Plumbed for laughs

Something of an animated Reese’s peanut butter cup, “Flushed Away” brings together two brands that go surprisingly well together. Combining the computer-created visuals of DreamWorks Animation and the cheeky storytelling of Aardman Features, the film mixes rousing kid-friendly adventure with surprisingly savvy grown-up wit and charm.

Roddy St. James (voiced by Hugh Jackman) lives as a pet mouse in a fancy section of London (the British call it posh). After an interloping sewer rat (Shane Richie) flushes him down the toilet, Roddy discovers a thriving mini-metropolis in the sewers, teeming with life. In an effort to get back “up top,” he falls in with a rat named Rita (Kate Winslet) and crosses paths with the villainous Toad (Ian McKellen) and his hapless henchmen (Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy).

The story is awfully (and amusingly) British, even including a World Cup soccer final as part of the story -- with England winning, no less. The voice actors all sound as if they’re having fun, and they tackle their parts with uncanny aplomb.

The filmmaking team does a marvelous job of continually varying the pitch of the movie so that new things constantly happen and there’s a real air of surprise as the story unfolds. A chorus of singing slugs, which appears at first to be a singular throwaway gag, pops up throughout the film.

Some of the best gags really do come from nowhere, such as when a transition is made by mimicking the style of the ‘60s “Batman” television series.

The combination of DreamWorks (“Shrek”) and Aardman (“Chicken Run”) brings fruitful results. The storyboard smoothness of most computer animation has been toned down in an attempt to mimic the handmade feel of Aardman’s previous stop-motion productions.

It was the Plasticine reality -- that sense of real objects captured in real space -- that played a large part in making Aardman films such as “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” stand apart from the endless stream of cute-talking computer-generated animals that have become the mainstay of family fodder.

As well, the zesty fun of the Aardman films may have previously caused more than a few adults without the requisite youngster handy to find a suitable neighbor or friend’s child to cover for their attendance. The add-on price of a child’s ticket was likely still less than the popcorn and soda, and a small price to pay.

Adults should feel no such compunction to use subterfuge to slip into “Flushed Away.” Rather, they should proudly walk in unaccompanied by a minor.

Who else, after all, are the “Benny Hill” references and jokes about the French temperament possibly intended for?

*

‘Flushed Away’

MPAA rating: PG for crude humor and some language

A Paramount Pictures release of a DreamWorks/Aardman film. Director David Bowers, Sam Fell. Screenplay Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan, Will Davies. Story by Fell, Peter Lord. Producers Cecil Kramer, David Sproxton, Lord. Editor John Venzon. Running time: 1 hour, 18 minutes.

In general release.