Visitors Review

chookraffle (2012-05-22 15:59)

Disappointing

This movie was a fence-sitter. Was it meant to be funny? The slap-stickdid not work, the jokes were not thought out, and then at the end thepretence that this was some sort of testimonial to animals who servedtheir country? Excruciating. I don't want to fall into the trap of overanalysing a cartoon, Ricky Gervais voicing was OK, but in practicalterms the movie was too short (not 76 minutes by my watch, just over anhour) and when you take along kiddies you expect some sort of value formoney. It really lacked the charm of Chicken Run, and the fact thatseveral pigeons got vaporised at the beginning made me concerned abouthow many animal deaths there would be. And I didn't have popcorn whichmade it worse. 3/10.

pearl_girl79 (2012-05-22 13:26)

Pleasantly surprised!

I wasn't expecting much out of this film, but I was pleasantlysurprised! It was quite funny.Its basically about a undersized pigeon named Valiant who becomes anunlikely hero.I was surprised though that a movie that promoted and almost glorifiedwar would be presented as a children's film. It was like watching arecruitment film for the British Empire. However, there was a slighteducational element to the movie, when you consider that animals wereindeed used in the 2nd world war. There were scenes of bombing andexplosions and battle, but to tell you the truth, it wasn't thatviolent overall. I wouldn't recommend the film for really little kids; but mostlybecause of my own objection to the war theme. War is just such ahorrible reality, it seems wrong to me to expose children to it asentertainment.

Steve Rhodes (2012-05-21 22:20)

Will engage your little ones minimally while in the theaters but will leave them without any desire to get the DVD later in order to see it again.

Harry Haun (2012-05-21 17:10)

A valiant effort.

Lawrence Stevens (2012-05-21 07:57)

OK, but not as good as the UK media frenzy is portraying

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 animationfilm that we've all been waiting for, then you'll be disappointed. In anew era of animations that are accessible to both children and adults(Incredibles, Shrek etc) This film is a little disappointing, in thatit is mainly for kids. It's more mildly amusing rather than funny andthe story is just quite small scale. It only really revolves around agroup of 5 pigeons and 3 falcons. Ricky Gervais just jabbers on reallyrather than having anything really interesting to say, and many of thebig stars used to voice the film are really underused - for exampleJohn Cleese - his character could have been voiced by anyone, theydidn't really make use of John Cleese's unique talents. It's a pity asthis film may struggle to make big money. It's not up to Pixarstandards, or even Blue Sky who did the recent Robot's. I don't thinkthis will appeal greatly to the American market - what do they careabout a small-scale story about some carrier pigeons in World War 2used by the British. They won't watch it for the laugh out loud comedyeither. I really hope for Ealing Studios and all others who backedthis, thats it's not the first and last big British animation, but Ifear it unfortunately may be. I do hope I'm proved wrong

Wendy Ide (2012-05-20 22:22)

Valiant is the plucky little outsider with a lot of heart

Mightyzebra (2012-05-20 10:22)

Good animated film

This is an unusual, but very good CGI film, it deserves more creditthan it is receiving. One good thing is it doesn't mind mentioning theSecond World War - and you might actually learn something that happenedin the past for real - not what happened in animation before. As in most animated films, the characters are very likable and thereare lots of good actors voicing them, such as Ewan McGregor (Valiant),Ricky Gervais (Bugsy) and Tim Curry as the main baddie, a falcon. Even though it is about the Second World War, this still remains to befunny, yet serious about the situation at the same time, which isusually very hard for a CGI film.The main character is Valiant, a very small but very brave pigeon,wanting to fight in the war and brave the dangers. Despite otherpigeons discouraging him, he flies off to London, where he will sign upto become a messenger pigeon. On the way, he meets a very dirty pigeoncalled Bugsy, who helps him start his training. It is the beginning ofa dangerous and huge adventure...Enjoy "Valiant"! 7 and a half out of ten.

Pete Croatto (2012-05-20 02:26)

Disney sticks to that formula of goofy nonchalance - this time without music

Keetoo (2012-05-18 00:53)

The Need Is There to Make More Like This.

Alright, we all know this was a cartoon and not a movie, but this wasbased on real history making birds that got awarded for being dependedon when needed in the throngs of World War Two. At the end of this finecartoon they acknowledged that not only the pigeons, but dogs and a cathad been awarded medals in helping win the war effort. Have there beenany movies made in the past to tell these stories? I can't remember. Ifanyone could though it should be Disney, they seem to have thewonderful sensitivity to do stories like that. This is stuff thatshould always be brought up to the forefront to let future generationsknow the great ingenuity of past generations. What's wrong with that?Keep the past remembered! Honor those who deserved it. Make moremovies, yes - even cartoons, like this. Bravo!

Godofcomics (2012-05-17 02:34)

Amazing, Unique and Outrated

If you are reading my review, it means you are just checking out to seeif it is a good movie, or have doubts about seeing it. Considering allthe 3D Animation stuff released to this day – on giant titles likeShrek from DreamWorks and Nemo from Pixar, among others – I canguarantee the reader that Valliant is for sure an unforgettableexperience, specially for the guys who love military stuff. This one isso amazing because it is set on the World War II, with an amazing ideaand selection of unique characters. It is a master piece just likeCars. Everything is superb and superior to a lot of the 3d stuff outthere, the things worth mentioning are the Sound and visual, bothlooking great.What I liked the most, is that this movie has no annoying scenes likethe baby crying on Monsters S.A or the annoying baby from Ice Age 1,sometimes I fail to watch those movies because of that. To conclude,the movie starts and ends with a superb storyline, don't miss it forthe world, and don't be fooled, this movie had little propaganda andgot forgotten too fast, it was not fair since it is one of the greatesttitles ever released.I must also use this space to complain about the Brazilian company whoreleased this DVD in Brazil. They released only one version of it andit was in Full screen, they seen to forget about the millions of peoplewho own a widescreen television or appreciate the pure and originalversion of the movie, and choose to save money instead. They alsodeleted the original sound (English) forcing us to watch it inPortuguese and Spanish 5.1, something very stupid to be done since weall hate voice over (even the kids complained about this). So, makesure your DVD has the Original English 5.1 sound (and not 2.0) with theoriginal Widescreen size. It is ten times more beautiful and awesome inthat way!

Alex B (2012-05-13 13:40)

Great British film

Charming and funny. I liked it very much! You can tell the differencefrom British and American films. It's about a small young pigeon whojoined the RHPS (the Royal Homing Pigeon Service) for fame and gloryand ending up finding just that, but only after a vicious fight withthe studious Black Falcon who was a pigeon-eater falcon and a Nazi too(of course). Another spicy detail: the French Resistance is actuallythe French Resistacne Mouse Division. That's it! I wont tell youanymore as it spoils the fun.Go out and see it. It's a big laugh. Atleast for me and my girlfriend it did. It is not made by Pixar, but itis at least as good as the ones made by them.

Daniel M. Kimmel (2012-05-13 11:21)

Valiant does the job of providing some suitable entertainment for youngsters but not much more.

Stoli_Raz_N_7 (2012-05-13 04:00)

Maybe they could've had canned laughs.

Truthfully, I don't know if I can say enough about this film to warrant1000 words, but I'll try.First of all, while people are lauding the film for being an animatedfamily piece set in WWII, and being about homing pigeons, I didn'tthink it was that big of a deal. I took my 10 year old nephew and hisfriend to see the film on opening weekend, and they didn't really careabout which war was happening at the time, just that there wereexplosions every so often.Second, while I personally didn't find it humorous at all,(overly-abused prat falls, moronic hench-falcons, and clichéd birdpunchlines does not a comedy make) I did want the boys to enjoy theshow. It seemed strange to me that several families (mostly fathers andyoung boys) were watching a comedy film, and yet nobody ever reallylaughed. None of the kids laughed unless an adult started laughingfirst. It was like a sad game of follow the leader, with each of usadults taking turns cue-ing the children's' laughter. Perhaps theyshould've used canned laughs.Sure the animation was good. The characters were flat, the story linewas formulaic, the villains were pathetic and unfrightening, and theshow lacked any sense of humor or adventure, but the animation wasgood.

michoyl (2012-05-12 18:23)

Wot - no Nazis?

A pleasant enough movie and my two younger kids loved it (well... the4-year-old did, anyway!). And so far as i can see, there's no realreason to criticise it, even if it did feel a bit limp along the way...the animation was certainly nowhere near as bad as some people suggest!On the other hand, am I alone in being a little puzzled re the WWIIsetting? After all, I've always understood the bad guys wereessentially Nazis and generally speaking NAZI=SWASTIKA (albeit invertedwith regard to most traditions). So where were the swastikas??? And howcome the falcon made me think more of the Red Baron (WWI, folks!) whilehis cohorts also seemed dressed more in keeping with the 1914-18bash...In fact, I'm not even sure I remember any specific reference to"Germans", though I might have missed it. They certainly avoided anyclear reference during the title sequence! Could it be that UK"political correctness" now extends to not wishing to offend any of ourteutonic brethren by suggesting their recent ancestors might have beenup to no good 60+ years ago? A touch of the "don't mention the war"made especially famous years back by Basil Fawlty??? Whatever...

Nick Schager (2012-05-11 17:26)

The slapdash construction and narrative inconsistencies, however, aren't nearly as damaging to this aerial adventure as the general mediocrity of its animation.

(2012-05-11 10:51)

Great for little kids

I've read some of the worse reviews here and frankly I'm tired of those people who expect every animated film that comes out to live up to the adult-friendly nature of Shrek or The Incredibles. If you want that kind of film then by all means go put your Shrek, Shrek II or whatever you love the most in the DVD player and watch it over and over again because you'll never be happy with anything else.The animation here is actually quite good, the plot is simple and easy to understand: young go-getter wants to make good for his country and he and a motley crew of fellow homing pigeons go to enemy lines to retrieve information that can change the outcome of the war. Yes it's formulaic and easy to predict what will happen, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. Ewan McGregor is a little vocally hyper but acceptable as the pipsqueeky, small-in-stature but but tall-in-character Valiant. John Cleese does his usual brilliant, dry British humor shtick as a senior homing pigeon caught behind enemy lines. Tim Curry hams it up as usual as the evil ring-leader falcon. But my favorite characters were the highbrow, putting-on-airs humor of Hugh Laurie's Lofty and Ricky Gervais' hilarious, ill-bred but heart-of-gold Bugsy. I really laughed out loud with their lines, more than any other point in the movie.I read a review elsewhere that says this film is aimed more at "older folks" and spoofs WWII movies of years gone by, but my 3-year old daughter loves this film! And some have said it's too short, but I think it's the perfect length for youngsters to watch. Having seen it about 20 times in the last two weeks I'm not bored with it at all.I enjoy the cultural references to England and the WWII era, and I also appreciate that, in a way, this is exposing my kids, young as they are, to a very important time in our history. Perhaps someday they will correlate their history lessons with this film and something will gel because of seeing this version of history, because the fact is, homing pigeons were really used in WWII.

David Cornelius (2012-05-11 10:07)

This is not a top grade animated effort, but it is a sweet, enjoyable one.

JudithHunt (2012-05-11 03:40)

Fun family film

I'm beginning to find a lot of these CG animated movies terriblyformulaic (Magic Roundabout's horrendous storyline a case in point)sothis movie made a refreshing change when I took my 3 sons to see apreview. Not overly long, basing the story around Homing Pigeons usedin WW11 was a great idea and really appealed to the boys. Thecharacters were fun and well voiced (parents can play a game of 'guessthe actor')and there were some genuinely laugh out loud moments. Notquite the emotional pull of 'Finding Nemo' but that wasn't the point.To sum it up, my 11 year-old said. 'Great, Mum. About the war withoutbeing too violent for my little brothers and not too babyish for me.'Recommended.

Steve Schneider (2012-05-10 14:46)

The script is typical family-flick underachievement, with feeble puns and other stabs at birdie personification.

John (2012-05-09 21:17)

Great Movie for Children

I went and took my son to this movie this afternoon and I must say he loved it!! It was a lot of fun for the kids, the characters were very funny and nice. He really got into it and after we walked out of the theater he laughed the whole way home, "You remember the part where...?" I think that every family with young children should bring them to this great family film, it all the great slapstick comedy that the kids love and will really brighten their day and yours.Highly recommended 8.5/10-Cat