Valiant

It probably sounded like a good idea to make an animated takeoff on movies about intrepid British World War II airmen, with lovable homing pigeons (actually used by the Brits during the war) replacing the human pilots. Unfortunately, a number of things conspire to make Valiant—the title character is a pintsized bird that's derided when he joins the squad but becomes a hero—an almost complete misfire. The story is blandly formulaic, the humor is ham-fisted (limited mostly to birds falling down or slamming into things), the characters are colorless bores, and the animation—apart from a few flying sequences—is unattractive. Even the famous voice talent—Ewan McGregor as Valiant, Ricky Gervais as his comic sidekick, Jim Broadbent as the tough drill instructor, Tim Curry as an enemy falcon—can't breathe much life into the tepid material. There's one moment in Valiant that hits home, when the title character makes a typically klutzy move and follows up with the line, “I'm terribly sorry, I'm Valiant.” We'll take that as a proper British apology for this kid-sized turkey. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a brief bloopers segment, a “Training Challenge” DVD game, and trailers. Bottom line: an empty nest of an extras package for a flightless animated film.] (F. Swietek)