Flushed Away: Critic Reviews

Flushed Away lacks the action-contraption dottiness of a Wallace and Gromit adventure, but it hits its own sweet spot of demented delight.

The first computer-animated feature to come from Aardman Animations is filled with exuberant and infectious silliness.

A disappointing CG-animated film.

Flushed Away is this year's wittiest animated adventure saga.

Flushed Away, Aardman's first computer-generated cartoon, does away with the clay but leaves the craft and emotion intact, resulting in a film that earns its place among the Aardman classics.

Kids will probably be in stinky-sewage heaven with the new computer-animated critter comedy Flushed Away, but even they may realize they're up the proverbial creek in a boat with a faulty motor.

Though Flushed Away duplicates the stop-motion, clay animation look of Aardman's earlier Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit, it was made using computer software and its liberated action sequences are truly dazzling.

Actually, a lot about the film is certified cool, from its whirly animation to the hordes of crunchy pop songs on the soundtrack.

The animation, computer-generated as opposed to Aardman's signature claymation style, pops with clever visual touches, and the voice cast, led by the omnipresent and ever likable Hugh Jackman as Roddy, is first-rate.

The chatter is as zingy for the adults in the theater as the action is zippy for the kiddies.

After the fourth electrocution gag, the 10th smack in the face and the 12th assault on a wee rodent crotch, we could all use something quiet.

This delightful computer animation is less twee than Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, with more action and a broader American sensibility.

Little kids are sure to be bowled over by Roddy's reluctant heroism and Rita's resourcefulness, while the more grown up among us should appreciate the gleeful pokes at pop culture and Anglo-French relations.

This movie lacks the cleverness of the Aardman classics, but it more than makes up for that with its nonstop action.

Flushed Away is more fun than a bushel of slugs in a sewer. And considering the slugs in this sewer, that's saying quite a bit.

With Flushed Away, Aardman [Animations] has moved away from a guy and his dog to a girl and her mouse, but they're almost just as fun.

Boasts undeniably smart and eye-catching qualities that are significantly diluted by the relentlessly frantic and overbearing behavior of most characters; someone is always loudly imposing himself upon another, to diminishing returns of enjoyment.

How this thing got made in Hollywood is a mystery, but I laughed at most of it, especially the mean stereotypes about the French and the even meaner stereotype about England's soccer team.

Here's hoping that Flushed Away won't be the last gurgle from Aardman in feature-film form. Aardman shows us that animated humor, even in the toilet, can still be good clean fun.

Toilet humour and Aardman characters go together like tar and tea.

Flushed Away subsumes its British charm with an aggressive American pace and more obvious body-function humour, and the film shows evidence of an awkward fit between American and British sensibilities.

It's better than 90% of the animated fare of the last few years. It's refreshing not to have to qualify the movie's appeal by appending the words, 'for the kids'.

Aardman has turned out a gloriously droll comic adventure that combines British wit with Yankee exuberance.

Flushed Away will probably make you want to revisit some old, classic Wallace & Gromit short. The Wrong Trousers, perhaps. That would be spot-on.

Deficient in the comedy of reticence discouragement that is Aardman's (or maybe just Nick Park's) unique strength. I don't want to say the Englishmen were corrupted, but I think they allowed their strongest, quirkiest instincts to be tethered.