Valiant

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.

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.

Although this may not tickle the fancy of non-Brits, Valiant is a light-hearted comical little tale (it's quite short) of an even littler pigeon with a big personality who wants to be in the RHSP as a wartime carrier pigeon. The characters are well defined and work together well with a generously simple plot. Bugsy (Ricky Gervais) is hilarious and most of the voices provided were perfect, although it would have been better if I didn't have a constant mental image of the actors while looking at their animated aliases.

Occasionally there are moments of dialogue or actions that are quite obviously meant to be funny and aren't but these are generally glazed over by silliness. A must-see for animation fans/Brits, but perhaps more laughable for the younger generation among us.

Valiant, in my opinion is a very good movie, that only suffers from being too short and sometimes the humour falls flat. I'm 16, and I think it is miles better than Doogal. The animation actually was very good, colourful and smooth a majority of the time. In particular the action sequences, beautifully done. And the thing I liked most about the story was that it was based on a true story. Lots of people didn't like it, because they felt that the subject matter was uninspired. Can I just say, that the birds looked real to me, and that's what you want in an animation. The script was very funny at times, but I think the bathroom humour got a little too much. It did actually raise a lot of laughs for me. What impressed me most was that most of the jokes were visual. The story was well written and went along at a reasonable pace. The highlight of the movie was the chase of Valiant by Von Talon. The other problem I had was that the overall movie was too short. But I have to mention George Fenton's music, it was outstanding. As for the voice talents, what a talented cast. Ewen Macgregor was likable as the hero Valiant, and the actor even put some of his earnestness into the character. Ricky Gervais was Ricky Gervais, but this is one of the few times when I found him sidesplittingly funny. Tim Curry voiced Von Talon with such menace, that I found it difficult to recognise him, in a positive way (he stole the show for me). John Cleese was hilarious, that I didn't hear everything he said from laughing so much. Jim Broadbent, likewise, and he also gave a dynamic performance that totally suited his character. Very good movie, well recommended! 8/10. Bethany Cox

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.