With SCI FI Wire, co-directors David Bowers and Sam Fell explained why they chose computer animation over stop-motion animation for DreamWorks/Aardman’s latest film, Flushed Away. “Our stories took us to a more expansive world. The amount of water and the underground world we would have to build would have been difficult to create [in reality],” elaborated Fell. Likewise, certain characters, such as Toad, appeared needful of computer animation. As Fell noted, “With the spindly legs and big body, it would have been a nightmare.” Nonetheless, Flushed Away does playfully pay homage to certain stop-motion trademarks, including thumbprints and stop-frame models.
Directors Bowers and Fell talk Away animation