises a real ruby for Rita if she brings him back to Kensington.
Accepting the offer, the pair first stop to visit her family before setting off and they take to Roddy warmly. During Roddy's stay, he overhears a conversation that causes him to think that Rita had double-crossed him and, as revenge, he flees with the Jammy Dodger, soon stopping to Roddy's disbelief. When Rita catches up to him, even more enraged at what Roddy has done, he is stranded on a rubber ducky she used to catch up with him. Fortunately, Rita forgives Roddy when he explains that he heard her little brother suggest selling him to the Toad - he had been paying close attention to her family in admiration. More trouble arises soon enough, with the pair encountering Spike and Whitey in a remote-controlled toy boat, with Thimblenose Ted and others reinforcing them on eggbeater jet skis. Despite their arsenal, their pursuers fail miserably—now that the two have reached a resolution, they make a formidable team.
Incensed at his minions’ repeated failures, the Toad decides to send to France for his cousin — an infamous, if somewhat laid back and degenerate, mercenary known as Le Frog, who refers to his cousin as a fruitcake, due to his obsession with rats. He brings along his henchfrogs to intercept the duo and retrieve the cable, but fails, with Roddy and Rita using a plastic bag to lift them out of the sewer and take Roddy home, with the Jammy Dodger being sacrificed along the way. Inside the house, Roddy pays Rita her promised ruby and an emerald, then proceeds to show her around, later becoming too proud to admit his loneliness. Calmly upset by this, she departs for the sewers, but is soon captured by Toad's gang.
During a conversation with Sid about half-time, Roddy realizes Toad's plan completely and has Sid flush him back to the sewers to see Rita and save the "sewer city." Re-uniting with Rita, they win a fight against Toad, and the resulting wave generated by the flushing of hundreds of toilets during the FIFA World Cup half-time compromised with liquid nitrogen before it drowns the entire rat population. After being "renowned as heroes" by the rats, Rita and Roddy bring into commision the Jammy Dodger Mark Two and sets off with her and the entire brood for new beginnings.
The 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: The Curse of the Black Pearl was made), and were told to modernise the concept. By the time the rewrite was done, the project had to be postponed to make way for the production of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit; it was finally released after not only the original Pirates of the Caribbean, but also its first sequel.
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