Valiant

Product Description The whole world is looking for a hero, and it's up to a little pigeon named Valiant to step up and bravely serve his country. Valiant (Ewan McGregor) and his fine, feathered friends take to the sky on a wing and a prayer to prove that it's not your wingspan but the size of your spirit that truly counts. Together this rag-tag squadron of birdbrains engages in hilarious aerial adventures at a spitfire pace. From the first bumbling day of basic training through the final feather-raising mission, the flock of comical characters swoops their way toward victory. From the producer of SHREK and SHREK 2, VALIANT delivers stunning animation, a top-flight voice cast, and an action-packed story loaded with laughs. It's a soaring family comedy that truly earns its wings.~~(C) Disney/Vanguard Animation/UK Film Council Amazon.com A host of great British thespians, from Ewan MacGregor to John Cleese, lend their voices to Valiant, a computer-animated bird's-eye-view of World War II. Valiant (MacGregor, Big Fish, Down With Love), though but a small pigeon, is determined to join the homing pigeon brigade and do his part to help win the war. He and a handful of other misfits are assembled into a motley squad and suddenly find themselves thrust into combat with the responsibility of delivering a crucial message. Unfortunately, the villainous Von Talon (Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show), a Nazi falcon, intends to tear them to feathers over the English Channel. Aside from some delightful voice work from Ricky Gervais ( The Office) as a filthy but cunning pigeon, there's not much to recommend about Valiant. The story is clunky, cliche-ridden, and underdeveloped; the design is charmless and inexpressive; the characters are so generic that even a cast as talented as Jim Broadbent ( Topsy-Turvy, Iris), Hugh Laurie ( House), and John Hurt ( 1984, The Elephant Man) can do little to make them anything but bland stereotypes from a long-exhausted movie genre. Overall, poorly conceived and clumsily executed. --Bret Fetzer Review "A family-friendly charmer with cute little birdies!" -- THELMA ADAMS, US WEEKLY "Another valiant animated sensation from the masters at Disney." -- CLAY SMITH, THE INSIDER "At last, a ?message movie? that?s fun." -- GENE SHALIT, THE TODAY SHOW "Just like its leading character, Valiant has both heart and humor." -- LEONARD MALTIN, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT "The animation here is top notch, with gorgeously rendered imagery." -- MARSHALL FINE, STAR "?Valiant? is a smart, marvelously drawn account of the bravery of homing pigeons during World War II?" -- ANN HORNADAY, THE WASHINGTON POST