Commuter

Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment

For kids of all ages, the latest animated-picture from DreamWorks will undoubtedly be the surprise hit of the fall season.

"Flushed Away," starring the voices of Tony Award winner Hugh Jackman as Roddy and Oscar nominees Kate Winslet (Rita) and Ian McKellan (Toad), is the story of Roddy the pampered pet mouse, and his journey into the London sewers.

The movie, rated PG for some crude humor and language, starts with Roddy, a mouse from the Kensington neighborhood of London, being left alone when his family goes on vacation.

With the family gone, Roddy begins to party in the house with dolls and other toys. He is rudely interrupted when Sid, a sewer mouse, is pumped into the house through a drain.

In his attempt to rid himself of the sloppy intruder, Roddy ends up being flushed down the toilet and into the Ratropolis, an exact replica of London, which the rodents have built in the sewer.

While the subterranean London is exactly like the one up top, right down to the mice's obsession with England's soccer team, the domesticated Roddy feels out of place and hopes to find his way back to the surface.

Early on his journey below, he is pointed in the direction of Rita, an adventurous mouse who had fallen into a dispute with the underworld boss of this underground city.

Although their first meeting produces just a business arrangement - Rita promising to take Roddy home in exchange for payment - the once privileged Roddy begins to see that there is more to life when he meets Rita's family and realizes that despite the comforts of his above-ground lodgings, he really is alone without any friends.

In their efforts to get Roddy back to the surface, the two accidentally uncover Toad's plan to flood the sewer and wipe out the rodent population over an old grudge he holds from being flushed out of Buckingham Palace for a new pet mouse.

The movies message that family, friends and helping others are more important then ones own comfort is driven home when Roddy, upon returning home, connects the dots of Toad's plans and realizes that if he doesn't leave his home to save Ratropolis, Rita and her family will perish in the flood.

Although the plot structure is standard for these movies - hero, difficult situation, new friend shows the meaning of life, villain trying to carry out a dastardly plot and finally a happy ending - the journey aboard Rita's boat, the "Jammy Dodger," is so entertainingly presented that both children and adults will enjoy the ride.

Definitely a must-see before the holiday movie crush.

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