Vaillante

It's 1920 Brooklyn. Little girl Georgia Nolan loves playing firefighting with her dog Ember. After her mother's death, her heroic father Captain Shawn Nolan quit firefighting to be in the safe job of a tailor. He tells her that girls can't be firefighters. She would follow him into tailoring but secretly trains to be a firefighter. It's 10 years later. A mysterious Broadway arsonist has somehow made a fire team disappear. The mayor recruits Shaw to lead the fire station with only two misfit recruits. Georgia manages to join disguised as Joe.

This is French Canadian animation. I like the style for the most part. The message is female empowerment which is strange as the final text reveals that NYPD only started hiring women in the 80's. I don't like Georgia's voice for a teen girl. Although it may work better for the sex switch, she still sounds rather old as a teen. The premise is a bit awkward. It's not a good look that only a few are willing to go work in that firehouse. It rings wrong that all the firefighters are cowards and all the cops are idiots. Ignoring all that, the Scooby-Doo mystery is fine and I like the characters.

So the basic idea of this film is that it's another feminist tail (which I always admire and enjoy most of the time) but the "guy-ish" thing that "no girl is strong enough to handle" that she has to overcome/her big "frowned upon for girls to practice" passion is firefighting. Generally okay plot, but get this: half, if not, more that half of firefighters are women so it kinda renders the entire gimmick a bit useless and looks like a cash grab by antelier animation (by the way who the heck has even heard of these guys?) They might be a new studio which I definitely think they are (but I don't wanna look it up, I'm lazyyyyyy), so of course their first animated film, so I give them some slack. It's pretty good in other stuff though. Has charm, relatively funny for kids and nice animation. So I half recommend. Mostly if your a kid.

It's your typical kids movie with a lesson at the end. This time, it's a movie about the fire female firefighter in the FDNY... set in 1932. I think it contains just the right amount of action for a movie, if you count the part where they drive a taxi onto the Empire State building under construction.

Cute and fun, goofy movie, good for children. I'm a pretty easily entertained person and I found it decent.

I only have two issues with this film, but they are pretty minor and easily overlooked.

1. The voice of the main character; she sounds wayyy older than 16, which is the age she is supposed to be, but I grew into it through the course of the movie and pretty much stopped noticing it.

2. The character design for the main character, she is seen working out at the beginning and doing some stuff where she is shown she can easily hold her own body weight and I feel it's very unrealistic that her character looks like she has no muscle mass at all, but then again, its an animation, and a childrens movie, so I can't really ask for realism.

This animated film starts out weak, has quite a few silly "jump the shark" moments, is goofy, but in parts funny, heartwarming, and overall fun.

Good animation (common in today's world of CGI animation) and a decent story (a young woman who wants to be a fire fighter when such was prohibited) work together to make this an enjoyable watch. Children will love it. Some adults will tolerate it. Other adults will love it, some hate it. It's right in that gray area.

I'm giving it 7 stars because despite its flaws, it teaches several good lessons about bravery, caution, determination, and the difference between right and wrong while still recognizing that sometimes things go sideways. Those lessons are well worth learning, especially in the younger set.

Not my favorite animation, but it accomplished its purpose despite its flaws. Worth a watch, especially for children.