The very starting premise of a rat going down a toilet turned me off, but an acquaintance assured me the excremental gags are very few and relatively tasteful. He also found the movie moderately funny, especially for the running(?) gag of a cappella slugs. I still didn't get the gumption to watch until Netflix said it would stop streaming at the end of the month.
In modern Kensington, ratty Roddy (Hugh Jackman, playing at least two Brits that year) seems to enjoy life as a pet who gets the ritzy apartment to himself for most of the day. Then a slovenly sewer rat (Shane Richie) moves in, and Roddy's attempt to return him to the sewer backfires. Roddy ends up in a bustling underground town with a mostly rodent population. He takes advice to seek the assistance of sailor Rita (Kate Winslet) in getting home, but first they must contend with having run afoul of The Toad (Ian McKellen), a mob boss with a chronic hate-on for rats despite some of them (Andy Serkis, Bill Nighy, and Christopher Fairbank) being his underlings.
Initially, Roddy and Rita annoy each other with distrust and incompatible priorities, caring much more about their own problems. It doesn't help that Roddy's a klutz. But as characters keep mistaking them for lovers, it seems inevitable that they will move in that direction. We don't get an unambiguous indication of romance like in Chicken Run, tho, so interpret their ultimate companionship as you will. The important part, I suppose, is that Roddy's no longer a contented loner.
I mention Chicken Run because this is partly an Aardman feature, but if not for the rats' faces, I'd have no idea. The little-seen humans certainly don't look Aardmanian, and the slug and amphibian faces remind me more of the Rabbids. It's DreamWorks CG rather than stop-motion, which enables faster movement for a more packed 85 minutes. Alas, it's not consistently smooth. Maybe it just aged badly, but I thought the animation of DreamWorks' Over the Hedge from the same year looked better.
I also thought it strange that humans would treat animals the same as in RL when most animals walk upright and wear as much clothing as we do, including undies. Sure, we get some of that in Fantastic Mr. Fox and going at least as far back as An American Tail, but Roddy's a frigging pet. He even talks on the phone with a presumable human, not fully comprehended but enough to suggest that he speaks real English.
Anyway, the best humor overall is in the Borrowers-style usage of humanmade items in unorthodox ways, such as a golf pencil for a peg leg. It helps make up for the animals not being all that cute by DreamWorks or Aardman standards. I'm undecided on whether Roddy and Rita shouldn't have been made rail-thin.
With regard to the assurances in my first paragraph, well, there's still a fair bit of crudity, including a belch that would impress Buddy from Elf. Things get naughty enough to ensure but not push a 2006 PG rating, as with a literal football-in-the-groin gag. (That's football in the British sense). And I'm afraid the slugs get repetitive after a while.
I understand the middling reception of FA. It elicits a few honest chuckles, but it feels like an inorganic conglomeration in both visuals and writing. I'm glad the two companies went back to clay for further collaborations, tho this one might still be better than Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
No comments:
Post a Comment