Reviews of Flushed Away (Widescreen Edition) (2006)

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Perhaps that's because it's from Aardman Studios, famous for "Wallace And Gromit" and "Chicken Run." Aardman is also well known for their claymation style of animation, which is lovingly preserved, albeit through the use of CGI in "Flushed Away."

The story revolves around Roddy (Hugh Jackman), a family pet who gets flushed into the sewers of London by an unwelcome guest named Sid (Shane Richie). Sid takes over the world "up there" while Roddy is left to fight for his life in the seedy underbelly of London's sewers. In all actuality, though, life in the sewers isn't too terribly bad. When Roddy arrives there, he finds a near replica of London full of busy streets and shops. He decides that he must get home, and seeks out the aid of Rita (Kate Winslet), a female rat who's known for shady dealings. On her tail (pun intended) are the goons of The Toad (Sir Ian McKellan), who says that a ruby he owned which fell from the crown of either Prince Charles or the Queen (I don't remember which) was stolen by her and he wants it back. Of course Roddy thinks that by assisting him in finding the ruby, he'll get help in return to get back home. What he gets instead is more trouble when Rita steals something else from The Toad.

From there, the story becomes a pretty decent action/comic yarn where The Toad's cousin, Le Frog (Jean Reno) and his henchmen try to retrieve the item that Rita has stolen. It's an integral part of a master plan for revenge by The Toad on all of rodent-kind. Along the way, Roddy and Rita become close friends and Roddy decides that he has to help Rita and her family. It's all tied nicely together in the end and is definitely fun to watch.

The voice talents are wonderful. Jackman, Winslet, McKellan and Reno all do wonderful jobs. Andy Serkis, who portrayed Gollum in "Lord of the Rings" and did a lot of the physical movements of Kong in Peter Jackson's "King Kong," plays one of The Toad's henchmen along with Bill Nighy, recent of the latest "Pirate's of the Caribbean" flick.

The humor is, as expected, well grounded in British comedy and uses slapstick at will to enduce laughter from children. There are plenty of crotch injuries, one fart joke, and a few pokes at stereotypical Americans and the French. It's all done with good intentions and there's nothing really offensive here.

It will hold the attention of both young and old, but children will probably enjoy it more than adults. I enjoyed it but I have a tendency to enjoy silly children's flicks like this. I'm also a fan of Aardman's other work, so perhaps I'm a little biased. Rest assured that whenever it leaves the theaters and eventually hits the DVD rack, I'll be one of the first to buy it for myself and my family.

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The first two reviews pretty well summed up this great movie! Funny, fast paced and lots of in jokes, past film references, sight gags from other Aardman films, a good story and was well executed!

I highly recommend this movie if you love "Chicken Run", and "Wallace & Gromit". If you have not seen any of Aardmans other shows/movies you will miss a few sight gags, but that is certionly no reason not to see this! So in the end; This movie is a must see and definitely fun for the whole family.

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I have to be honest. This probably deserves four stars instead of five, but despite a sometimes-rushed narrative there were so many delightful moments in this film that I couldn't with a light heart give it less. In the never-ending search for new subjects to animate, no one had before attempted to tell a story about sewer rats. Fortunately, the rats in FLUSHED AWAY are remarkably humanoid, largely covered with light-colored skin, and sporting not terribly disgusting tails. So while this is a story of rats, they are rats with all of the unpleasantries associated with the vermin stripped away.

The film was made by Aardman Productions, the company founded on the success of Nick Park's amazing Claymation projects, most famously the Wallace and Gromit films as well as CHICKEN RUN. This film is all CGI, I suspect because most of the scenes are set in the sewer, which is surrounded by water. I'm not sure that it would be possible to do a Claymation project that involves copious amounts of water. Although the film is CGI, all the characters sport the look that we all associate with Nick Park projects. Interestingly, Park does not appear in the credits, although the aesthetic he created permeates the film.

The story tells the ordeals suffered by Roddy, a pet rat owned by a little girl in Kensington in London. When the family is on vacation and the house is invaded by a street punk rat (voiced by Shane Ritchie of THE EASTENDERS), the elegant rat finds himself flushed down the toilet to the sewer, where he discovers an entire community of rats. Wanting to return home, he is directed to a boat owned by a female rat named Rita. The rest of the film deals both with Rita's attempt to help Roddy get home as well as their struggles to evade the minions of a toad sewer lord. The plot is adequate to the task, but what is delightful about the film is the wonderfully fresh and inventive humor. There are also a number of animals used to great effect that have amazingly been neglected by the legions of earlier animal animators, in particular snails, which are used for comic relief and for -I am not kidding -musical background. There is also a wonderful gang of frogs that are, of course, French. Led by their chief Le Frog, they are masters of the martial arts and have their very own mime, who provides some of the film's finest comic moments.

One reason the film succeeds so wonderfully is the first cast voiceover talent. Hugh Jackman gets to put some of his talents to use that were never needed in the X-Men films, even getting to show off his outstanding singing voice on a couple of numbers. Kate Winlet is appropriately fetching as Rita and Ian McKellan is marvelously over-the-top as Toad. Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy voice Toad's two main henchmen. One of the great delights of the movie is Le Frog, voiced by Jean Reno.

I think this is a film that can be equally enjoyed by parents and their kids. The preview audience that I saw this with contained probably more adults than it will enjoy upon general release, but the few kids in the audience laughed very hard throughout. So did the adults. There are a number of animated films coming out in the next couple of months for the holidays, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this one might end up being the best -and certainly the funniest -of the bunch.

Honest reviews on Flushed Away (Widescreen Edition) (2006)

I found Flushed Away a very amusing movie that my entire family enjoyed. The story line was predictable, but enjoyable. It was one of those movies you can watch over an over.

The signing slugs were one of the perks in the movie, very, very amusing, though everything else was just laugh-out loud comedy.

It's defintily a family movie that everyone can enjoy.

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Wonderful animation movie with cute songs, adorable critters and sweet characters. A privileged pet rat gets flushed by an unwanted, rude guest (another rat from the sewers) and is sent into a world far different than his pampered cage. He struggles to get back 'up top' to his old home and easy lifestyle. However, a rich rat discovers that his cushy life is pretty empty without friends and family and must decide if they are better than clean cages and cuisine. Delightful family entertainment!

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THIS IS A REVIEW FOR THE 3D BLU-RAY.

I will start this review the way I felt when I first saw it in the movie theater...

1. You have to LOVE Cirque Du Soleil. Not just "like"...you have to love them.

2. Don't spend even one second trying to analyse the plot. It's about a young woman who is mesmerized with a young male aerialist and she tries to find him again when they are separated. Everything else are sections of different Las Vegas Cirque shows and even in their entirety don't always make sense. If you try to understand why this is here or that is there, you will run out screaming. Turn off your brain and just let your eyes enjoy all the spectacular.

3. It helps a lot to have seen at least a few of these shows in Las Vegas because the movie selects some of the best parts from each. This will be sort of a video souvenir book for you.

4. Did I mention you have to LOVE Cirque du Soleil?

The thrilling sequences that the couple encounter individually are from the Las Vegas productions of "O," "Ka!", "The Beatles' Love," "Mystere," "Chris Angel's Believe," "Zumanity," and "Viva Elvis!"...and they come back together for a romantic aerial (updated from "Ka!").

The 3D was spectacular on the movie screen and I have absolutely no qualms about giving it a full 5 of 5 for the 3D Blu-ray. Scenes from "O" will have you putting down towels in case of water spilling out of your TV. There is excellent depth and a few really wonderful popouts. Colors are glorious!!!

I have been to most of these shows in Las Vegas. While I feel there is never ever any way to capture the experience of seeing them live, especially when performers fly overhead of you, this film does something that seeing it live never could: you will never see the performers this close up, no matter how good a seat you have. The 3D cameras would occasionally be anywhere from 40 to 80 feet in the air, right there with the performers.

Audio is likewise a 5 out of 5. Great sound all around the room. (Speaking of music, my favorite Cirque show in Vegas is "The Beatles' Love" and there are about six scenes from it (with Beatles music in the film, too), including "Get Back," "Octopus's Garden," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and the film ends with a group shot of curtain moments for the different show casts set to "All You Need Is Love." "Love" fans, rejoice!)

Extras are really minimal and are located on the 2D Blu-ray disc. A behind-the-scenes look with James Cameron that is only about 2-3 minutes long. There is a featurette with star Erica Linz that looks at creating a series of acrobatic moves, and that 10-15 minutes is only minimally interesting. The remaining extra is an ad for several Vegas Cirque shows.

For fans of Cirque du Soleil and 3D, this comes highly recommended.

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WOW! A real VISUAL FEAST. Incredible talent and imagination. (This starts a bit slow but hang in there, you get used to the pace and it's a great show.) I always wanted to see a live performance in Vegas but it's pretty pricey for me and will probably never happen so I was THRILLED to have the opportunity to see them perform in this movie. I was not disappointed at all!

The acrobatics, the skill, the choreography, the fantastic sets etc. are about impossible NOT to appreciate. The acrobatics, by the way, are somewhat creepy at times but even still you just can't help but appreciate the incredible control and talent of these artists it's fantastic, sometimes sensual and perhaps erotic (but G rated so it's ok for the kids to watch)

I believe you have to think of this movie like watching a weird dream a circus kind of dream. And, you don't have to "understand" it to appreciate it. Just enjoy the show, the costumes, the talent, the cool sets, the pure fantasy of it all.

There IS a loose "story" of sorts to this dialogue-free show... A young girl goes to a circus and is watching an aerialist IN WHITE PANTS who falls (30+ feet?) to the sand of the circus ring floor which collapses to suck him in (like falling into the sand in the top part of an hour-glass). She rushes from the audience seats to help him when he falls and gets sucked in too into another circus type world/dimension. Turns out he's been "captured". She see's many cool circus acts in this new place as she looks for him. And there is a "battle" of sorts (all on visible wires, but it doesn't matter that you can see the wires because it's just cool to watch and you can't help but appreciate the precision of choreography and all to keep that many wires from getting crossed/tangled while they do all this, and small spoiler: the captured (WHITE PANTS) aerialist is freed. Once freed, he goes wandering around and like the girl, he also sees some incredible things.

About 3/5 of the way through, the WHITE PANTS aerialist and the girl almost find each other but are kept apart. The girl seems to walk out of the circus tent area (back to where they fell through??) and a group of the people that helped rescue the WHITE PANTS guy come across her and she tries to show them the flier/picture of the guy she's looking for but before they can help her they are attacked by creatures and the girl falls into a chasm or something. (Then comes a spiked wall fight with NO wires).

Eventually, the girl wakes up in a safe place and the guy in the WHITE PANTS finds her and they do some aerial stuff together, flirt, play and fall in love...

All in all it's pretty cool fantastic even. Sit back and enjoy the dreamlike fantasy worth watching more than once!

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I had seen the trailer for this movie a couple of times in the theater in recent weeks and couldn't wait to see this movie. Other than the trailer, I had no previous knowledge about what I could expect (I have never been to any Cirque du Soleil show before).

"Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D" (91 min.) brings a very simple story line (girl meet boy (the Aerialist) at a circus, boy disappears into a bottomless pit, girl chases after boy and eventually she finds him) to various scenes from a smorgasbord of Cirque du Soleil shows. There is of course no dialogue, so the visuals and the music are key in any such movie. First as to the music, I thought it was rather bland and uneven, but then midway into the movie we get a huge chunk of Beatles songs (Blackbird; Octopus's Garden; Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds; For the Benefit of Mr. Kite; Get Back; and later also While My Guitar Gently Weeps as the credits start), and immediately the movie perks up for me. As to the performances, they are outstanding and at times jaw-dropping (I particularly liked the trampoline performances set to the Viva Elvis music, but also the extended closing aerial ballet piece between the 2 protagonists is outstanding).

Several comments: first, it wasn't until the credits started rolling that I realized this movie is in essence a "greatest hits"/"best of" Cirque du Soleil as it is made clear that all these scenes come from existing shows. Second, despite this being executive produced by James "Avatar" Cameron, I didn't feel like the 3D played all that an important role in enjoying the movie. Third, even though the running time is listed at 91 min., the end-credits are just about the longest I have ever seen and run close to 10 min. if you can believe that. Bottom line: although I enjoyed the movie and the visuals are at time stunning, it was not the "over the top" experience that I had expected after having seen the trailer some weeks ago. That said, I still have seeing Cirque du Soleil's "The Beatles Love" show on my bucket list!

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Talk about Systems Overload. And in 3D! Maybe you should look into a 3D DVD player from Amazon, although it has been brought to my attention that the only 3D players are Blu-Ray, which will play standard DVDs, but I doubt if they play 3D DVDs.

This G-rated fantasy can save you a fortune in tickets because it has excerpts from five or six spectacular Las Vegas shows, and you know how much THEY cost! Among them we see selections that feature Beatles music, Elvis music, a water ballet, and some extremely athletic work that looks like it's drawn from a Chinese opera (or at least like the one I saw at the opera house here in Seattle).

This show features a flimsy plot built around a sweet attraction between a lovely young French-looking woman (Erica Linz) and a strapping young fellow (Igor Zaripov) who looks Russian.

You can expect:

* Astonishing aerial work (I expected applause like Seattle's Teatro Zinzanni);

* Cleverly choreographed synchronized swimming (a salute to Esther Williams);

* An engaging little tricycle that leads our heroine from place to place;

* Rubber-boned gymnasts (you have to see them to believe them);

* Athletic martial arts (Jackie Chan trained in Chinese opera as a child);

* Gigantic crustaceans and centipedes in a menacing dance;

* A Spiderman-themed bit on trampolines;

* Mind-boggling special effects with flowing curtains and streaming sand;

* A lovely aerial pas de deux for the finale.

This is a visual feast with unbelievable athletes in outrageous costumes showing us their amazing stuff. Not much plot, but we don't go to Cirque du Soleil for plots! We go to be dazzled and we are! This one is almost worth the extra for the 3D.

It's comforting to see all the safety lines on the amazing rigging for these shows. This would mean full employment for every theatrical rigger in Las Vegas. Many of you watch the spectacle; I watch the logistics. Wow!

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I purchased this movie because I wanted to see it in 3D. I was not disappointed. The movie had such beautiful effects and you felt like you were in the audience watching it live. The colors were great and the general beauty of the production was great. I loved the Arial and water displays. The story was cute, but this is a production of beautiful grandeur. I am so happy to have this movie in my 3D collection. Again, I think the 3D was spectacular and almost as good as watching it live. It's a dance in the air and water. Loved it!! I did get this previously viewed, but could not see any damage or even sign of use with the 3 Disc set.