'Flushed' with game fun

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Each week, the Browser features some pop-culture places on the World Wide Web offering the coolest in free interactive sounds and action.

Surfing the pipes

A sewer full of vermin comes to computer-generated life in the recently opened DreamWorks' animated film "Flushed Away."

In support of the high-tech 'toon designed by the creators of "Wallace and Gromit" and "Shrek," a lively Web site (www.flushedaway.com) offers a place to jump down a drain for some multimedia fun.

Visitors first click on a toilet handle and, alongside high-class rat Roddy, are flushed into a soggy, pipe-filled world populated by talking rats, slugs and frogs and enhanced with animation, music, dialogue clips and colorful backgrounds.

Five primary sections -- Movie, Downloads, Galleries, Video and Games -- come to life with a touch of the cursor.

Each of the areas has a bit of introductory interactivity. For example, before viewing concept art and photographs from the film, the visitor can solve a puzzle shuffle, or before starting on some games, the visitor can click on flies and watch the aristocratic amphibian, Toad, consume them.

While on the topic of games, visitors initially will find a quintet of challenges highlighted by poker (aptly titled Five-Card Slug), pinball, a sewer escape (with a Pac-Man feel) and a musical note match that stars screaming slugs. Maestros also can free-form with the creatures by poking them and recording a screechy session.

More impressive is the Flushed Away Underground Adventure (http://movies.aol.com/flushed-away-game), a massive undertaking for the gamer, who tries to complete 24 challenges to enter a sweepstakes for prizes, unlock some digital downloads and earn mysterious bubbles.

First, the player must register. (Parents should be aware that registration includes required fields such as name, address, e-mail and phone number.) He then gets an introduction from Roddy before accessing a plumbing system with 24 points that each designate an entrance to the games.