Story
It’s May 1944. The Royal Homing Pigeon Service (RHPS) is suffering heavy casualties from Nazi falcon attacks over the Channel. Wing Commander Gutsy (voiced by Hugh Laurie) sets out to replenish the messenger squads with recruits from around England. Gutsy’s daring exploits and heroics gain the admiration of a small but plucky pigeon, Valiant (Ewan McGregror), who decides to enlist.
After bidding farewell to his mother and friend Felix (John Hurt), Valiant flies off to London. Here he accidentally rescues a somewhat scruffy Bugsy (Ricky Gervais). The pair become friends and join the RHPS. They are put into F Squad, along with the posh Lofty (Pip Torrens), and brothers Toughwood (Brian Lonsdale) and Tailfeather (Dan Roberts). Their commander is Sergeant (Jim Broadbent). The tough training regime is somewhat sweetened for Valiant by a romance with nurse Victoria (Olivia Williams).
Meanwhile in France, the Nazi falcon Von Talon (Tim Curry) and his minions Cufflingk (Rik Mayall) and Underlingk (Michael Schlingmann) are trying to extract the location and plans of the French Resistance from a captured RPHS member, Mercury (John Cleese). Thus far, Mercury has managed to resist their interrogation.
F Squad are called up to join Gutsy in a mission to get an important message from the Mouse Division of the French Resistance. The squad must overcome their fears, inexperience and self-doubt to complete the mission as a team and rescue Mercury.
Themes
None of concern
Violence
There is some mild violence in this movie, usually with comic intent. For example:
Sexual references
The film contains some mild sexual references including:
- the squad all admire and ogle at a war-time styled poster of a pigeon starlet
- Bugsy deliberately misinterprets what the French resistance’s female leader says, hearing ‘message’ instead of ‘massage’. He then going on to request a full body massage.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
One scene is set in Valiant’s local pub. None of the main characters are shown to be drinking or inebriated.
Nudity and sexual activity
None
Product placement
None
Coarse language
Although the movie does not contain any coarse language, it does include some name-calling.
Ideas to discuss with your children
The premise of Valiant is interesting. But the combination of cute pigeon protagonists, World War II themes and slapstick humour do not actually meld very well. The target audience of young children might find the physical humour and the basic story of ‘good over evil’ entertaining, but the 1940s setting and dialogue are likely to be lost on younger viewers. Adults might find the simple plot, underdeveloped characters and the seemingly endless bird-related puns somewhat tiresome.
The main message of the movie is that good overcomes evil, and that you can achieve great things no matter how big or small you are. The movie depicts a range of values including:
- friendship and loyalty
- endurance through adversity
- courage, responsibility and team work
- not being limited by other people’s expectations
- positive self-talk.
You could talk with your child about some of these values. You could also talk about the real-life consequences of some of the behaviour of the characters, such as using violence to solve conflict, teasing and unequal gender roles.