If you open this link up, you will see pictures of Hugh as a rat and Ian as a toad!
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-01-31-flushed-away_x.htm
Studio jiggles the clay format
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY
Fans of Aardman, home of Wallace and Gromit, might want to fortify themselves with a bit of cheese before swallowing this news.
Pet rat Roddy (right, voiced by Hugh Jackman) tries to get rid of pesky sewer rat Syd (Shane Richie) by luring him into the "whirlpool."
Digits are out. Digital is in.
The very hands-on British animation studio behind such stop-motion films as 2000's Chicken Run and last year's The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is relying on computers to bring to life its fall comedy, Flushed Away.
Aardman's latest co-production with DreamWorks, due Nov. 3, employs high-tech tools rather than clay models to construct an underground city of rats below London's streets.
Hugh Jackman, the voice of snooty lead rodent Roderick St. James, has been an Aardman addict since 1994, when he and his brother saw the Oscar-winning short The Wrong Trousers. "We were crying tears of laughter. I've since bought everything they've done."
Although several Aardman-ites had to pull up stakes and move into DreamWorks' facility in Glendale, Calif., the British humor remains intact as Roddy is pushed into a toilet, lands in a teeming metropolis and is pursued by a gang of ruffians.
Scavenger Rita (Kate Winslet) and Roddy get an icy reception from mobster Toad (Ian McKellen) and his henchmen.
"Each of my recording sessions ended in hysterics," says Jackson, whose vocal collaborators include Kate Winslet as spirited scavenger Rita, Ian McKellen as slimy mobster Toad, and Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy as hench vermin Spike and Whitey.
Jackson is especially tickled that the plot involves World Cup soccer. As he puts it, "England is in the finals, so, yes, this is a fantasy, and I say that as an Australian."
A early look at Flushed Away's world beneath the loo is on the Were-Rabbit DVD ($30), which arrives Feb. 7. "We did not want to become this shiny, colorful thing like CGI movies are," co-director Sam Fell says. "We scruffed up the film and added wonky imperfections."
Flushed Away's characters have been fully "Aardman-ized," he assures. "They have wide smiles, round edges and spherical eyes close together."
One creature is destined to upstage the rest: Le Frog, a hit amphibian spoken by French actor Jean Reno. Wasn't he insulted to play, well, a frog?
"At first we thought we should have a British comic do it because there is a tradition of the Brits ripping into the French," Fell says. "But a newer idea was to have a French actor do it. It's fantastic to hear this deep, rich voice coming out of this tough little frog."
Sounds absolutely ribbit-ing.