CyBeR
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2009
- Messages
- 625
I have yet to gain the right to post images, so imagine first there's the box art for the DVD here first, ok? Great.
When has animation lost the ability to escape the grip of the mundane?
Or rather yet...when has animation forgot that adventure is more than an ever shrinking sequence of ever shortening bouts between heroes and villains?
Please bear with my short series of snide remarks here. I find that animation, as a medium, while growing more and more spectacular, is growing more and more insubstantial. Sure, films like "Up" and "9" and "Wall-e" grasp at the very meaning of "work of genius" may imply, but it may all be for naught all too soon.
Why's that? Because at the end of each animated flick you can only feel like you've just walked away from a well groomed lot of utter nothing. A well polished, well animated, well humored nothing. It's not to say that the films in themselves are getting bad. No, no. They're actually really great now and again, but it's what happens that leaves that big, empty space in what should be your recollection of the said film.
Characters are fun, memorable through construction but forgettable through action.
Stories are interesting through premise, utterly forgettable through execution.
Settings are mind boggling through essence, drab through usage.
Aaaaand...what's this got to do with the film?
Absolutely NOTHING! Because Flushed Away, directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, written by Sam Fell and Peter Lord, featuring an intriguing cast that includes Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno...*breathes*...*stops for a breath and reads above*...right...
Flushed Away is an animated film that takes all my complaints about the current state of animation films, shoves them in the toilet and flushes them all away. An imaginative flick, full of more action and adventure than all of this summer's blockbusters combined and more thoughtfully crafted than any romance you've seen in 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.
The story is simply. A pampered house pet, Rhody the rat gets an unwelcome visitor, the rather dirty and ill-mannered Sid, straight from the sewers. When his attempt at getting rid of his guest backfire, he finds himself flushed down the toilet into a whole new world for him, waaaay down into Rat London. Here, he must find a way back into his home, with the help of the courageous buccaneer Rita, chased by the mischievous Toad and his gang of rodents and still without a solution to his pest problem.
Mouthful, no?
Wait till you see it in action.
The story moves along at an admirable pace. It sets itself nicely from the start and makes sure to give all the right information for just about anything (and all the right plot holes as well...they're rats, what would you expect?) and proper character motifs. It's of course your run of the mill zero to hero, loser to lover sort of deal...but it's executed marvelously, with a vigor I've thought lost to animation films forever.
When the action starts, hold on to your hat, it may just get blown away. What I've hated in films of late is how there's always too little of everything...not here! I wish I could put this down more creatively, but there really isn't a nicer way to say it: Flushed Away is one film that you can't miss simply because it's good and well balanced.
Oh, and if you won't believe Wolverine is Rhody...don't worry, you're not alone!
When has animation lost the ability to escape the grip of the mundane?
Or rather yet...when has animation forgot that adventure is more than an ever shrinking sequence of ever shortening bouts between heroes and villains?
Please bear with my short series of snide remarks here. I find that animation, as a medium, while growing more and more spectacular, is growing more and more insubstantial. Sure, films like "Up" and "9" and "Wall-e" grasp at the very meaning of "work of genius" may imply, but it may all be for naught all too soon.
Why's that? Because at the end of each animated flick you can only feel like you've just walked away from a well groomed lot of utter nothing. A well polished, well animated, well humored nothing. It's not to say that the films in themselves are getting bad. No, no. They're actually really great now and again, but it's what happens that leaves that big, empty space in what should be your recollection of the said film.
Characters are fun, memorable through construction but forgettable through action.
Stories are interesting through premise, utterly forgettable through execution.
Settings are mind boggling through essence, drab through usage.
Aaaaand...what's this got to do with the film?
Absolutely NOTHING! Because Flushed Away, directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, written by Sam Fell and Peter Lord, featuring an intriguing cast that includes Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno...*breathes*...*stops for a breath and reads above*...right...
Flushed Away is an animated film that takes all my complaints about the current state of animation films, shoves them in the toilet and flushes them all away. An imaginative flick, full of more action and adventure than all of this summer's blockbusters combined and more thoughtfully crafted than any romance you've seen in 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.
The story is simply. A pampered house pet, Rhody the rat gets an unwelcome visitor, the rather dirty and ill-mannered Sid, straight from the sewers. When his attempt at getting rid of his guest backfire, he finds himself flushed down the toilet into a whole new world for him, waaaay down into Rat London. Here, he must find a way back into his home, with the help of the courageous buccaneer Rita, chased by the mischievous Toad and his gang of rodents and still without a solution to his pest problem.
Mouthful, no?
Wait till you see it in action.
The story moves along at an admirable pace. It sets itself nicely from the start and makes sure to give all the right information for just about anything (and all the right plot holes as well...they're rats, what would you expect?) and proper character motifs. It's of course your run of the mill zero to hero, loser to lover sort of deal...but it's executed marvelously, with a vigor I've thought lost to animation films forever.
When the action starts, hold on to your hat, it may just get blown away. What I've hated in films of late is how there's always too little of everything...not here! I wish I could put this down more creatively, but there really isn't a nicer way to say it: Flushed Away is one film that you can't miss simply because it's good and well balanced.
Oh, and if you won't believe Wolverine is Rhody...don't worry, you're not alone!
