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Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 27 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

  • Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ricky Gervais
  • Summary: From the producer of "Shrek" and "Shrek 2," comes this high-flying computer-animated comedy-adventure tale of a brave-but-undersized pigeon named Valiant (voiced by Ewan McGregor), who dreams of joining the elite Royal Homing Pigeon Service (RHPS), and serving crown and country during World War II. (Walt Disney Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 27
  2. Negative: 3 out of 27
  1. 80
    A smart, marvelously drawn account of the bravery of homing pigeons during World War II.
  2. Competently done and harmless enough to entertain the tots. It's just that the movie's kind of . . . sparse.
  3. The visuals might be undistinguished, but the voices are excellent.
  4. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    38
    The top-secret message this pigeon is carrying reads ''Wait for the DVD."

See all 27 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 5
  2. Negative: 1 out of 5
  1. Sophie
    6
    Not as bad as the reviews are saying it is. Yeah, it's not great, but it's okay for one watch. Ricky is very funny in it.
  2. MarkB.
    4
    Why, in the name of all that's decent and fair, didn't Disney just give Pixar anything and everything they wanted just to stay on? It's not like Disney's most recent traditional animation ventures, Brother Bear and Home on the Range, did much to uphold or advance their legend OR fill their coffers, and this lame CGI effort wasn't as much released into theaters as sneaked in. (Perhaps that's why the very few posters on display for this could get away with the title character flashing what could be construed by someone or other as a peace sign less than 2 years after Amanda Bynes had her photographic arm sliced off for showing one in the ad for What A Girl Wants.) Unattractively animated characters and backgrounds perfunctory enough that I was surprised not to see the same two trees and a building repeated endlessly start to sink this story about a runty but intrepid carrier pigeon who proves himself a hero in battle and to his avian squadron...and completely undistinguished vocal characterizations (shockingly by such top British talent as John Hurt and Ricky Gervais) submerge it altogether. (Ewan Macgregor also voiced a lead in Robots earlier this year, and strikes out a second time here; why is it that he can do a memorable, letter-perfect impersonation of a young Alec Guinness in the Star Wars prequels but be so utterly forgettable behind a mike?) The most puzzling aspect of Valiant is that I still have absolutely no idea whom it's aimed at; all the 1940s jokesw (with a few James Bond and Dirty Harry references thrown in) are way over the kids' heads, and adults who've seen the Toy Storys, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles--in fact, ANYTHING Pixar's done--will find Valiant way too slow-moving and low-wattage. (And let's not even bring up Nick Park's wonderful Chicken Run, which succeeded in everything Valiant failed at; the former was cagey enough to provide a simple but funny and exciting poultry-versus-people storyline for children and then overlay it with plenty of witty references to P.O.W. movies like The Great Escape and Stalag 17 for parents and guardians.) I can only guess that Valiant's best audience would be any vet of The Big One who intended to see The Great Raid, discovered that it left the multiplex a month ago, and still has a jones to see something--ANYTHING--World War II-related. Many other viewers will resuscitate memories of the only other pigeons-at-war cartoon that comes to mind, the relatively short-lived (but it's on DVD!) late 1960s Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning opus Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines...and be seriously tempted to start a chorus of "Stop That Pigeon...NOW!!" Expand
  3. Not the best movie you would see. First 20 minutes were out of date and not so exciting. Tons of wrong suff. And yet its still good to watch, animation buffs should still watch Expand
  4. JustinC.
    2
    Oh my gosh. This movie is Gouge-Your-Eyes-Out bad.If you plan on seeing this movie you should bring a gun and either... (a) put yourself out of your missery. (b) try shooting the characters on the screen. or (c) hold up the theater and demand for a refund. Collapse

See all 5 User Reviews