Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman) has it all. The prized family pet of a wealthy London family, this mouse with the most couldn’t imagine a life better than his. Especially when his owners go out of town for the weekend. He’s got the run of the entire house. Suddenly it’s road trips to kitchen in Barbie’s convertible, golf on the dining room table and drive-in movies on the deluxe Widescreen television.

Things change when sewer rat Sid (Shane Ritchie) comes spewing out of the sink. He disrupts everything turning Roddy’s perfect life into a perfectly hectic disaster. So he decides to get rid of his houseguest by sending him for a ride in the family’s porcelain “whirlpool.” But the street-smart rat is too quick for the foppish mouse and it is Roddy, not Sid, who unceremoniously finds himself the one flushed away.

It is in this new underground metropolis the once pampered pet runs into curvaceous boat captain Rita (Kate Winslet) on a mission to save her family. The duo make a pact; she’ll help him get back above ground if he’ll give her a ruby from his owner’s vast collection of precious gems to secure her siblings’ and parents’ futures. But for this to happen, Roddy and Rita will have to dodge the villainous Toad (Ian McKellan) and his nefarious henchmen Spike (Andy Serkis) and Whitey (Bill Nighy), as well as stay out of the clutches of his cousin the dreaded mercenary Le Frog (Jean Reno). They’ve inadvertently taken something that this all-powerful bad guy desperately needs, and if her gets it back then all of the rodents living under London will soon be facing a tidal wave of watery doom.

Aardman Animation, those eccentrically brilliant minds behind “Chicken Run” and “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” return to theaters with their first full-length computer animated family feature “Flushed Away.” Simply put, this motion picture is a delight, a winning work of humor and adventure ranking as one of the very best comedies I’ve seen all year. While that might rank as hyperbole, it’s certainly the best animated film, besting Sony’s “Monster House,” Pixar’s “Cars” and Dreamworks’ (who also released this one) “Over the Hedge” by a good country mile.

Granted, it doesn’t quite reach the perfection of either of the studio’s past two stop-motion masterpieces. The script (credited to five writers), while winning overall, isn’t quite as sharp as it could be, a frazzled opening and a jittery scene between Roddy, Rita and Sid not working near as well as they probably should. But these problems are relatively minor, and while I would have liked the pacing to have been a bit tighter overall there is very little here for me to complain about.

On the flip side, there is plenty about “Flushed Away” to make me stand up and cheer. The vocal work is, top to bottom, phenomenal. The actors are flat-out incredible, everyone delivering flesh-and-blood performances instead of just going through the motions. Heck, thanks to “The Prestige,” “The Fountain” and now this, Jackman has the wondrous distinction of appearing in three of the very best films of 2006, this effervescent pleasure a perfect capper to a wildly successful year.

But just about everything here is wonderful. Better, the movie is funny, brilliantly funny. Few films have made me laugh louder or longer than this one. The trademark Aardman wit and irreverence the studio is celebrated for is on fully display, the humor so multifaceted and omnipresent you probably have to see it multiple times just to come close to catching them all. Personally, I love the cadre of singing slugs flittering here and there throughout like a slimy Greek Chorus, and the fact none of them were a-salted can’t help but make my heart soar.

Yet they are just one exuberantly silly part of a near-brilliant whole. The movie is alive with humor, satire, excitement and whimsy you just don’t find in family entertainment. While it has the distinctive look of Aardman’s past Claymation projects, it takes computer animation to an entirely different level making things look as unusual and as distinctive as anything you are ever likely to see. Which, come to think of it, sounds just like can’t-miss entertainment to me, and “Flushed Away” certainly is that and then some.

Film Rating: êêê1/2  (out of 4)