Flushed Away Commentary

Flushed Away commentary with Directors Sam Fell and David Bowers.

Transcript

 * SAM FELL: Uh... Hello. I'm Sam Fell.
 * DAVID BOWERS: And I'm David Bowers, and welcome to the director commentary on Flushed Away.
 * (music playing)
 * FELL: The opening shot of the movie, London.
 * BOWERS: So the film's set in London. We wanted to make it feel like a really London... British movie, so you knew exactly where we were when we started.
 * FELL: So we went through all the London landmarks, all the famous ones that everyone knows around the world. So, we had others, but people weren't so aware of them.
 * BOWERS: We tried to pick landmarks that we were doing when Roddy goes into the city later that we'd see there, our own version of Tower Bridge, our own version of Big Ben.
 * FELL: Yeah. I remember all this as like... We did this sort of near the end of the production, this opening sequence. It was all really about grabbing the audience and kind of really announcing the film, and Harry Gregson did an amazing score there at the start.
 * BOWERS: He did. It just sort of launched us into big movie territory.
 * FELL: Yeah. Herre we are.
 * BOWERS: This introduction to our hero, Roddy.
 * FELL: Yeah. And he lived in a cage.
 * BOWERS: He's got a nose.
 * FELL: I think the idea wwas that he doesn't wear clothes all the time. He jus puts clothes on when the family go away, but that's maybe not quite clear. It doesn't really matter 'cause the film's not really about the family. It's more about Roddy being on his own in this big place and just loving this life he has here.
 * Roddy: ...are you all standing around for?
 * BOWERS: When Roddy wasn't always this sort of exciting... excitable we had. He went through many iterations of Roddy.
 * FELL: Yeah, our first Roddy, he was more like David Niven. He was like a very elegant, rather sort of staid Englishman.
 * BOWERS: And he even had a couple of hamster butlers, didn't he? Very early on.
 * FELL: But it was a bit of a slow start to the film, really. It was like...
 * BOWERS: It changed. He wasnn't fun enough. So we jumped to make him more fun.
 * FELL: More energetic. The main thing is that he just loves this life and thinks he's got everything, though I think it's clear just from watching this that he probably hasn't quite got everything, has he? It's a bit weird hanging around with a bunch of dolls.
 * Roddy: Game point. Service! We win! We win, team! We win!
 * Billy Idol (singing): Leave me dancing with myself.
 * (Roddy growling)
 * BOWERS: He's quite lively.
 * FELL (LAUGHS): He certainly is full of beans.
 * (BOTH LAUGH)
 * FELL: And then we got into this James Bond thing. We liked... thought it'd be...
 * BOWERS: Some very funny titles on that DVD shelf.
 * FELL: Yeah. What was it...?
 * BOWERS: All the President's Own Teeth, I liked.
 * (BOWERS LAUGHS)
 * FELL: There's a little homage to James Bond.
 * BOWERS: It's kind of fun that he wears a tuxedo and thinks he's a bit of a Bond character, a bit of a playboy.
 * Billy Idol (singing): If I had the chance.
 * Roddy: Having a good time, darling?
 * Billy Idol (singing): And I'll be dancing with myself...
 * (Roddy grunting)
 * Roddy: Oh, thank you. (laughs)
 * (brakes screech)
 * Roddy: See ya tomorrow.
 * BOWERS (LAUGHS): I love this scene.
 * FELL: It's funny, isn't it?
 * (fades end)
 * (Roddy humming)
 * FELL: And off he goes to bed on his own.
 * (Roddy sighing)
 * Roddy: Good night.
 * FELL: And that was the whole reason for picking Dancing by Myself, the Billy Idol track.
 * (Roddy echoing)
 * Roddy: Yeah.