Just saw a preview. Will keep this shortish. Valient is entertaining, it's OK, but if you think it's going to be the big British animation film that we've all been waiting for, then you'll be disappointed. In a new era of animations that are accessible to both children and adults (Incredibles, Shrek etc) This film is a little disappointing, in that it is mainly for kids. It's more mildly amusing rather than funny and the story is just quite small scale. It only really revolves around a group of 5 pigeons and 3 falcons. Ricky Gervais just jabbers on really rather than having anything really interesting to say, and many of the big stars used to voice the film are really underused - for example John Cleese - his character could have been voiced by anyone, they didn't really make use of John Cleese's unique talents. It's a pity as this film may struggle to make big money. It's not up to Pixar standards, or even Blue Sky who did the recent Robot's. I don't think this will appeal greatly to the American market - what do they care about a small-scale story about some carrier pigeons in World War 2 used by the British. They won't watch it for the laugh out loud comedy either. I really hope for Ealing Studios and all others who backed this, thats it's not the first and last big British animation, but I fear it unfortunately may be. I do hope I'm proved wrong
Valiant
(2005)
OK, but not as good as the UK media frenzy is portraying
20 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers