Valiant (2005) Reviews

First of all, I want to make something clear, this is not a Disney feature. Even though their logo is displayed prominently on all the promotional material, they in fact only distributed it in the US, they didn’t actually make it. Actually, it was made in Europe by Ealing Studios and produced by Vanguard Animation. Even though it is always honorable when Europeans try to compete on the highly competitive animation market ruled by the Americans and the Japanese, in this case, the end result was not really convincing, far from it. First of all, I’m rather surprised when I read that some viewers thought that the animation was very well done. Honestly, I thought it was actually pretty ugly. Furthermore, even though the concept had some potential, the whole thing was barely entertaining and the humor was just inane. There was one thing that I enjoyed and that was the bad guy portrayed by a falcon. Indeed, this character looked and sounded pretty awesome but I didn’t care much for the rest. To conclude, even though there were some good ideas here and there, it remains a rather ugly and boring animated feature and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

Ever since Pixar started making movies all of Disney's movie have been on a downward spiral.
In Valiant, the title role is a pigeon, voiced by Ewan McGregor, in the 1944 wanting to join the Royal Homing Pigeon Service to help the war effort. After basic he sets off on a mission to deliver a message from the French mouse resistance back to England and away from the Nazi falcon's from learning its secrets.
While the voice work is top notch, employing Ewan McGregor, Tim Curry, John Cleese, and Hugh Laurie; they don't really add much to the bland and unfunny writing that kills most of the movie.
Art in the film is good and fluid and music is also par for the setting.
Valiant is one of a long line of Disney films that doesn't live up to the name and can be enjoyed but not by me.

This film had so much potential, the concept is fantastic, the animation was superb, but sadly the writing was an unfunny and shallow as a puddle of dishwater.

Ricky Gervais proved to us all that he is not a comic, but a comic actor and could do nothing funny with the Christmas cracker jokes the writing team threw at him.

The main character of Valiant, played by Ewan McGregor was boring, impassionate and..again, unfunny. I wanted desperately to like Valiant; the brave war hero, but every fibre of me wanted to see him shot from the sky and eaten by the SS. The main character seemed just too young and innocent, nobody wants to see that in a war film, which 'Valiant' essentially is.

It’s great to see all the best of British put into this film, Hugh Laurie, John Cleese, Jim Broadbent, John Hurt and Tim Curry. If they'd all sat in a room and TALKED about the war it would have made a better film.

War movies in particular need to have a set of interesting and likeable main characters. Most notably to make you want them to succeed. With two Geordie imbeciles, a fetted coward, a sheltered child and effeminate Lord, who cares if they live or die?