In a genre in which all cute, cuddly animals have begun to look alike, this movie stands out as fresh and individual. It stars Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman), an uptown rat and domesticated pet. When his family leaves London to go on vacation, Roddy gets the run of the house. But just when things are going well, Sid (Shane Richie), a sewer rat, appears. Sid, too, wants the run of the house. Roddy tries to convince Sid that the toilet is a big whirlpool bath, but Sid, who wasn’t born yesterday, sees what’s going on, pushes Roddy in, and flushes.

Roddy goes down the pipes and ends up in the sewer, where he finds a thriving miniature London populated by rats and frogs -- and slugs, who break out in popular song at any provocation or suggestion. Roddy meets and falls for Rita (Kate Winslet), the owner of a beaten-up boat that’s better built than it looks. It’s Han Solo and Princess Leia in reverse.

There have to be animated villains, and this movie has some delightful ones. The chief bad guy is Boss Toad (Ian McKellen), who wants to open the floodgates during the intermission of the World Cup Finals, at just the moment that everyone flushes. This will overload the sewer system and flood the miniature subterranean sewer world. Toad’s henchman is a French frog, known simply as Le Frog (Jean Reno). It’s up to Roddy and Rita to save the day.

If the toothy characters look familiar, it is no wonder. This is the first CGI feature from Aardman Studios, which usually uses plasticine characters and stop-motion photography. Aardman’s attempts to make the CGI look like plasticine sometimes succeed and sometimes miss the boat. But the basic fault here, and the one that keeps Flushed Away from being on the same level as last year’s Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, is that there’s just too much of it. Visually, every scene is crowded to the point of clutter. The movie is also very talky, and though the script is a good one, the words fly so fast that one is hard-pressed to catch them all. After about 30 minutes, I wanted to cry "Time out!" Things calm down a bit in the last half, which is much more enjoyable.

Harry Gregson-Williams’ music helps zip things along, incorporating many familiar pop tunes sung by the slugs. Tom Jones fans will be thrilled; others will chuckle.

The casting is masterful. Big names voice many of the characters, but they’ve been directed (by Dave Bowers and Sam Fell) in such a way as to not call attention to their star personas. Kate Winslet sounds nothing like her other movie roles. The talented Ian McKellen manages a huge voice that sounds nothing like Gandalf or Magneto. Jean Reno, usually cast as a heavy, is downright droll as Le Frog. Hugh Jackman makes you think of him as Roddy, not as Hugh Jackman playing Roddy.

Flushed Away is very enjoyable, and after the first half, it’s excellent. See it, and I guarantee you will never think of slugs in the same way again.

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