FROM the makers of Shrek and Wallace & Gromit" reads the blurb on the poster - and that's a pretty good recommendation. Instead of fiddling about with Plasticine figures, Aardman have gone computerised.

As you'd expect, the result is a cut above the usual - and increasingly indifferent - computer animated feature film.

The attention to detail and quirky humour is still there, so much that you might miss some of the jokes first time round and fancy a repeat viewing. Roddy (Jackman) is an upper crust mouse living in a posh Kensington pad, sorry cage, who's left on his own while his owners are away.

His James Bond lifestyle - fast toy cars and dishy dolls - is disrupted by the appearance of a pot-bellied sewer rat Sid (Richie) who flushes Roddy down the toilet and into the sewer underworld. There he teams up with feisty Rita (Winslet) on her boat the Jammy Dodger on a mission to stop mad Toad's (McKellen) evil plan to wreck havoc in the rat world during England's World Cup game.

Computer animation has ironed out some of the wrinkles that make Aardman's stop motion models so appealing, but the fun remains fast and furious, the inventiveness never flags and the jokes (with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais among the writers) are wideranging enough - from fart gags to movie-in jokes - to satisfy all ages. The voice cast too is an illustrious one with the inspired casting of French actor Jean Reno providing the voice of a frog called, what else? , Le Frog.

Voices: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Shane Richie, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis, Jean Reno
Running time: 85 mins
Rating: Four stars