Flushed Away

I've recently been catching up on the glut of animated films released in 2006 and out of the whole crop I found FLUSHED AWAY to be one of the very best. It's not the animation or even the story (which is good by the way) I found special...it was the film's ability to create believable characters. The plot is simple enough...uptown, or should I say "upworld" gets flushed down the toilet and has to find his way in the sewers of London. Said mouse happens to be voiced by Hugh Jackman who does some mighty fine work in this role. As a matter of fact, the vocal cast is a veritable all-star of the international set, Jean Reno, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis, David Suchet, Ian McKellen and Kate Winslet all offering their talents here and the results are truly a delight. My personal fave is the Sid Vicious rat done by Shane Richie of the EASTENDERS. The fact the subplot involves the World Cup of soccer certainly does help the action here either. Good fun to impress both old and young alike and a far cry better than most of the cartoon features released that year.