FLUSHED AWAY

Muhammad Islam

Flushed Away is a 2006 British/American computer-animated action/adventure comedy film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell. This animated movie marks the twisted humor of ubiquities of British lives portrayed by human-like society of city mice. The movie casts voice talents of celebrated actors and actresses like Bill Nighy, Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman.
The story was by Sam Fell, Peter Lord, Dick Clement, and Ian La Frenais, and the screenplay was written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Christopher Lloyd, Joe Keenan, and William Davies.

Plot Summary:
The story starts with a life of a pet mouse named Roddy (Hugh Jackman) who lives in a multi-storied cage in a Kensington house. His owners go on a holiday leaving Roddy behind in the big house with freedom to do whatever he likes. Roddy is a lonely mouse due to lack of mouse-company. After the people of the house are gone, Roddy gets out of the cage which was sort of a jail to him and savors the freedom within the house. He drives toy cars, goes out with dolls and picks a tux from a wardrobe in a doll house; parties as much as he like. The toys supposedly belong to the little girl living in the house who also pet Roddy. At that very night, Roddy is visited by another mouse. The mouse suddenly pops out of a tap because of a leakage or something. This mouse called Sid is from the underworld of mouse in the sewer system of London.
Roddy is asleep at night and sounds in kitchen wakes him up. He is afraid and sneaks into the kitchen to see who or what was it. Soon he discovers Sid. The upper-crust mouse Roddy sees in surprise that Sid, unlike him, is rather uncouth. Roddy finds him as belligerent who defies his privacy and does whatever he likes which includes from wasting food to dirtying the clean beds and whatnot. To Roddy’s surprise, Sid decides to stay in the house till the FIFA World Cup final between England and Germany. Roddy schemes to get rid of Sid by luring him into the “Jacuzzi”, which is actually the toilet. Sid may be an ignorant slob, but being a sewer rat, he knows his plumbing. He plays along and instead pushes Roddy in and flushes him away into the sewer.
It is Roddy’s first time in the sewer system, he is very afraid. He screams whenever the slugs in the drain or wall or pipes; the slugs screams too. Roddy finds a way into an underground city of mice. He is surprised by the imitated construction of London’s landmarks such as the Big Ben, Tower of London, etc. The sprawling sewer drains are like ‘rivers’ of the smaller version of London of mice. There, Roddy meets Rita
Malone (Kate Winslet), an enterprising scavenger rat who works the drains in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Rita does not like Roddy initially, but ends up taking him along, while her arch enemy The Toad  (Ian McKellen) sends his rat henchmen, Spike (Andy Serkis) and Whitey (Bill Nighy), after her because she had stolen back her father’s prized ruby a long time ago. The Toad despises all rodents to the point of hateful obsession, blaming rats for his fall from grace (he was once Prince Charles’ pet). He decides to have them frozen with liquid nitrogen. However, The Toad’s plan fails. Worse, during their escape, Rita takes a unique electrical cable. The cable is required to control the Floodgates. The Toad’s evil plan is to open the gates during halftime of the World Cup, drowning the rats and their underground city in sewage. He can then use the depopulated city as a home for millions of his own tadpole offspring. Roddy finds that the ruby is a fake and breaks it in front of Rita, enraging her, for she can now not get the money she needs for her large family. Roddy offers her a real ruby if she takes him back to Kensington. Accepting the offer, the pair first stops to visit her family before setting off. During Roddy’s stay, he overhears a conversation that causes him to think that Rita had double-crossed him, so he steals the Jammy Dodger.
When Rita catches up to him, she is able to clear up the misunderstanding. The pair evades Spike and Whitey pursuing in a remote-controlled toy boat, with Thimblenose Ted and others on eggbeater jet skis. During this scene, Roddy and Rita share a quick love moment. Incensed at his minions’ repeated failures, The Toad sends for his French cousin; an infamous, if somewhat laid back, mercenary known as Le Frog (Jean Reno). Le Frog and his subordinates intercept the duo and retrieve the cable, but Roddy and Rita use a plastic bag to lift themselves out of the sewer (snatching away the cable during the ascent) and get Roddy home, though the Jammy Dodger has to be sacrificed. Back home, Roddy pays Rita the promised ruby and an emerald, then proceeds to show her around his house. She at first believes he has family in the home, but noticing his cage, she realizes he’s a pet. Roddy tries to pass Sid off as his brother, but Sid and Rita know each other. Rita tries to persuade Roddy to come with her, but he is too proud to admit that he is lonely. By now, they have fallen in love but have not told each other their feelings. She departs, both of them broken-hearted, but is soon captured by The Toad. Talking to Sid about half-time; Roddy pieces together The Toad’s plan. He gives Sid his cushy position and has him flush him back to the sewers to find Rita and save the city. Together, they defeat The Toad and freeze the wave of sewage generated by the flushing of countless toilets during the FIFA World Cup halftime with liquid nitrogen before it drowns the entire rat population. Rita and Roddy build the Jammy Dodger Mark Two and set off in her with Rita’s entire brood. A newspaper article reveals England had lost on penalties. Rita and Roddy become boyfriend and girlfriend. Later while the credits start, Roddy’s former owner Tabitha comes back with a new pet (a cat), which frightens Sid.
The uniqueness exhibited by the aesthetic creative minds worked behind the scene is realized when you see the pool of sewer slugs perform as an orchestra, French frogs and the toad overlord boards on to the villainous plans and the acrobatic moves of Rita and Roddy all over the sewer trying to escape from the grasp of frog army etc.