24 May 2012

I thought it was cute

I thought this was a cute movie with charming characters. People who gave it a negative review need to lighten up.

23 May 2012

AMW

this movie gets 5 stars because of the stunning animation(even though I like the old school animation better).I love the moral of the story. I also love the fact that it was much better the 2nd and 3rd time I watched it. I may be 24 years old but I'm not afraid to watch these movies and dive right back into my childhood. Also recommended: Tarzan and Treasure Planet

Kyle Smith

23 May 2012

Apart from the puns and regurgitation jokes, the story of a group of carrier pigeons on a death-defying mission in 1944 Europe will fly over the heads of actual youngsters.

Ella Taylor

23 May 2012

It's not at all clear which audience director Gary Chapman has his eye on.

ptb-8

20 May 2012

Very funny, but....

Here is a terrific CGI animated film from the UK that is beautifulvisually and easy to enjoy and has a really unique pitch: WW2 fighterpigeons and rah rah Brit derring do, but has seriously miscast mainvoice actors: especially Ricky Gervais and Ewan MacGregor. Gervais'sannoying babble and rant is so tedious it almost overtakes the film,and MacGregor does not have an animated voice. It is too ordinary.However everything else and everyone else seem right and the wartimeminiature visuals are very inventive. The French resistance mouse ishilarious. It was a complete surprise to me as I avoided it on firstrelease and only saw it as a DVD. well recommended for 10 years oldsand if you can get past the Gervais nonsense patter you will love itentirely. Reminders of A BUGS LIFE and RATATOUILLE and even HAPPY FEETwill emerge as you watch but VALIANT is so funny and well planned iteasily stands on it's own.

cirnelle_telperien

20 May 2012

Britishly Comical.

Although this may not tickle the fancy of non-Brits, Valiant is alight-hearted comical little tale (it's quite short) of an even littlerpigeon with a big personality who wants to be in the RHSP as a wartimecarrier pigeon. The characters are well defined and work together wellwith a generously simple plot. Bugsy (Ricky Gervais) is hilarious andmost of the voices provided were perfect, although it would have beenbetter if I didn't have a constant mental image of the actors whilelooking at their animated aliases. Occasionally there are moments of dialogue or actions that are quiteobviously meant to be funny and aren't but these are generally glazedover by silliness. A must-see for animation fans/Brits, but perhapsmore laughable for the younger generation among us.

Ann Hornaday

19 May 2012

Even though its historical references and battle scenes may fly over their heads like so many homing pigeons, kids will enjoy Valiant, too, if only for its nonstop action and lively visual design.

ShootingShark

19 May 2012

Funny, Exciting, Homing Pigeons In World War II Adventure Yarn

It's 1944, and little wood-pigeon Valient flies off to join the RoyalHoming Pigeon Service and do his bit for king and country. Soon he's ona perilous mission in occupied France with the fate of the entire warat stake, and doing battle with the dreaded German warrior falcon,General Von Talon ...This is a funny, delightful, exciting and beautifully made piece ofanimation, with a terrific voice cast and plenty for both kids andadults to enjoy. It's kind of like a Boy's Own comic-book war storydone in the style of The Dam Busters or 633 Squadron, only with pigeonsas the heroes. Despite a relatively modest budget, the animation isterrific and there are several outstanding sequences; the parachutejump through the raging blitzkrieg, the flight through the resistancefighters' town, the chase around the train. The visuals are simple butdynamic (the head storyboard artist was Mike Ploog, a great comics manwho worked on Heavy Metal, The Thing, The Witches and lots of othergreat fantasy/effects films), and are accompanied by a sensationalrousing military march score by George Fenton. Best of all are thecharacters - the noble but diminutive Valient, the shabby but lovableBugsy, topper hero Wing Commander Gutsy and uber-fiend Von Talon. Allthe voice actors are great but Gervais, Curry and Laurie exceptionallyso, and the dialogue is cracking. When the gang crash-land in enemyterritory and ask resistance leader (mouse division) Charles DeGirl howshe found them, her reply is, "Well, there was the plane and theexplosion, and the screaming, the pleading, more screaming, thebegging, the crying, the whining, whingeing, yelling, boo-hooing ... ".Although slightly reminiscent of the old sixties Hanna-Barbera cartoonDastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines, this is a highlyoriginal, side-splittingly funny, stiff-upper-beak cartoon classic, andloads of fun for all ages.

17 May 2012

A Valiant Effort

I often wonder why some people automatically assume that if a computer-animated Disney film isn't done by Pixar, then it's no good. "Chicken Little" was trashed by the critics, but it was a wonderful family feature that was fun to watch for young and old alike. "The Wild," though not as good as "Chicken Little," was a solid family film that took a lot of flack for being similar to "Madagascar." And here's "Valiant," an animated tale that never had a chance in the realm of Pixar vs. Disney.It's really a fun tale that's short, to the point, and full of wonderful voice talents. Critics say that it's too formulaic and downright boring at times and yes, the tale of a small, seemingly insignificant person stepping up to do heroic things isn't original, but it's delivered here in fine fashion. Young Valiant wants to do his part to secure the freedom of his country during WWII. He signs up with the Royal Homing Pigeon Service to deliver secret and urgent messages to the Allies from the French Resistance. He heads up a bungling line-up of brutes, well-to-dos and Bugsy, a smelly but heartfelt friend that Valiant picks up along the way to join the service. The evil Nazi falcon, Von Talon, and his interceptors have picked the homing pigeons clean, leaving only Valiant and his buds to retrieve a crucial message for the Allies. Can Valiant and his friends overcome the odds and save jolly ol' England? You have to watch to find out.As stated before, there are plenty of wonderful voice talents in this film. Ewan McGregor provides the voice of Valiant, and does so with youthful exuberance. Hugh Laurie voices Gutsy, champion of the homing pigeons. Tim Curry is devilishly fun as Von Talon. Ricky Gervais (Bugsy), John Hurt (Felix), and John Cleese (Mercury) head up the rest of a fine cast of voice talents.The animation is great. Though nothing groundbreaking is found here (excepting the chase scene involving Valiant and Von Talon, which I thought was wonderful), the animation holds up very well to most other computer animated flicks of today. The music is fun as well. There are a few deaths (offscreen) that parents might have to explain to their children, but they are brief and do not happen to the main characters.One thing that I really enjoyed about this film is that it gives youngsters a brief bit of history about World War II. Granted, it doesn't flesh out the actions at Normandy, but it might trigger your child's interest in history, which can't be a bad thing. The mention of the Dickin Medal at the end of this flick is also an interesting fact to know.This isn't the greatest Disney flick ever made. However, there's plenty here for both children and adults to enjoy, and you'll be kicking yourself for not checking this movie out earlier. It's a nice family film and will easily earn its spot on your family DVD shelf. I highly recommend it.

Peter Canavese

17 May 2012

Valiant is sadly boring, and while its rote mechanics may function nominally on children, it's going to be a long 76 minutes for the adults.

Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone

14 May 2012

An animated war epic - it doesn't sound like it would fly but it does.

Geoff Pevere

13 May 2012

Not only is the pacing less hyper, the humour less pop-cult savvy and the story almost creakily old-fashioned [than a Pixar production], it even looks like it was made in a cloudier climate: the dominant colours are muted blues and greys.

Winda Benedetti

12 May 2012

It's a tale with plenty of spirit and a good heart, and yet, this story doesn't so much soar across the screen as it does waddle.

Nancy Churnin

12 May 2012

Valiant may not fly in the stratosphere of Pixar or the best of DreamWorks, but giving these plucky birds their due is not a bad way to wind up the summer.

11 May 2012

Undelectable Chickens

"Valiant" is a serviceable film with a serviceable premise filled with serviceable characters on a serviceable escaped with serviceable danger that's serviceably fun for the serviceable family, made in service by Disney and a British company. How incredibly boring, this is nothing but manufactured animation being made for a direct-to-rental shop, with little soul or care given into the promise. But to be fair, it's better than "Shark Tale" on two regards: no one in the film has made absurd pop-culture references and it didn't have Missy Elliott doing a REEEMIIIIIIIIIIIX. Give the film credit for that.I cannot, however, give credit for its ho-hum production. For a 2005 movie, its art design is of low-quality and the character animation is stiff and wonky like an episode of "Penguins from Madagascar". It doesn't seem to care about the plot development either, because it spend so much time making the characters do silly things instead of fleshing them out and make them wholesome, likable creatures. There's no suspense, thrill, intrigue, tragedy, or enlightenment happening in this adventure.For having such a stellar cast of British comedic talents and celebrities, none of them rise to the challenge of making their 3-D characters more than one-dimensional. The main character is idealistic and valor, but nothing else defines him as to why he's brave or did selfless things, making him dull; just because he's called Valiant doesn't mean he has to live up to his name. His love-interest has more depth than a sticky note, was about as important as bird poo and has the screen presence of a cigarette burn, no actual personality whatsoever. The buttpigeons of the movie are silly for their own sake rather than the audience's and the villains are no more threatening than a hangnail when their 'cunning' intimations are pathetic. These characters are so uninteresting, I can't remember their names besides Valiant's...and it's because of the title.Here's a thought: this is a G-rated animated film about birds, being made by a British company. Did that remind you of something? If you're thinking of a certain movie, you might as well watch that. "Valiant" gets the job done, but it hardly flew the distance.

Scott Von Doviak

10 May 2012

Harmless but generally uninspired.

Dustin Putman

09 May 2012

Lightweight and easily forgotten about once it's over. While it last, though, it is congenial and pleasingly innocuous.

Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)

09 May 2012

Valiant isn't up to the computer-animation standards of Pixar (Finding Nemo) or even Dreamworks (Madagascar).

Richard Horgan

07 May 2012

No matter how hard the CGI animators try, the idea of Ricky Gervais as a bird is not as funny as the idea of Ricky Gervais as a human being.

MaryAnn Johanson

07 May 2012

[E]xactly as cozily silly and as charmingly touching as you'd expect from a nation that gives medals of valor to birds.