Valiant (2005 Film) - Production

Production

If you think it's Nemo with feathers, then you're wrong. It's easier to create colourful tropical fish, or toys running around a kid's room. Valiant is different. It's set in the Second World War; it's dark, dangerous, yet funny — and that's quite hard."

179 modellers, animators, shaders, texturers began work on Valiant at Ealing Studios, west London. Valiant was the second computer-animated film to be made in the United Kingdom, after The Magic Roundabout. John H. Williams of Vanguard Animation stated "we knew a lot of European animators who had worked at Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks, and were interested in going back to Europe. We thought it would be important to be the first company to produce a CGI feature fully made in Europe with a major studio attached." Williams stated this before he new about The Magic Roundabout. He also explained the attraction to making the film in Britain, saying "It would have been $3 million cheaper to make in LA but we had $10-12 million in tax and co-production money that we were able to attract because we made it here." Additionally, the bonus of locating to Britain was that the UK Film Council offered Valiant a record-breaking £2.6 million grant. Valiant's budget of $35,000,000 is considered low in comparison to other CGI productions, with films which Williams had previously worked on, such as Shrek 2 having a budget of $150,000,000.