Review of Valiant

Introduction

The publicity surrounding this film was considerable at the time of its release, especially here in the UK. The film was conceived and realised here in good old blighty, gainfully employing over 200 crew and animators.

It`s a quintessentially British tale too (whatever the hype says about `teamwork` and `spirit` all being universal) and one that, with Ricky Gervais providing most the laughs, may well have slightly missed its mark in the U.S.

On the other hand, it`s produced by the creators of Shrek - an extremely tough act to follow, so my expectations on viewing this were perhaps set unreasonably high.

Based loosely on fact, it`s the WWII tale of a young pigeon named Valiant. He`s a cute and plucky little thing who bungles his way into the Royal Pigeon Service, the crème de le crème of the pigeon delivery world.

In the real war, real pigeons were often used to deliver important messages between the Alliance, often to and from occupied territories. The Germans set up a crack team of mean Falcons to try and put pay to these brave pigeons. (Thirty-two pigeons actually went on to be the recipients of the Dicken`s Award for Bravery - fact!).

So here`s a tale that shows how a team of no-hopers come through, due in no small part to the pluck and bravery of little Valiant, voiced ably enough by Ewan McGregor.

Valiant is determined to his bit for King and Country, despite his diminutive size, and heads off to London to volunteer his services. Once there he heads to Trafalgar Square (a pigeon`s paradise) where he hooks up with a smelly, overweight street trader (of the Dell-boy variety) who is voiced by Ricky Gervais. Unlike the vanilla `could be anyone` voice of Ewan McGregor, Gervais proved to be sheer magic, bringing in the laughs that work as a wonderful counter-balance to the action throughout. There are farting jokes, burping jokes, and more than a little bit of David Brent to this character but somehow it all works wonderfully, helping to differentiate this movie from the traditional UK animation, generally a poor cousin to its American counter-part.

Tim Curry is suitably OTT as the German Falcon, and it`s surprising in this PC age that the stereotyping is as pronounced as it is. I guess animation allows you to get away with a little bit more of this sort of thing than you might otherwise do.

There`s also a fairly standard bit of `Dead Parroting` going on from John Cleese as the batty captive that Valiant eventually rescues. It`s standard Cleese, ever popular with the Americans.

The central voice-cast is ably propped up by Sir Ben Kingsley, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Everett, John Hurt, Tim Curry and Olivia Williams.

The animation is certainly imaginative and well rendered, but never quite up to Pixar and Shrek standards. But then we`ve been spoilt with that.

It`s a short and entertaining film with plenty of bird-colliding slapstick and it`s a film that will entertain the 6-plus children as well as adults.

Video

A wonderfully crisp transfer that has undoubtedly followed a purely digital route to the disc. Flawless.

Audio

Animation relies very heavily on a good soundtrack. With a good emotive score, and wild spot effects emitting from various speakers, this is a rollicking good soundtrack. The voice-recordings are incredibly crisp so that every nuance and throwaway line (an essential part of Gervais`s oeuvre) is audible. Excellent stuff.

Features

There are some entertaining extras here that have the age span of its audience firmly in mind. So no ponderous yak-track (thankfully) but plenty else.

GAME
Young children will enjoy the game element included here which works on three levels. The first uses basic shape recognition to work out the correct `formation` for stunt flying. If it sounds complicated, it isn`t. Your six year old will get on just fine! Level two takes you on a plane journey where you use the left, right, forward and backward buttons to co-ordinate a parachute jump. Again - not too difficult. Level three is the most fun though, where you guide Valiant on a flight by using the directional keys on the remote. Great fun!

FEATURETTE
This is an informative documentary (lasting 14 minutes), which shows the processes involved in pulling the film together. The narration is truly awful though, featuring an expressionless American voice. It features some amusing interviews that reveal (amongst other things) that Gervais was very unsure about his abilities, needing reassurance from the more experienced McGregor.

SCENE PROGRESSIONS
There are three featured scenes that get the `concept to completion` treatment, from initial storyboards, through to stills, through to the addition of audio, through to primitive CGI through to the finished piece. These manage to be informative without being long-winded.

RECORDING SESSIONS
This also has a menu to allow you to go to whichever character you most enjoy, from Ricky Gervais, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Williams, Tim Curry and Hugh Laurie. It`s always fun to see the actors dubbing their voices to the action.

BLOOPERS
This is a very half-assed addition with just two so-called bloopers included. Sadly, this `animation blooper` thing has been done to death and that joke just isn`t funny any more. Seeming to realise this, they didn`t waste their time doing more than two, though these are definitely to be filed in the `superfluous and time-wasting` bin.

WORLD PREMIERE PARTS 1 & 2
This is a fairly lengthy new item showing the premiere in Leicester Square, but also giving a lot of detail from behind the scenes of the production. Presenter Jenni Falconer does a nice job in her interviews with the voice-artistes, as well as with production crew. Entertaining and informative.

Conclusion

This British-made animation, featuring pigeons in a WWII adventure, is a nice balance of humour, romance, pathos and action. It`s an uncomplicated story that even the wee ones will get, and they`ll be cheering at its inevitable conclusion that underdogs can win against great adversity through courage and determination. All laudable stuff.

On the other hand, the trailers keep pushing the `from the makers of Shrek` angle, which sets the expectation levels at feverish and possibly unattainable heights. Whilst it is undeniably a lot of fun (with Ricky Gervais frankly stealing the show), it`s still a cut below the Shrek movies and the sort of animated adventures we`ve become used to from Pixar. Apparently the movie was made in half the time, and for half the budget of Shrek. And it`s about half as good too in the final analysis. But then Shrek was an incredibly good film and this is by no means a bad one. A fairly safe Christmas purchase and one that the kids will undoubtedly watch again and again.