SYNOPSIS
During World War 2, a British pigeon named Valiant (Ewan McGregor) wants to join the Royal Homing Pigeon Service, despite the danger and his small size. He meets friends like Bugsy (Ricky Gervais) in basic training. When all of the other squadrons get attacked by the dreaded falcons working for the other side, led by Von Talon (Tim Curry), Valiant and the group get their chance to go into occupied France and bring back what may be the most important message of the war.
CRITIQUE
England has recently made long strides in keeping up with U.S. studios in the area of animation. Previously, the area of feature-film animation was dominated completely by, of course, the company which released this film, but now other companies have phenomenal success in the genre. From across the pond, Chicken Run in 2000 and this year's Wallace and Gromit are the most high-profile examples, but this year Disney also released Valiant, from Vanguard Animation. Valiant, though kid-oriented, is fun overall and excels most in the area of direction.
Given the world's political climate at the moment, it makes sense that a historical war that feels so clearly morally delineated as World War 2 should become a backdrop for a film celebrating heroism. As a short person myself, the "little guy achieves his big dreams" theme is fine with me and it's a natural for kids. The plot is structured in a predictable way, with training montages, Valiants flirtation with a dove nurse (voiced by Olivia Williams), and the climactic chase scene. The target audience probably won't care, though. There is some pretty effective comedy at moments, here, especially from Gervais' dirty bird (in more ways than one) and John Cleese's captured legend. Together the two actors span classic and modern British comedy. One of the producing partners of the film is England's venerable Ealing Studios, and the film comes close to distilling the farcical energy of the old comedies the studio used to make.
This is particularly true of the sequence where the squadron interacts with two French resistance mice. One is a female mouse called "Charles De Girl", intentionally rhyming with De Gaulle, the French president - never too early to teach kids something. The other mouse is a chubby male whose lines are almost only one word: "Sabotage!" A brief chase involving him is truly hilarious! The best element of this film, though, may be the direction. From the fairly tense opening, where the falcons take out a pigeon squadron offscreen, which ends with a simple shot of a feather falling onto a stormy sea, to the creation of a couple of nice camera moves, Chapman does a fine job. A couple of good transitions stand out and the animation is nice 3-dimensional work overall.
The only dodgy bit was the representation of speeding past buildings in the final chase. I also like that the important message Valiant ends up delivering is that the Allies should land in Normandy, and the end titles even give some nice facts on the honoring of animals in Britain during the war. Though quite British and very child-oriented, Valiant is at times an above-average entry into the animation genre.
THE VIDEO
The almost flawless animation is as theatrical as possible in the usual anamorphic widescreen format here. There are, importantly, no color problems.
THE AUDIO
As always, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround provides the sound here and it’s reliable. While French and Spanish language tracks are available, only English subtitles are.
THE EXTRAS
This disc features Disney's Fast Play, a feature that plays some extras and then the film automatically. This is nice if you don't mind watching the features first and don't want to bother with the remote. I expect Disney to keep doing this on its discs and for other companies to follow suit.
Training Challenge Game: This feature shows just how geared toward children this disc is, as the game has 3 levels adults will find so easy that they'll be bored playing even half a minute. There are formations to choose that correspond to shapes, choosing drop points, and the like. Kids might have fun but ones closer to adolescence will skip it as adults will.
Gag Reel: Fairly funny and way too short, this feature is basically filler. The clips mostly feature Gervais' name and the rest are the repetition of one landing by one of the pigeons through a window.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Valiant is an entry into the animation medium that is entertaining enough for at least one viewing for an adult, and young kids might like it even more. Skimpy extra features may not put this DVD on the buy list for everyone, though. Renting may be just the compromise for families and most others can probably skip it without regret.
