Flushed Away

Flushed Away is a 2006 animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features. The film was directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, and written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan and Will Davies. The film stars the voices of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Shane Richie, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis and Jean Reno. In the film, a pampered fancy rat named Roddy St. James is flushed down the toilet in his Kensington apartment by a sewer rat named Sid, and befriends a scavenger named Rita Malone in order to get back home while evading a sinister toad and his hench-rats.

Flushed Away was the third and final DreamWorks and Aardman co-production following Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Director Fell conceived the concept of rats falling in love in the sewers while working on Chicken Run. In 2001, Fell developed a story and pitched it to DreamWorks. The project was announced in July 2002, followed by comedy writing duo Clement and La Frenais being contracted to write the script, which had the working title Ratropolis. In 2003, Bowers joined Fell as co-director. It was the first Aardman project made primarily in CGI animation instead of using their usual claymation – this was because using water on plasticine models could damage them.

The film's premiere was held on 22 October 2006 during the Tokyo International Film Festival, followed by a wide release in the United States by Paramount Pictures on 3 November 2006, and in the United Kingdom by UIP on 1 December. It received positive reviews from critics, but was a box-office disappointment, grossing $178 million against a $149 million production budget, resulting in an estimated loss of $109 million for the studios. The failure led to Aardman ending its collaboration deal with DreamWorks. The film received nominations for the BAFTA Award and Critics' Choice Award for Best Animated Feature. It received eight nominations at the 34th Annie Awards, winning five, including for the screenplay and, for McKellen, Voice Acting.

Roddy St. James is a pampered pet rat who lives in a large Kensington apartment. One night, while his owners are away on holiday, a sewer rat named Sid arises from the sink's drain and determines to stay and watch the 2006 FIFA World Cup final. Imagining a world where Sid takes over his "sweet life", Roddy attempts to get rid of Sid by flushing him down the Jacuzzi-brand toilet, falsely claiming it to be an actual Jacuzzi. But Sid is not fooled and flushes Roddy instead.

Roddy finds himself in Ratropolis, a sewer city made out of various bits of junk, resembling London. He is told to seek out Rita Malone, an enterprising scavenger who works the drains in her authentic boat, the Jammy Dodger and who might be able to help him get home. Roddy and Rita are abducted by rats Spike and Whitey and brought before their boss, the Toad, as Rita stole back a prized ruby originally scavenged by her father. The Toad plans to have Roddy and Rita frozen with liquid nitrogen, but the pair escape. Rita takes the ruby, and a unique electric master cable needed to control Ratropolis' sewer floodgates.

Roddy deduces that the ruby is a fake and easily shatters it, snarling Rita. Roddy offers Rita a real ruby if she takes him back to Kensington, to which she agrees. The pair first stop to visit her family before setting off. During Roddy's stay, he overhears a conversation that leads him to believe that Rita is selling him out to the Toad, so he reneges on the deal and steals the Jammy Dodger. When Rita catches up to him, she clears up the misunderstanding. The pair evade pursuit from Spike, Whitey, and their accomplices.

Incensed at his minions' repeated failures, the Toad sends for his French cousin, Le Frog. It is revealed that the Toad was Prince Charles' favorite childhood pet until he was abruptly replaced by a rat and flushed down a toilet, resulting in his hatred of rodents. Le Frog and his subordinates intercept Roddy and Rita to retrieve the cable, but the duo manages to escape out of the sewer drain and back to Roddy's apartment in Kensington, though the Jammy Dodger is destroyed.

Roddy delivers Rita the promised ruby as well as an emerald to build a new Jammy Dodger, then shows her around his apartment. She at first believes he has family but notices his cage and realizes he is a pet and alone. Rita tries to persuade Roddy to come with her, but he is too proud to admit his loneliness and rebuffs her. Rita leaves the apartment via the toilet only for her to be kidnapped, with the Toad taking back the master cable. Roddy joins Sid to watch the game. When Sid mentions half-time, Roddy pieces together the Toad's plan: to open the floodgates during half-time of the World Cup, when all the humans will most likely be using their toilets, allowing the ensuing, enormous wave of drainage to destroy Ratropolis, allowing the Toad to use the depopulated city as a home for his tadpole children. Roddy entrusts Sid with his home and cushy position and has Sid flush him back down the sewers again. He frees Rita, and together they defeat the Toad and his henchman by getting Toad and Le Frog's tongues stuck to moving gears and freezing the wave of drainage with liquid nitrogen. Hailed as a hero, Roddy agrees to stay in Ratropolis with Rita. Soon after, the two, as well as Rita's family, set off on the Jammy Dodger II.