Aardman's Flushed Away

[TeviH]

Yaay!! Aardman's first foray into computer graphics, Flushed Away, has a trailer up!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/flushedaway/trailer/

I think the look is too clean and sterile, but it certainly looks a lot of fun!

:D

[Mathias]

Looks nice in my opinion, though I prefer Aardmans stopmotionanimated work.
Agree wholehartedly on the sterile look of it, but I think as I love Aardmans brittish humor I think that can weight up for it. Thanks for posting. I rarely check by apple.com/trailers nowadays since im only on 250kbit. Had 10Mbit earlier so its nice to check by for some worthwhile trailers every now and then! Thanks Tevi.

By the way, wasnt the shortfilm "The Deadline" made at Aardman? While computeranimated I think that one looked and worked fabulous! One of the best shorts ive seen on the "struggeling artists" subject ;)

[AnimWatch]

I'm actually surprised at how sterile Flushed Away looks precisely because of how knocked-around and stop-mo the look of The Deadline / Presentators was. I prefer the more knocked around look, I guess.

Don Bluth Studios back in the early 80s, when Disney's 2D movie wing was floundering, was fond of saying, "Some lace has to be woven by hand." It was their manifesto, to make great art no matter how hard it was, and no matter if everyone else was going to turn to computers or outsource to Korea, Japan, and the Eastern Bloc. The result is a film like The Secret of Nimh, which is just gorgeous...

It's a lot to ask from a company, but I sort of always saw Aardman that way. No matter if everyone else is going to do computer animation, no matter if stop-mo is almost a thing of the past, Aardman is going to do it, and going to do it better than anyone, while creating great entertainment.

I hope Flushed Away doesn't signify the shape of things to come from that studio.

[Zensho!]

I agree that the look of the film leaves a bit to be desired. But as long as it's entertaining, that's all that really matters I suppose. We'll see.

[Roachford]

Yikes! First 'Ants' picked a fight with 'Bugs Life.' Now we'll be seeing dueling Rat movies...

Out of the two, I'm liking 'Ratatouille' just a bit more.

[Roachford]

A better trailer and featurette are both making this movie much more appealing:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/flushedaway/

[Mathias]

Anyone seen it? I was kind of reluctant to see it at first after watching the first trailer but I have to say that this is one of the best animated films I've seen in recent years. Finaly an animated film where the singing numbers are not annoying but really sets a good tone in the film. The mouth movements are abit to jerky where Aardman is trying to take it one step to much into emulating the clay/stopmotion animation we have been acustomed to but apart from that I totaly love it. If you haven't seen it already, give it a shot, I dont think you'll be disappointed.

[AnimWatch]

Well, I did see it. It was better than I expected, and the graphics were much more engaging. Loved the frogs.

But there was something missing from this film, just like in Chicken Run and in the Wallace and Gromit movie, that I can't put my finger on. I'm assuming it was the unwelcome intrusion of the Hollywood Suits, showing the backward Brits how to make movies the Hollywood way, and in the course, surpressing most of what makes Aardman's stuff so charming.

I'm anxious to see what happens with Aardman out from under the Hollywood thumb. Will they go back to their pre-Dreamworks brilliance, or is this just the new Aardman I've been seeing and unfairly blaming Hollywood for?

[Mathias]

I think there was still alot of Aardman left in there to make it great even if it was developed under the Dreamworks influence, I wonder what would have came out of it if they were not involved though. Atleast Disney know when they have something that is great and takes advantage of it.

I'm definatly looking forward to see what will come out from their deal with Sony and the creative freedom they are said to have with that deal. Can't be bad.

[TeviH]

personally, I loved the slugs!!