---
title: "Flushed Away"
year: 2006
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/flushed-away"
fi1m_id: "flushed-away"
imdb_id: "tt0424095"
tmdb_id: 11619
wikidata_id: "Q752301"
fi1m_score: 64
critics_score: 62
critics_reviews: 9
published: "2026-10-01T19:06:54.561110+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-01T19:06:55.113117+00:00"
region: "AT"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Flushed Away (2006)

Directed by David Bowers, Sam Fell · 1h 25m · FSK AA · Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family

## Identity

Flushed Away

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/flushed-away
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** flushed-away
- **IMDb ID:** tt0424095
- **TMDB ID:** 11619
- **Wikidata ID:** Q752301
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424095/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11619, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q752301

**Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 62 from 9 reviews

*In a sentence:* A rat, a boat made of rubbish and a Greek chorus of singing slugs; the slugs win

> Aardman’s first go at computer animation is quick, busy and often funny, with a sewer London built from junk that rewards a second look. It is also louder and more frantic than the studio’s clay films, and it mistakes speed for charm.

## Synopsis

Roddy (Hugh Jackman) is a pet rat living alone and in comfort in a Kensington flat while his owners are away for the summer. Then Sid (Shane Richie), a sewer rat with no manners, arrives up the kitchen sink and settles in. Roddy’s plan to flush him out goes wrong and it is Roddy who goes down the lavatory, landing in a city beneath London built from whatever Londoners have thrown away. There he meets Rita (Kate Winslet), who runs a boat called the Jammy Dodger. She is being chased by two henchmen, Whitey (Bill Nighy) and Spike (Andy Serkis), on behalf of The Toad (Ian McKellen), who rules the sewer and wants something she has taken. Roddy wants to get home. Rita has the only boat.

## Review

Aardman, the Bristol studio that made its name moving plasticine a frame at a time, has here made a film on computers, and the first thing to say is that you can tell and the second is that it mostly does not matter. *Flushed Away* sends a pampered Kensington pet rat called Roddy (Hugh Jackman) down the lavatory and into a city under London that the sewer rats have built out of what the city above threw away. It runs 85 minutes, carries a U, and it is a decent, lively family film that would be a better one if it stopped shouting.

The city is the achievement. David James’s production design builds a second London from rubbish: a skyline of teapots and tin cans, a boat called the Jammy Dodger that is a bath with an outboard, lamps that were once bottles, a palace for The Toad furnished with whatever a toad might find glamorous.

The characters look like Aardman characters. They have the wide mouths, the heavy brows, the slightly startled eyes, and the animators have kept the studio’s habit of letting a face do a little too much. What has gone is the stillness. Clay animators pause because every frame costs them; here nothing costs anything, so nothing pauses. Roddy never stands in a doorway and thinks. He is already running.

The voices are well chosen. Jackman makes Roddy a man who has never been told no and is discovering what it sounds like. Kate Winslet’s Rita is brisk and unimpressed and rather more fun than the script gives her reason to be. Ian McKellen’s Toad is the best thing in the cast, a creature of swollen aristocratic grievance who delivers every line as if it were a complaint about the service, and Jean Reno turns up late as Le Frog, his cousin, and gets most of the lines parents will repeat in the car. Bill Nighy and Andy Serkis, as the henchmen Whitey and Spike, do the double act the film relies on whenever it needs a scene to move.

And then there are the slugs. Small, pale, big-eyed, they appear whenever the plot pauses and sing, in close harmony, a verse of whatever is appropriate to the mood. We laughed the first time, and the second, and by the end we were waiting for them. It is the one joke in the film that depends on timing rather than noise, a held moment and then a tiny voice, and it is telling that the quietest gag in a very loud film is the one everybody remembers.

The loudness is the problem. Harry Gregson-Williams’s score drives under nearly everything, and where it stops a pop song takes over, so there is rarely a moment of silence in which a joke can land. John Venzon and Erika Dapkewicz cut the chases as if afraid a child might look away, and somewhere past the hour mark we found we had stopped laughing and were simply watching things fall over. The screenplay is credited to five writers, with Lise Mayer also on the credits, and it reads that way: a run of good lines strung on a plot about a sewer villain with a plan, and a steady supply of film references that are there for the adults and do not much serve the rats.

Against Aardman’s own record this is a step down. [*Chicken Run*](https://film.one/film/chicken-run) (2000) and *The Curse of the Were-Rabbit* (2005) were built on characters who wanted something and a camera patient enough to watch them want it. This has a hero who wants to go home, which is fine, and a film too busy to let him feel it. Most critics have landed around the middle on this one, and so do we; the reviews that call it the equal of the clay films are, we think, being generous to the studio rather than to the film.

Take it at face value and it is a good Saturday afternoon: 85 minutes, a world worth looking at twice, a toad worth hating and slugs worth the ticket. Watch it at home, where you can turn the volume down and the background up. The jokes in the corners are better than the ones in the middle, and at home you are allowed to pause.

*Fi1m score 64, published 1 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics find Flushed Away a lively, inventive film, and the praise clusters on its visual detail: the sewer London built from salvaged rubbish, the background gags, the elaborate setpieces. Several note how closely the computer animation mimics Aardman’s plasticine look. The warmest reviews call it funny and energetic, with zippy banter and a wealth of comic detail rewarding a second look.

The reservations cluster on exactly that imitation. For a good number of critics the film is frantic and coarser than the studio’s handmade work, trading its charm for pop-culture references and familiar kid-film jokes. The spread is wide: a few consider it the best animated film of its year, while The Guardian finds it disappointingly unoriginal and Variety thinks it too frenetic to be likeable. Two reviews are only partially available. Ian McKellen’s toad earns a rare mention of praise from a dissenter.

## Straight answers

**Is Flushed Away worth watching?**

*Flushed Away* is worth watching as a decent, lively family film, and we scored it 64. Aardman's first computer-animated feature builds a sewer London from rubbish that rewards a second look, and Ian McKellen's Toad and the singing slugs are worth the time. It is louder and more frantic than the studio's clay films, and the jokes land less often as the chases pile up.

**How long is Flushed Away, and what is it rated?**

*Flushed Away* runs 1h 25m and is rated AA by the FSK in Austria. It is an adventure and animation film.

**Where can I watch Flushed Away in Austria?**

*Flushed Away* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from €2.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does Flushed Away compare to Chicken Run?**

*Flushed Away* is the quicker and noisier of the two, and [*Chicken Run*](https://film.one/film/chicken-run) is the better film. The clay film is slower and funnier, with characters who want something and a camera patient enough to watch them want it. Choose *Flushed Away* for a busy 85 minutes of chases, slugs and a toad worth hating; choose *Chicken Run* for the warmer, more carefully built story.

**What should I watch after Flushed Away?**

After *Flushed Away*, try [*Chicken Run*](https://film.one/film/chicken-run) (2000, Fi1m 84): Aardman in clay, slower and funnier; the escape film the rats here are running from. Then [*Ratatouille*](https://film.one/film/ratatouille) (2007, Fi1m 91): Another rat under a great city, with the patience this one lacks; and [*The Secret of NIMH*](https://film.one/film/the-secret-of-nimh) (1982, Fi1m 74): Rodents in the dark, drawn by hand and taken entirely seriously.

### Reviews we read (9)

- **Empire**, Olly Richards (85/100, inferred): Richards gives the film a strongly positive verdict, calling it the best animated movie of the year. He especially praises Aardman’s visual gags and the wealth of comic detail in the background. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/flushed-away-review/)
- **The AV Club**, Tasha Robinson (B+): Robinson finds the film an energetic, funny success despite familiar kid-film clichés and an occasionally weak opening. She especially praises its deft characterizations, zippy banter, sight gags, and ambitious setpieces. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/flushed-away-1798202143)
- **Screen Daily**, John Hazelton (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a review, but its paywall shell does not expose the critic’s verdict. No specific element of praise or complaint is visible. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/flushed-away/4029119.article)
- **Time Out**, Derek Adams (64/100, inferred): The available excerpt raises the rarity of traditional cel animation but does not reveal the critic’s verdict. The article text is unavailable, so no specific praise or complaint can be reliably identified. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/flushed-away)
- **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (3/5): Jones finds the film entertaining, though less charming than Aardman’s claymation work. He praises its convincing replication of that aesthetic and the detailed mini-London setting. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-s98zbo/flushed-away/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Fernando F. Croce (2/4): Croce finds the film frenetic and coarsened, with pop-referential humor that weakens Aardman’s usual charm. He praises the elaborate climax but says its polished spectacle lacks the magic of handmade clay animation. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/flushed-away/)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (40/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film inventive but too frantic and coarse to be very likable. He praises the imaginative, intricately detailed sewer-world built from salvaged objects. [Read](https://variety.com/2006/film/awards/flushed-away-1200512633/)
- **The Guardian**, Rob Mackie (30/100, inferred): Mackie finds the film disappointingly unoriginal and says it loses much of Aardman's appeal without its plasticine. He praises Ian McKellen's performance as the grotesque toad, while criticizing the film's familiar jokes and stereotypes. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/mar/30/dvdreviews.family1)
- **Eye for Film**, Anton Bitel (85/100, inferred): Bitel gives the film a strongly positive verdict, praising its lively, imaginative entertainment. He singles out its visual and verbal gags and its affectionate British humour. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/flushed-away-film-review-by-anton-bitel)

## Details

- **Director:** David Bowers, Sam Fell
- **Director:** David Bowers, Sam Fell
- **Screenplay:** William Davies, Dick Clement, Christopher Lloyd, Joe Keenan, Ian La Frenais
- **Writer:** Lise Mayer
- **Story:** Sam Fell, Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Peter Lord
- **Cinematography:** Brad Blackbourn, Frank Passingham
- **Editor:** Erika Dapkewicz, John Venzon
- **Music:** Harry Gregson-Williams
- **Production design:** David James
- **Producer:** David Sproxton, Peter Lord, Cecil Kramer
- **Cast:** Hugh Jackman as Roddy (voice); Kate Winslet as Rita (voice); Ian McKellen as The Toad (voice); Jean Reno as Le Frog (voice); Bill Nighy as Whitey (voice); Andy Serkis as Spike (voice); Shane Richie as Sid (voice); Kathy Burke as Rita's Mum (voice)
- **Runtime:** 1h 25m
- **Certificate (FSK):** AA
- **Release (Austria):** 7 December 2006
- **Genres:** Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family
- **Budget:** $149 million
- **Box office:** $178 million

## Where to watch in Austria

- Amazon Prime Video: rent €2.99, sd
- Apple TV: rent €3.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy €8.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy €8.99, hd

*Checked 2026-10-01.*

Also available in: AE, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film 2007: Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film (nominated)
- BAFTA Film Awards 2007: BAFTA's Children & Young People Award - Feature Film (nominated)
- Critics' Choice Awards 2006: Best Animated Feature (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Chicken Run* (2000), Fi1m 84: Aardman in clay, slower and funnier; the escape film the rats here are running from — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/chicken-run.md)
- *Ratatouille* (2007), Fi1m 91: Another rat under a great city, with the patience this one lacks — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ratatouille.md)
- *The Secret of NIMH* (1982), Fi1m 74: Rodents in the dark, drawn by hand and taken entirely seriously — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-secret-of-nimh.md)
- *Fantastic Mr Fox* (2009), Fi1m 84: Stop-motion animals with dry English manners and a villain worth the trouble — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fantastic-mr-fox.md)
- *Ernest & Celestine* (2012), Fi1m 84: A French mouse and bear, watercoloured and quiet; the opposite temperament — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ernest-and-celestine.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/flushed-away