Flushed Away
Short description
Flushed Away centres on Roddy, a pet mouse living in comfort in a well-off London home. When Sid, a sewer rat, turns up through the kitchen sink and settles in, Roddy tries to get rid of him by luring him into the toilet. The plan backfires, and Roddy is swept down into the sewers, where he meets Rita, a resourceful scavenger with a boat, and runs into the rodent-hating Toad and his two henchmen. Stranded far from home, Roddy has to find a way back while getting caught up in the Toad's scheme against the sewer's inhabitants.
The film was released in 2006 and runs 85 minutes. It was directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, for both of whom it was the first feature they directed; Bowers went on to make Astro Boy and three Diary of a Wimpy Kid films, while Fell later directed The Tale of Despereaux, ParaNorman and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Dick Clement, William Davies and Ian La Frenais wrote the screenplay, and Peter Lord, David Sproxton and Cecil Kramer produced for Aardman with DreamWorks Animation and Paramount. Hugh Jackman voices Roddy and Kate Winslet voices Rita, with Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Bill Nighy and Andy Serkis among the supporting voice cast.
Made for about 149 million USD, it took roughly 178 million USD worldwide, a return below its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.6/10 from about 149,000 votes and on TMDB 6.3/10 from more than 4,000 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 6.9/10 from 137 reviews, so reviewers rated it somewhat more positively than the wider public did.
What's left behind the scenes
- Andy Serkis voiced the character Spike, who could also have been voiced by Robert De Niro or William Shatner.
- The role of Le Frog ultimately went to Jean Reno. The French actor beat out actors such as Stellan Skarsgård, Kevin Kline, and Johnny Depp.
- In the very first trailer for the animated film, Roddy the rat was not the girl's only pet. The house also had a cage with two hamsters, who seemed to be Roddy's servants. But in the final version of the film, these characters were removed. Apparently, to make Roddy seem more lonely than spoiled.
- This is Aardman's first work entirely based on CGI technology. The reason for using computer animation, rather than the company's usual work with plasticine, was the large number of "water scenes".
- The sounds made by the slug that Roddy meets in the sewer also belong to Hugh Jackman.
- According to Peter Lord, a co-founder of Aardman, the original characters of the cartoon were supposed to be pirates. This version of the script was even passed on to Dreamworks shortly after the release of the film “Chicken Run” (2000). But, considering the colossal success of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, which it was impossible to compete with in the pirate movie market, the concept of the Aardman project had to be changed. But by the time the script was rewritten, work was in full swing on the cartoon “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” (2005), and the “Flush Away” project had to be put on hold.
- In the scene where Roddy flushes himself down the sewer for the first time, he accidentally catches a small clownfish looking for his father, who strongly resembles Nemo from the cartoon “Finding Nemo” (2003).
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