No, we aren't talking about your goldfish Rudy, but rather the new computer generated animated film Flushed Away, as well as the upcoming movie tie-in game of the same name set to be released for the PS2. Find out what happens when a mouse living in the lap of luxury gets flushed down the toilet and ends up in a whole other world.

Roddy St. James is a pampered mouse who is enjoying life and the luxury it has afforded him. Then one day comes a rat from the sink named Sid, and Roddy schemes to rid himself of this nuisance, by flushing him down the toilet. His plan backfires, however, and Roddy ends up going down below, where he finds a vast metropolis fashioned out of garbage and other flushed away and forgotten objects. Here, he meets Rita, a street smart rat who is running from the villainous Toad, who hates all rodents. Can Roddy and Rita teamup to overthrow Toad and get Roddy back up to his normal life, away from the sewers? Much like many videogame movie tie-ins, the videogame of Flushed Away follows for the most part the overall plot of the movie, but instead of only playing something you've already seen on the screen, offering no real incentive to play the game, there are story elements and environments made directly for the game that aren't in the movie, which act as little side-stories and those little moments between the film cuts that are never seen.

In Flushed Away, you'll control Roddy (the male mouse) and Rita (the female rat), and though they control mostly the same, each one has some specialties that only that particular character can use. For example, Roddy, thanks to his pampered upbringing, knows how to properly fence, and so he'll have the attack ability to fight enemies with his make do sword. Rita, on the other hand, is the only one who can bungee.

The environments are nicely detailed, and the whole underground world is made to resemble a subterranean London, but instead of your usual brick, girders, and other building materials, you have to remember that these rodents can only build their city with what comes down into the sewers. So, in order to fashion their London, the underground dwellers have made their world out of cardboard, paper, six-pack rings, and other assorted junk. For instance, ladders in the game are represented as the six-pack rings, and you can see why those would be ladders in the first place for these miniscule creatures.

The one thing I was really impressed with when I saw Flushed Away were the graphics and animations. The world and characters of Flushed Away look like the stylings of a Chicken Run or Wallace and Gromit film, though the movie is completely computer generated. When you look at the videogame, it keeps that exact style, and everything looks like it was ripped straight from the movie; particularly, the roundness of the characters is perfectly captured in the game tie-in. It was also astounding to see the silky smooth animations of the characters, from everything from climbing a wall to running, but the best animation came when Rita had to sneak across a bedroom; the exaggerated high steps/walking on glass look looked amazingly well done.

As for the gameplay, it seems like what you'd expect from your platformers. You've got your fighting, item collecting, jumping, swimming, etc. One neat moment of gameplay, however, involved Rita in Toad's bedroom, trying to swipe an artifact, and it was like a game of red light/green light. Whenever Toad was snoring firmly asleep, it was okay for Rita to quickly sneak across the room, however, once he started to wake from his slumber, you'd have to find cover or you'd be caught. Once Toad was back to sleep, you could continue your creep across the floor, all the time making your way to the item you were trying to snatch. Overall, the game is supposed to be more kid friendly, as it is supposed to feature no frustration and be for the younger players.

Overall, Flushed Away looked to have a really nice package (especially only the graphical styling forefront) and if you find yourself a big fan of the movie when it is released, the game for the PS2 just might be up your alley.