Flushed Away

Boy, do I have a different opinion than the first person who wrote a review on this movie! It makes me wonder if we actually saw the same film!

Last night my son and I went to see a sneak preview showing of Flushed Away. After leaving the theater, all I can say is that I am very thankful that the tickets were free and that I didn't have to pay for this waste of good film.

What is Flushed Away?

Well, where do I begin? Flushed Away is a movie about an upscale rat/mouse named Roddy who gets flushed down the toilet by another rat/mouse who has come from the sewer. After being flushed, Roddy finds himself in an world where rodents rule including cities with businesses and so forth. As Roddy has lived in a caged environment most of his life, he does not know how to act and think about these issues and this causes him to fall ill with unscrupulous characters as well as a female rat/mouse named Rita who hopefully becomes his savior to return him to his upper world outside the sewer.

That's what the story is about essentially. Naturally there are villains who are enemies of the rodent population. They are sinister in nature plotting the demise of all of the rodents in the sewer. The plot is plain, and of course, in the end you can probably figure out what happens as most children's stories do have a happy ending.

The Problem

I realize I am being rather vague in a great deal of this film, but that is because I do not wish to give away the entire plot line should someone want to go to the movie. However, there are some serious problems with this film that I would like to point out before you waste your money on Flushed Away.

1. The film is not funny. I'm sorry but other than a few mild chuckles within the film, the only really funny part of the film is the very end of it which has a wonderful catch line. I sat in the theater absolutely in shock about the film's perspective and lack of true comedic elements.
2. The film has too many adult elements. The film has too much action and really violence if you are paying attention to what the plot line really is. Most children laugh at this movie because of the action scenes not really understanding what the story is really about. In addition some of the reasoning as to why the "bad guys" are after the "good guys" require an understanding of the value and purpose of collecting certain items and how machinery works. Therefore if a child really understood what the story was really about, they would probably find it not that funny.
3. The trailers of this movie show most of the interesting and funny parts of it that would have made it funny if you would have seen it for the first time. If you have watched the trailers, you will feel as though you have watched most of the film as there is not enough substance to support anything else. Since my son watches trailers of this film and has done so for months online, naturally I had seen those things and did not find the rest of the movie remotely interesting or comedic.
4. The graphics of this film while colorful are lacking in crispness. If you focused on the main characters in the film's scenes then you could not really see anything else as crisply. Usually films of this nature have hidden elements of surprise in them, but this was lost as the film's background either blended into the foreground or was out of focus.

The Major Problem

The major problem with Flushed Away is that Nick Park and Steve Box of Aardman Studios did not direct this film and it shows it. For those of you who do not know who Nick Park and Steve Box are, they are the directors of Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the WereRabbit. Their talent and expertise is what made that film win an academy award this year.

Quite obviously their talents were sorely missed on Flushed Away as this film did not have anything "Aardman" in nature within it other than the "overbite" nature of the characters mouths which is evident not only in Wallace and Gromit features, but in Chicken Run.

Nick Park and Steve Box also interject their own personality and humor into their films and that again was truly missing in Flushed Away.

Anything Good About This Film?

As Scrat was in the Ice Age movies, the slugs are the show stealers in this film for anything that is remotely funny. However, if you have seen Ice Age movies, then these things seem to become boring after a while (especially in the Ice Age 2 film which was mostly a "Scrat" movie than anything else.

Yes, the slugs are cute, and they "sing" well, but this was supposed to be movie about a mouse/rat and not a slug. Perhaps if the movie was written around the slugs instead it would have been funnier.

Also, the ending is funny. (Won't give the ending away -- you do have to laugh at SOMETHING!)

My son, who has high functioning autism, actually liked the movie although he did admit that he enjoyed Barnyard and Open Season better. A great many children in the theater laughed but it was nothing like I have heard with other animated films of character and substance.

Again, the missing elements of Steve Box and Nick Park are evident.

Suggestion

Good luck.

If you have a child who is intent on going to this film when it is playing in the major run, then please go to a matinee if you can. This film is not worth full price.

If you can put off going to the movies for several months, try to check this out at the dollar show or pick it up to view on Netflix when it comes out on DVD. At least in the DVD release there may be additional bonus features that can make up for the lack of substance and humor that is sorely lacking in this film.