Product Description

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. From the producer of SHREK and SHREK 2, VALIANT delivers stunning animation, a top-flight voice cast, and an action-packed story loaded with laughs. It's a soaring family comedy that truly earns its wings.~

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13872 in DVD
• Brand: BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2005-12-13
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 76 minutes

Amazon.com
A host of great British thespians, from Ewan MacGregor to John Cleese, lend their voices to Valiant, a computer-animated bird's-eye-view of World War II. Valiant (MacGregor, Big Fish, Down With Love), though but a small pigeon, is determined to join the homing pigeon brigade and do his part to help win the war. He and a handful of other misfits are assembled into a motley squad and suddenly find themselves thrust into combat with the responsibility of delivering a crucial message. Unfortunately, the villainous Von Talon (Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show), a Nazi falcon, intends to tear them to feathers over the English Channel. Aside from some delightful voice work from Ricky Gervais (The Office) as a filthy but cunning pigeon, there's not much to recommend about Valiant. The story is clunky, cliche-ridden, and underdeveloped; the design is charmless and inexpressive; the characters are so generic that even a cast as talented as Jim Broadbent (Topsy-Turvy, Iris), Hugh Laurie (House), and John Hurt (1984, The Elephant Man) can do little to make them anything but bland stereotypes from a long-exhausted movie genre. Overall, poorly conceived and clumsily executed. --Bret Fetzer

LEONARD MALTIN, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT
"Just like its leading character, Valiant has both heart and humor."

THELMA ADAMS, US WEEKLY
"A family-friendly charmer with cute little birdies!"

Customer Reviews

Great for little kids
I've read some of the worse reviews here and frankly I'm tired of those people who expect every animated film that comes out to live up to the adult-friendly nature of Shrek or The Incredibles. If you want that kind of film then by all means go put your Shrek, Shrek II or whatever you love the most in the DVD player and watch it over and over again because you'll never be happy with anything else.

The animation here is actually quite good, the plot is simple and easy to understand: young go-getter wants to make good for his country and he and a motley crew of fellow homing pigeons go to enemy lines to retrieve information that can change the outcome of the war. Yes it's formulaic and easy to predict what will happen, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.

Ewan McGregor is a little vocally hyper but acceptable as the pipsqueeky, small-in-stature but but tall-in-character Valiant. John Cleese does his usual brilliant, dry British humor shtick as a senior homing pigeon caught behind enemy lines. Tim Curry hams it up as usual as the evil ring-leader falcon. But my favorite characters were the highbrow, putting-on-airs humor of Hugh Laurie's Lofty and Ricky Gervais' hilarious, ill-bred but heart-of-gold Bugsy. I really laughed out loud with their lines, more than any other point in the movie.

I read a review elsewhere that says this film is aimed more at "older folks" and spoofs WWII movies of years gone by, but my 3-year old daughter loves this film!
And some have said it's too short, but I think it's the perfect length for youngsters to watch. Having seen it about 20 times in the last two weeks I'm not bored with it at all.

I enjoy the cultural references to England and the WWII era, and I also appreciate that, in a way, this is exposing my kids, young as they are, to a very important time in our history. Perhaps someday they will correlate their history lessons with this film and something will gel because of seeing this version of history, because the fact is, homing pigeons were really used in WWII.

There will be awards, parades, and commemorative stamps!
I don't really understand the lukewarm reaction to this film, as I found Valiant to be an excellent animated film. The story is both interesting and compelling, the voice actors do a great job, there's plenty of comedy from start to finish, and I thought the animation itself was quite good. There's too much emphasis these days on high-tech, fancy animation - sure, it can be very cool, but a cartoon with a good story and wonderful characters doesn't need the fanciest new animation. In fact, a good story can get lost in too much CGI wizardry, and I for one like a more traditional look. I don't mean to say the animation here is simplistic because it's not; it's just not as fancy as some viewers apparently wanted it to be. This isn't The Matrix; it's a movie-length cartoon.

The setting is 1944. With World War II still raging, the Royal Air Force Homing Pigeon Brigade, having suffered extensive losses delivering important messages to and from enemy lines, is looking for a few good pigeons. Valiant (voiced wonderfully by Ewan McGregor) is determined to leave the nest and prove himself, especially if it means serving alongside heroes such as the celebrated Gutsy (Hugh Laurie). No one thinks he can make it (he's not even "yea" high, for one thing), but he's determined to prove everyone wrong and do his part in the fight for freedom. Arriving in London, he meets up with a smelly old con pigeon named Bugsy (Ricky Gervais), who sort of accidentally signs up for service alongside him. They both fit right in to the band of misfits who make up Squadron F (Lofty, the intellectual, blue-blood and two brothers sporting more brawn than brain). Unfortunately, it falls to this lot - even before their training is complete - to take on the mission that, if successful, may well win the war for the Allies. It will be highly dangerous, though, as they must avoid the enemy's deadly falcons, led by the formidable Von Talon (Tim Curry).

Is it predictable? Yes, of course it is. It's a family-friendly, G-rated cartoon, after all. Any young child can understand the story. The only problem I had with the film was its rather short running time of 76 minutes. The big scenes at the end do feel a tad rushed, and one can only wonder why they couldn't add in a few more minutes to round things off a little more effectively. This, however, is a small complaint on my part, as I found this movie immensely entertaining.

I was especially pleased by the note at the end of the film acknowledging the important contribution different animals actually did perform in World War II - especially carrier pigeons, who won 24 Dickens Medals for their heroic service. I would encourage Valiant fans to read a little about such avian heroes as GI Joe, who saved the British forces occupying an Italian town from American bombing, Cher Ami, who (despite being shot in both the chest and the leg) delivered a message that saved forces trapped behind enemy lines from devastating friendly fire, and many other unsung non-human war heroes.

Not Too Shabby
I am a huge fan of British humor. As a Canadian, I feel a little more in tune with the British way of life, and I think that's why Valiant was so funny.

Firstly, Ewan McGregors performance in Valiant was a thousand times better than his lacklustre performance in that peice of Fox trash, Robots.

The inclusion of Ricky Gervais, still hot off his BBC series "The Office", which is now a successful NBC program, was a good choice. His attitude for the supporting role was just what the film needed. Add in John Cleese, Jim Broadbent and Tim Curry, and you have a grade-A BRITISH film. I feel it didn't hit well with "foreign" audiences, as much as it did in the UK.

Top that off with a pathetic marketing campaign, it's no wonder it didn't do well.

Now, as for any dissident critics? Meh, they're de-sensitised by Dreamworks and Fox right now, who feel they can just pop out a CGI movie every 6 months and still wow an audience.

Valiant is a good family film dealing with subjects that children never can grasp though film without being horrified.