Valiant

2005 • 76 minutes

About this movie

The whole world is looking for a hero, and it's up to a little pigeon named VALIANT to step up and bravely serve his country. VALIANT (Ewan McGregor) and his fine, feathered friends take to the sky on a wing and a prayer to prove that it's not your wingspan but the size of your spirit that truly counts. Together this rag-tag squadron of birdbrains engages in hilarious aerial adventures at a spitfire pace. From the first bumbling day of basic training through the final feather-raising mission, the flock of comical characters swoops their way toward victory. VALIANT delivers a story loaded with laughs. It&s a soaring family comedy that truly earns its wings.

Ratings and reviews

This simplistic British low-budget animated movie lives up to it's title, because Valiant is the main character and "valiant" means showing courage with determination, and he is a charming little fella with a big, caring heart and big confidence. What makes the rest of the characters so engaging are their personalities and their old-school but effective cartoony antics. The entire voice cast contains a superb choice of an ensemble of British actors and comedians with legendary reputations, and all of their delivery within their voice performances contributes the fun, and it is superb. Ewan McGregor sounds like Valiant because he sounds young, courageous, and confident. Ricky Gervais is fitting for Bugsy; Bugsy is a silly yet charming character and Ricky is very fitting for this character. Jim Broadbent is phenomenal as Sergeant Monty. The antagonists are the German enemy falcons (peregrine falcons) led by the main antagonist "General Von Talon," very well-voiced by the infamous Tim Curry. Von Talon holds links to Adolf Hitler and Nazism. And due to his menacing presence, his screentime from beginning to end is memorable, and he is such an intimidating opponent. This enterprise such a great concept; This film is based on the historical facts about carrier pigeons in world war II transporting messages, and what's very fascinating is that the carrier pigeons saved thousands of lives in the war, and the Germans have trained a force of peregrine falcons to prey on the carrier pigeons and devour them. but this film has a different yet interesting approach: Instead of a live-action movie, it is an animated movie, instead of humans that are the characters, this movie focuses on the birds, and as far as I'm concerned, this animated film has more heart than most films about war, because it acknowledges that by showing compassion, friendship, and teamwork, which I find quite rather charming. As for the animation, it can't compare to the animation designs from Dreamworks or PIXAR, but for a relatively low budget animated film (with a budget of 35 million dollars), the animation is about as fantastic that I think that it's going to get, and it's surprisingly well-executed, because the animation has humor that is sharp, the slapstick, the amount of energy that it has, the characters are colorful with appealing face designs (the protagonists look cute and charming, while the antagonists look menacing and wicked) and it's relatively noticeable in detail. Even the visual backgrounds are phenomenal with explosions and water that looks so realistic. The whole enterprise of it's material goes in for lively, energetic style with art direction, visual flair, and flying entertainment all the way. Most of the comedy and slapstick is sharply executed, due of the timing, the voice acting, the speed of the animation, the clever use of sounds, and sound designs. As for flaws; there are a few moments of flatulence humor (burping and farting from Bugsy), and there are two moments where the animation in some body parts of the characters were unfinished. The music score composed by George Fenton and performed by the Royal Philharmonic orchestra is a brilliant score; it's big, energetic, brazen and it's a perfect fit for the film. I do love movies with thick stories and a lot of depth, but I also love movies that are relatively thin, as long as they have been made with strong execution, ambition, and have been done right, and Valiant is no exception; A simple underdog story that is inspired by true engrossing facts about carrier pigeons in World World II; Valiant is a captivating and entertaining British animated film that was made with wits that are so amusing, and lively energy. I had a lot of fun with this film and I laughed very often.

Great family movie! Something everybody would definitely watch.

Its simple, i just love this movie!