Gary Chapman (director)

Set in May 1944, it tells the story of a group of war pigeons during World War II.

The film is based on a story by George Webster, and inspired by true stories of hundreds of pigeons that helped the soldiers in the war.

In May 1944, five years after the declaration of World War II, three Royal Homing Pigeon Service war pigeons are flying across the English Channel with the White Cliffs of Dover in sight, carrying vital messages to Great Britain.

Despite the poor weather conditions the pigeons have nearly reached their destination.

They are, however, suddenly ambushed and attacked by a Nazi German enemy peregrine falcon named General Von Talon; two of the pigeons are instantly killed, yet the third, Mercury, is taken as a prisoner of war.

Elsewhere, a small wood pigeon named Valiant is watching an Allied forces propaganda film in his local bar (an overturned rowing boat) in West Nestington.

He is best friends with Felix, an old seagull with a peg leg and the local barman.

Wing Commander Gutsy, a war hero, flies into the bar, informing everyone that signups are scheduled the next day in Trafalgar Square, London.

Valiant flies off to London, bidding his mother and Felix goodbye.

In London, Valiant meets an unhygienic slacker pigeon named Bugsy, who is being hunted by two magpie thugs, after having tricked them at a shell game.

In order to escape the thugs, he signs up with Valiant.

The recruits: Valiant, Bugsy, Lofty, an intellectual red pigeon, and two muscular but dim-witted brothers named Toughwood and Tailfeather.

This group forms the Royal Homing Pigeon Service Squad F, and are sent to a recruit training facility.

Under the command of Sergeant Monty, who declares that he will toughen them up for the RHPS, the training begins.

Meanwhile, Von Talon and his henchmen, Cufflingk and Underlingk, try numerous attempts to discover the message's departure location.

However, Mercury refuses to tell, despite the tortures inflicted upon him, such as irritating him with yodeling music and injecting him with truth serum, before Mercury accidentally reveals the location: Saint-Pierre.

Valiant develops a crush on Victoria, the camp's nursing dove.

Eventually, Gutsy arrives and tells the Sergeant that the recruits need to leave the next morning, despite their training being vastly incomplete.

Bugsy, however, decides not to go on the "highly dangerous" mission and flees the camp that night.

Next morning Valiant and the others prepare to leave, and start to board a Handley Page Halifax bound for occupied France, but not before Bugsy shows up at the last second.

The journey quickly becomes dangerous, as the plane is caught in an anti-aircraft attack.

Their plane sustains heavy damage and the pigeons soon have to bail out, in boxes equipped with parachutes.

The pigeons are dropped from the plane, but a technical malfunction causes Gutsy's box to fail to deploy.

The plane crash-lands nearby, but then explodes, presumably killing Gutsy.

In France, the pigeons meet Charles de Girl and Rollo, two mice from the French Resistance, Mouse Division, who lead them to Saint-Pierre, where they receive the message they have been ordered to deliver.

They soon come under attack by Von Talon's henchmen, resulting in Bugsy and the message being captured.

Von Talon takes the message from Bugsy and decides to lock him up and kill him later, planning to personally deliver the message to Der Fuehrer himself.

Valiant and the troops follow Bugsy to the falcon's bunker, where they discover that Gutsy has survived the plane crash.

Valiant takes advantage of his small size and sneaks into the bunker through the gun barrel, retrieves the message, and frees Bugsy and Mercury, but the falcons witness the escape and give chase.

As Gutsy, Bugsy, Mercury, Toughwood, Tailfeather and Lofty fight off Cufflingk and Underlingk, Valiant flies to London to deliver the message, followed by Von Talon.

After a climactic chase, Valiant hides until he is caught by Von Talon.

With the help of Felix and the resident pigeons, Valiant outwits Von Talon by getting a giant hook caught on his medals, leaving him to be beaten by the water wheel.

Valiant delivers the message, and upon its arrival in the war room, a change of plans is made; the Allied fleet will land in Normandy.

After receiving the Dickin Medal, Squad F returns to the local bar in West Nestington, where Valiant reunites and shares a romantic kiss with Victoria.

A message is then displayed commending the animals that saved thousands of lives during World War II.

Valiant takes the Second World War as its backdrop, and thus the film has various factual references to World War II.

McGregor himself called it "a good old-fashioned war movie".

The film's use of World War II imagery is apparent throughout; for instance, the villainous characters in the film hold obvious links to the Nazis, although Nazism is never specifically mentioned, nor are Nazi symbols ever overtly visually depicted.

Edited symbols are, however, discreetly inserted; for example, General Von Talon wears a large Reichsadler badge that depicts the German eagle, taken from the coat of arms of Germany.

Valiant is a 2005 animated comedy film produced by Vanguard Animation, Ealing Studios and Odyssey Entertainment, and released by Entertainment Film Distributors in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2005, and by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on August 19.