Flushed Away (2006)

Director: Sam Fell

Cast: Hugh Jackman as Roddy (voice), Kate Winslet as Rita (voice), Ian McKellen as The Toad (voice), Jean Reno as Le Frog (voice), Bill Nighy as Whitey (voice), Andy Serkis as Spike (voice), Shane Richie as Sid (voice), Kathy Burke as Rita's Mum (voice), David Suchet as Rita's Dad (voice), Miriam Margolyes as Rita's Grandma (voice), Rachel Rawlinson as Tabitha (voice), Susan Duerden as Mother (voice), Miles Richardson as Father (voice), John Motson as Football Commentator (voice), Douglas Weston as Newspaper Seller (voice)

Like a lot of film reviewers, I had a lot of reservations about this
film when I first saw the trailer. At first I thought it was going to
be just another hastily made CGI cartoon about edgy cartoon animals,
filled with top 40 or dance songs and full of topical jokes. The fact
that as I waited for the movie to start, half the trailers were for
more CGI cartoons about edgy cartoon animals and the other half was for
films about trash talking fairy tale characters.

Thankfully this movie was a blessed reprieve from all of that. In
Flushed Away, Aardman studios has made yet another family classic that
will still be as entertaining ten years from now as it is today.
Granted, it's loaded with a lot of pop songs and oldies, but most of
them are sung by a chorus of slugs (which makes for one of the best
running gags I've seen in a while).

The story actually felt pretty fresh for a family movie, or any movie
for that matter. While it's by no means unpredictable, it doesn't feel
too much like it's treading over the same ground most family films seem
to go over these days. The jokes were surprisingly clever too. While
there's the usual slapstick humor, there's also plenty of highbrow
jokes thrown in the mix. (How often do you find references to Kafka in
an animated feature, after all?) What I liked best about this movie was
that Aardman stayed true to its roots of making stop-motion films. My
initial worry was that they had sold out and were going to just make
CGI films from here on out like everybody else, but when you watch this
film, you'll see that they do as much as possible to maintain the look
of their other animated films like Chiken Run and Wallace & Gromit.
Overall this is a great selection to take your family to see, and worth
seeing even if you're a grown up too.