DreamWorks today released its latest CG animated feature, a humorous and action-backed rat tale co-produced by world-famous U.K. toon house Aardman Animations. Flushed Away splashes into theaters across North America in hopes that the toon-packed summer hasn’t quite quenched moviegoers’ thirst for zany computer-generated fun with animals.
Flushed Away stars Hugh Jackman as the voice of Roddy St. James, a pampered, high rise-dwelling rat who leaves the posh life when he gets flushed down the toilet and into the sewer where he makes new friends and learns how the other half lives. Kate Winslet is Rita, a tough-as-nails sewer boat driver who captures Roddy’s heart and Sir Ian Mckellen is the frog villain, Toad. The voice cast also includes Andy Serkis, Bill Nighy and Shane Ritchie.
Unlike DreamWorks an Aardman’s previous two collaborations, the clay-animated Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Flushed Away is created entirely in CG. Written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan and Will Davies, the pic is directed by Sam Fell, an animator whose short films include Chump and Pop, and David Bowers, an animation veteran who most recently served as senior storyboard artist on Were-Rabbit. Read some of their observations on the making of the film in this month’s ‘Animated People’ feature on this site.
Flushed Away has been garnering mostly positive reviews from the nation’s leading critics and is the weekend’s widest rollout, but it does have some competition in the family film category. Buena Vista’s Santa Clause 3: Escape Clause opens nearly as wide today with Time Allen reprising the role of the jolly one. The first two Santa Clause movies performed quite well at the box office but this latest entry arrives fairly quietly due to a sparse marketing push. With a much more robust campaign, Flushed Away is likely to win the weekend, especially since 20th Century Fox rolled back the theater count for the much talked about cpomedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. In an effort to avoid a Snakes on a Plane situation, where box office fails to live up to the buzz, the studio has released the critically acclaimed Borat in just over 800 theaters.
The next animated release is right around the bend. Warner Bros.’ musical penguin movie, Happy Feet, arrives in theaters on Nov. 17. Read more about the film in the December issue of Animation Magazine, and go behind the scenes with Flushed Away in the November issue. Both are currently available at Barnes & Noble locations and other booksellers.
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