PLOT: A posh pet rat (Hugh Jackman) is flushed down the toilet and finds himself in an underground rat metropolis. There, he makes friends and becomes a hero.

Flushed Away has a story that's going nowhere and oddly unappealing characters, but that's not really the point.

This is the first computer animated film from Aardman Studios (via DreamWorks), and the final product is a CGI/claymation/stop-motion-looking sort of hybrid that model makers, artists and puppeteers will want to have a look at.

And your children will like it.

Flushed Away has the de rigueur frenetic pace of most current kids' movies, with plenty of razzle-dazzle to distract from the weak storytelling.

Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman) is a spoiled pet rat, a rodent in a gilded cage. His owners go on holiday, and Roddy gets flushed down the toilet by an aggressive sewer rat.

Roddy winds up in an underground rat city, where he meets the hard-working Rita (Kate Winslet). Together they have several adventures. Rita needs money for her large family, and Roddy just wants to get back home.

They encounter a villainous toad (Ian McKellen), two dim but dangerous rats named Spike and Whitey (Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy, who are hilarious) and a mercenary frog voiced by Jean Reno. The story is laced with visual comedy and cute stuff along the lines of singing slugs and sly references to other movies.

And the rat metropolis is created from human junk and cast-offs, so it's often fun to look at.

The movie is just as often obvious and obnoxious, alas. A segment in which Roddy is repeatedly hit in the crotch, for example, is contrived and tired, as is a big-boat chase scene -- and of course, kids are tickled pink by exactly this sort of thing.

BOTTOM LINE: Flushed Away has a pleasant moral about friendship, community and working together, and it's amusing as all get-out to children. Too bad the movie won't appeal as much to accompanying adults.

(This film is rated G)
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