Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013)

Nice effects though.

Memorable, crazy movie

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I've just watched Justin and the Knights of Valor. The poster looked very promising… but this one proved the old cliché correct: Never judge a book by it's cover (or a movie by it's poster in this case).The artwork and art direction is excellent in the movie. Truly breathtaking drawings of sceneries, castles, and cottages. Cast is fantastic. But that's about it! The rest was painful to sit through. The story's content and context was boring and totally predictable almost amateurish. There was little "entertainment" quality throughout! Gave me a such headache at the end. But I was glad when it ended.Some characters seemed "borrowed" from other animated movies. Like for example the horse character was exactly like "Maximus" from Disney's "Tangled" and sadly that was one of the good parts.Save your money. Watch another movie. I wish I had.

I mean, the animation is not top AAA class but it doesn't look like puppet dancing either. Character animation was okey, their texture was also good for kids i guess. But the magician was i guess was too much animated. I mean, he looked like came from some Arabian nights movies. Scripts was not witty. Voice was sometimes terrible. But when you really want to watch it with open mind and put all AAA class movies aside from mind like Disney makes, you'd rather enjoy it ! Disney, pixer or Dreamworks put a lot of money into production and i was rather surprised to see they made it out of so little money ! And it was not a How to train your dragon rip of either, both are totally different. The story is predictable though.

Justin and the Knights of Valour is very well executed and exciting adventure film. In costume and characterisation it has many similarities with 'Tangled', 'How to Train Your Dragon' and 'Brave'. All three last named are films I love by the way. For me Justin and the Knights of Valour is a worthy successor to them all. The artwork is very beautiful and imaginative, the script is intricate (for a children's film) and all the main characters are amusing and likable. They are also nicely voiced. I particularly liked Saoirse Ronan's Irish accented Talia. I'm in my late sixties (male) and saw the film on my own. I wasn't bored for a single second. On the contrary, I found the story to be totally absorbing. I'm also a bit of an unashamed romantic - so I was keen to discover how things would work out between Justin and his (two) young lady friends. There are also a couple of better than average songs I'd like to hear again. As best as I can recall the incidental music is fitting and well performed. (I intend to see the film again soon, so I will pay more attention to the musical score then.) I highly recommend this film and feel confident in predicting that it will have lasting appeal to both young and old for many years to come.

The main attraction was the voice cast, full of talented people and what a line-up. The trailer wasn't really all that promising, it was of the competently animated but thinly plotted with flat jokes kind of animated film. Unfortunately, Justin and the Knights of Valour as a film wasn't that much better than its trailer. Was it completely terrible? No. Justin and the Knights of Valour doesn't have amazing animation but it is very competent and colourful with nice textures. The only not-so-good thing in this regard was the dragon, too bumblingcrocodile-like in design. It's pretty much the same with the music, rousing and pleasant to listen to if not particularly memorable. Freddie Highmore is a likable protagonist and the wise monks played by Charles Dance, James Cosmo and Barry Humphries are a nice touch and provide what spark there is to the story.Was Justin and the Knights of Valour disappointing? Yes it was, one of the weakest animated films of 2013, or at least what has been seen by me so far.The voice cast are talented but their talents are not used well and most didn't seem to be connecting with the material. Saiorse Ronan brought some sass to her role but often sounded forced, Antonio Banderas sounded uninterested in a pale imitation of Puss in Boots role(sadly that was true of Alfred Molina as well), Rupert Everett camps it up and over-compensated and David Walliams is painfully unfunny and is just annoying. Mark Strong was reasonably good, but he had material that was beneath him and suffered from a villainous character that was poorly written and underdeveloped.They were let down by a rather dreary script that is laden with jokes that are flat in alternative to witty and dialogue that is rather lacking in life.As well as a thin story that didn't do anything imaginative or fresh with a predictable premise. The pacing felt stretched out and dull with the writing as vapid as it was, and the film ends on an unsurprising and somewhat syrupy note. The archetypal characters lack colour and interesting personalities, so it's not easy to root for them. They're poorly developed too, Strong's character was written as almost feeling like an afterthought and seems to be just there as a form of obligatory conflict.All in all a very disappointing animated family film, there was a lot of potential but the film does little with it. This is of course a subjective personal opinion- and to be taken with a pinch of salt- from a 21 year old who adores animated films and is aware of who they're mainly aimed at. That's not attention-seeking, merely to stop any stereotyping, condescension or parental ignorance(like the old, annoying and unnecessarily patronising "it's a kids film don't be so cynical). 4/10 Bethany Cox