Valiant

This film is about a pigeon called Valiant, whom no one thinks he could do anything big. It turns out that he does Britain a great service in World War II as a messenger pigeon.

The animation is excellent. The movements are smooth, and the birds are portrayed in great detail. However, the plot is very thin and totally predictable. The humour is not funny because it repeats itself every 30 seconds. There must have been 30 scenes where birds have mid air collisions and 30 scenes where birds hit a post and falls down. That does not even count the 30 farts and belches. And have I forgotten to mention smelly armpits? Can the filmmakers be more inspired and make less crude humour? I am not sure if kids will enjoy this. The characters are not even likable or cute. It is not entertaining enough.

The reviews on Valiant are horrible. This I find to be a big mistake, I personally loved the film, it's largest mistake is a lack of a good target audience, it is kinda a silly kids animated film with fart jokes and such, but than it has in my opinion three times as many jokes for adults about World War 2. In fact I think I may have liked it more than my brothers who are 12 and 6 did. It has some hilarious cracks on Hitler and D-Day which is usually something that I find impossible to laugh about. The short(76 minute) running time just helps the film because there are only so many jokes it can make without offending someone and it never tries to use one more than once. The plot is filled with holes but is perfect for making all the jokes. The screenplay has some good dialogue and makes all the great jokes. The voice talents are great. The film is well directed but could have been better. The film is perfectly animated.

I'm beginning to find a lot of these CG animated movies terribly formulaic (Magic Roundabout's horrendous storyline a case in point)so this movie made a refreshing change when I took my 3 sons to see a preview. Not overly long, basing the story around Homing Pigeons used in WW11 was a great idea and really appealed to the boys. The characters were fun and well voiced (parents can play a game of 'guess the actor')and there were some genuinely laugh out loud moments. Not quite the emotional pull of 'Finding Nemo' but that wasn't the point. To sum it up, my 11 year-old said. 'Great, Mum. About the war without being too violent for my little brothers and not too babyish for me.' Recommended.

I can see where this Disney animated feature film really never made it big-time. It offers some really good things but overall, it just isn't funny enough to be a hit.

It certainly has the visuals to be a smash. Man, this is a beautiful film. The colors are bold and brilliant, scene after scene. It's a visual feast. For that reason alone, I give it seven "stars."

Some of the humor is funny and very clever, but not enough of it. The story is a takeoff on old World War II films which kids will never "get." Too much of the gags involve slapstick as one of the pigeons flies into a wall or falls down, making a loud noise or that "Bugsy" belches and farts a lot. That happens frequently and wears thin fast. The laughs come more with the subtle stuff.

Story-wise, it's the usual little guy or misfits-being-heroes story, so common in films. Valiant is the little pigeon who really shouldn't even be in the Royal Homing Pigeon Service because he's too little, but he gets in, along with his aforementioned smelly friend "Bugsy" and then inspires everyone while also wooing a pretty nurse.

Once again, though: hats off to the artists. This is one beautiful-looking animated movie.

Valiant is a fair effort at an animated film. Without the budget of an American movie this British movie does well. It is based on the role pigeons played in WWII. The animations are delightful, the voice cast is talented for a change. Ricky Gervais does a very amusing quite lengthy turn, as ewan mcgregors buddy. Though perhaps the animations aren't as expansive as others like finding nemo, the humour is still apparent. This movie could have been longer, you do feel a bit short changed. Its nice to see a British animated movie with its own unique quirks, I feel this film will be shown repeatedly as a Christmas treat film on TV. There are funny moments and this movie is probably more for kids.