The thumbprints may be invisible, but they're there in spirit.

The best part of films by Aardman Animations -- best known for Nick Park's brilliant "Wallace & Gromit" franchise -- are the fingerprints that are barely discernible on their Plasticine characters, palpable traces of the time, care and heart that characterize every Aardman production.

"Flushed Away," Aardman's first computer-generated cartoon, does away with the clay but leaves the craft and emotion intact, resulting in a film that earns its place among the Aardman classics that populate the video shelf belonging to the main character. That would be Roddy, a pet mouse (voice of Hugh Jackman), who is convinced that the toys, furniture and posh accoutrements of his owner's rightly belong to him. When circumstances conspire to send him down the loo and into a sewer-level London populated by rats, toads, the odd frog and a charming Greek chorus of slugs, he discovers what's really important in life.

Shot through with cheeky wit and hilarious musical numbers by the aforementioned slugs, "Flushed Away" features an eye-popping boat chase through London's watery nether regions, as well as the winning vocal talent of Kate Winslet, Bill Nighy and Ian McKellen, doing his best Sydney Greenstreet. Well done!

-- Ann Hornaday (Nov. 3, 2006)

Contains crude humor and profanity.