Justin and the Knights of Valour

Very good animated movie. Can't help but make a connection to the movie, "How To Train Your Dragon" 2010. Justin and Talia look, sound, and behave exactly like Hiccup and Astrid. Their movements are even the same. I swear Justin is a rip-off of Dragon. Justin even rides a dragon through the skies, complete with harness and steering. I give Justin an 8, and I give Dragon a 9. Good, fun, stuff. // The Bushwacker 1/21/2021

I had never heard of this before watching. I expected another low budget, no talent, weakly animated dud. Although not terribly clever and somewhat predictable, the computer animation was solid and smooth, the characters were likeable and the storyline was entertaining. Altogether a charming movie. SIDE NOTE: I don't understand the entertainment industry's need to appoint a red (or in most cases ORANGE) haired main character in practically every animated movie created. At first, it may have been trendy but now it's just tired and stale.

The movie is political and critical of the legal system. After the bad guys were defeated, Knights who protected the kingdom were outlawed, and written laws became abundant as the film ironically states, "The World is too complex without laws." Justin's grandfather was a famous knight and his dad is a lawyer. Justin has set out on a quest to become a knight, find his grandfather's lost sword, and court the shallow Lara...whose family invented money. Along the way he meets interesting characters including a wannabe wizard who looks like a stereotypical guy you might meet at a comic book convention. Then there is the plucky waitress. When Justin tells her he wants a wizard, she replies, "Would you like fries with that?" She is the female role model. There is a side kick who is interested in gossip and fashion, dresses rather nice and prances around. There are also lines that come from other films or rather spoofs them, such as when a huge man grabs a plank and does his Crocodile Dundee, "That's not a stick. This is a stick." A film the kids will enjoy, but most likely not the one they want to watch multiple times. My 10 year old grand-niece liked it.

Well, this is a pretty normal story of a man trying to become a knight but in a different reason for doing so. Although all his life he wanted to be a knight, he lives in a time where it was outlawed to be a knight. His father wants him to be a lawyer but of course he doesn't want to be one so he runs away to become what he wants. I'm not going to lie, there are a lot of clichés but they still were able to keep it slightly new. We have a boy that goes against his father's wishes, a love interest who doesn't actually care about him, a sort crazy wizard (mimicking the dragon from 'Quest for Camelot'), a cast out knight as the bad guy, and normal teachers for the boy to learn from. Though there are all these clichés, there are some things that stand out such as the laws that were being passed but sadly those are not as prominent. I mostly see a movie that tried to be like every other story about a knight. It's sad because they could have done so much to make it better and yet stuck with the normal ideas. The animation is actually rather nice, looking a bit cartoony but overall similar to 'How to Train Your Dragon' in some of the detail work. The background is so detailed that it makes the characters look slightly bland. They do fit in with the rest of the world but sometimes they I wish that they had a bit more texture to them. As for the movement, it's actually very fluid and believable even if slightly overboard. The characters don't really stand still very long, always using there hands and being a bit over the top in some occasions. The voices are alright although somewhat hard to listen to at times since our main character has such an overpowering old English voice. This is a voice that I would have thought would be on a person in a romance type setting, not from a pip squeak body like him. Don't get me wrong, the voice is pleasant compared to what they could have picked for him but it's not a voice I picture coming out of our main character. When other characters speak in the old English dialect, sometimes I can't understand what they are saying like the old man in the beginning or the little girl. The voices seem to be muddled together, like they are mumbling. The music really does not fit the show. It's just to pop starish and not enough medieval tone. I felt like I was pulled out of the story every time they started playing the soft pop songs. Don't get me wrong, the songs are good but they just don't fit. I liked the show but it didn't stand out for me. It felt as though I was watching similar movies so I can't give it a very high rating.