VALIANT

UK, 2005, 78 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Ewan Mc Gregor, Ricky Gervais, Tim Curry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Laurie, John Cleese, John Hurt, Pip Torrens, Rik Mayall, Olivia Williams.
Directed by Gary Chapman.

One of the marketing difficulties with so many animated features these days is trying to determine just who the audience is for a particular film.

2004 saw quite a number of fine animation films, including Shrek 2 and The Incredibles. 2005 opened with Spongebob Square Pants, The Magic Roundabout, Robots and Valiant with quite a few more on the distribution lists. Are they really for children? Are adults meant to enjoy them? Sitting with children during screenings, one would come to the conclusion that the surest jokes to rely on for their laughter involve breaking wind (and Robots does have an extended joke like this that the kids loved). On the other hand, many animated films have wisecracks and movie references that make sense only to a movie buff – Shark Tale is full of these, with the fish voiced by Martin Scorsese looking like him, something the average six-year old may not pick up! Finding Nemo is the film that seems to have got the blend absolutely right. It’s a difficult market.

All of which is prologue to a consideration of a British animated feature that flew in at Easter: Valiant, a World War II adventure which pays tribute to the role of the Homing Pigeons during the war, many of whom were awarded the Dickin medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross – which came across as a tongue-in-cheek joke until you learn that this is perfectly factual and serious. Valiant might be humorous but it should also be taken seriously.

The reviewer for Sight and Sound thought that the younger audiences would enjoy the broad gags and fast action. I hope so but am not so sure. In fact, the audience which will enjoy Valiant is probably the 50s and over. The same Sight and Sound reviewer thinks that it is in the mission-based vein of 60s movies like Where Eagles Dare and The Dirty Dozen. If your memory goes back further then you know that Valiant is the stuff of the British film industry of the 1950s. Valiant could be Richard Todd or Kenneth More of John Gregson or Dirk Bogarde. This is the tradition of The Dam Busters, Reach for the Sky and all those movies where Britain won the war. It makes one realise that Ewan Mc Gregor (who voices Valiant) could be a contemporary version of these 50s stars.

What is striking is that Valiant presents an image of Britain, especially England, of the past which fifty years have changed considerably but which still lingers as some kind of model for being British. Watching Valiant, the immediate reaction was ‘stiff upper beak’.

Valiant who, it should be explained, is about as tall as Richard Todd or Ewan Mc Gregor compared with tall Hugh Laurie and John Cleese (who voice the officer pigeons) is the plucky littler feller who is rejected by the recruiting officers but who, of course, being small can get into literal tight spots and saves the day. In fact, it is just as well because the message he brings is that the D- Day landing is to be in Normandy.

But the qualities of the British hero that he aspires to and which the officers give witness to and which the gruff sergeant major (is there any other kind?), voiced by Jim Broadbent want to instil are the traditional British: the hero has an inner-world strong independence but is clear that orders must be obeyed. Orders are orders and one hops to it at once. The hero is responsible, dependable, singleminded and does not let emotion get in the way. In an emergency, hunches about an alternate way of achieving the goal could be permitted. And any grieving for loss comes after the job is done.

Just when ‘stiff upper beak’ seemed a good title for this article, the Sight and Sound review turned up with the comment: ‘Many of the characterisations fall back on ‘Allo, ‘Allo stereotypes for comic effect: the Germans are sadistic, the French flamboyant while’ (here it is) ‘the British are a mix of stiff upper lip pomposity and tally-ho pluck). Perhaps this stereotype of Britishness was never true – but it was often put forward as desirable.

Of course, there is a variant on the valiant: the city spiv. Valiant does have a great spiv, a con-bird called Bugsy, who is voiced with comic relish by Ricky Gervais. Since Sight and Sound reviewer, Matthew Leyland, is on a roll by this stage of his review, here he is again on Bugsy: ‘he puts on a display of shifty braggadoccio’. But, of course, Bugsy becomes a hero too.

PS. When you see Valiant, look out for Tim Curry’s General Von Talon torturing John Cleese’s Mercury and threatening, ‘We hef means of making you sqwark’.

1. An example of British animation? Collaboration with the United States? The very British story (and comparisons with American stories, especially about World War Two heroics)?

2. The style of drawing, the naturalistic tone, the art styles, the strong characters, the backgrounds, the action sequences?

3. The choice of voices, serious and comic? The stiff upper lip British tone?

4. The tradition of the 1940s and 1950s, the war heroic films? The sense of righteousness in the cause, sense of duty, heroism – with the touch of pomposity? The ordinary soldiers? The officers? The regimental sergeant majors and their training and shouting? The recruits? The mission, the dangers, being shot down, interrogations, deaths? Escapes and heroism? How well did Valiant use this pattern?

5. The stereotypes of British character, responsibility, sense of duty? Reliability? British heroes?

6. The stereotype of the British spiv, good heart, shrewd, confidence tricks, making mistakes, loyalty and friendship despite running away, coming through in the end?

7. The feminine, the nurse, sweetness and light, care, dancing, love, the restrained presentation?

8. The role of the homing pigeons during the war, the fact that they received awards? The Germans and their falcons? The contrast in imagery and symbolism of falcons and pigeons?

9. The prologue, the mission, the flights, the birds being downed in the Channel? The falcons’ pursuit and attack? Ditching and deaths? The prisoners? Mercury and his imprisonment, interrogation?

10. The contrast with rural England, the land, work, characters in the country towns, Gutsy and his speech, Valiant being moved? The hotel, the advice of Felix? The great sense of patriotism and the cause?

11. The recruits, Valiant seeming too small, his strong determination? Gutsy, his speech, the stiff upper lip?

12. Bugsy, his life, confidence tricks, the encounter with Valiant, his making the mistake of being recruited? His character? Humour?

13. The recruits, the training, the sergeant major and his being tough? The detail of the training and their coming through?

14. The picture of the falcons, the officers, the guards? Their treatment of prisoners, interrogations and torture? The parody of the Germans in the war films?

15. The important mission, arriving in France, the mice and the Resistance, helping the pigeons? The mission, their being captured after the pursuit, Bugsy and his seeming to have been lost? Valiant and the capture?

16. Valiant, being small, retrieving the message, the escape? Freeing Bugsy and the others? The pursuit, the flight home, the success of the mission?

17. The falcons’ attack, the character of the falcons, as seen in their interrogations of Mercury? Deadly pursuit? Valiant confronting von Talon?

18. D- Day, the message – and the film sixty years after the end of the war?