Ewan McGregor and Ricky Gervais lend their voices to the "occasionally charming" Valiant. It's the first CG-animated feature to be produced in the UK, but this story of homing pigeons who take to the skies for crown and country during World War II was a bit of a pooper at the box office. In the end, it only re-cooped (pun intended) about $6m of its $40m budget.

On A Wing And A Prayer

Even though the filmmakers have a lot of mileage to make up after poor ticket sales, this DVD is feather-light. A featurette on the making of the film is basically a montage of talking heads with next to no information on the process of design and development. Gervais livens things up a little, explaining, "The biggest buzz was a fat, smelly pigeon talking like me." Conversely, the fresh-faced Ewan McGregor admits that his role was merely to be "the straight man" opposite Gervais' flatulent Bugsy. You can catch a couple of snippets of their recording sessions (along with Hugh Laurie, Olivia Williams and Tim Curry) in a separate menu, but it's far from scintillating stuff.

There's more from McGregor and co in a TV special to celebrate the film's world premiere in London. Gervais confesses, "I didn't know what I was doing," having grown accustomed to a "low-key" style of acting. When asked to do a broader cockney accent he was so befuddled that he advised producers to call Bob Hoskins! In the second part of the show, we get to see the stars walk down the blue carpet and wave to adoring fans and/or pigeon fanciers.

The Pecking Order

Pigeons miss their marks and Bugsy cuts the cheese in a faux and only faintly amusing blooper reel. Still, kids might derive a few minutes of enjoyment from a set-top game that places you in the cockpit for an aerial combat mission. Finally three scenes (including the climactic chase) are stripped down to their initial sketches, storyboards and CG tests in a demo gallery.

If there was a DVD that could change Ken Livingstone's policy on pigeons, this isn't it.

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