Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013) 6.1
A young boy becomes a man as he embarks on a quest to become a knight. Director:Manuel Sicilia |
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Watch Trailer 0Share... |
Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013) 6.1
A young boy becomes a man as he embarks on a quest to become a knight. Director:Manuel Sicilia |
|
Watch Trailer 0Share... |
Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Freddie Highmore | ... |
Justin
(voice)
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Antonio Banderas | ... |
Sir Clorex
(voice)
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James Cosmo | ... |
Blucher
(voice)
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Charles Dance | ... |
Legantir
(voice)
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Tamsin Egerton | ... |
Lara
(voice)
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Rupert Everett | ... |
Sota
(voice)
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Barry Humphries | ... |
Braulio
(voice)
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Alfred Molina | ... |
Reginald
(voice)
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Mark Strong | ... |
Heraclio
(voice)
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David Walliams | ... |
Melquiades
(voice)
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Julie Walters | ... |
Gran
(voice)
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Olivia Williams | ... |
Queen
(voice)
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Saoirse Ronan | ... |
Talia
(voice)
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Michael Culkin | ... |
Sebastian
(voice)
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Richard O'Brien | ... |
Innkeeper /
Baker
(voice)
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Justin lives in a kingdom where bureaucrats rule and knights have been ousted. His dream is to be become one of the Knights of Valour, like his grandfather was, but his father Reginald, the chief counsel to the Queen, wants his son to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. After an inspiring visit to his beloved Grandmother and bidding farewell to his supposed lady-love Lara, Justin leaves home and embarks on a quest to become a knight. Along the way he meets the beautiful, feisty Talia, a quirky wizard called Melquiades, and the handsome Sir Clorex and is mentored by three monks; Blucher, Legantir and Braulio, who teach and test him in the ancient ways of the Knights of Valour. Whilst an unlikely candidate for knighthood, Justin must rise to the challenge quickly when banished former knight Sir Heraclio and his army, lead by Sota, return and threaten to destroy the Kingdom. Written by KANDOR Graphics
This one was a serious disappointment, really.
Having just enjoyed the -frankly- masterpiece that is "How to train Your Dragon" (on Blu-Ray) the bland characters, the mediocre animation and the predictable story of "Justin" became all the more irritating.
I had seen the trailer, and on that basis I bought (yes, "bought!" ) the blue ray.
Turns out, the trailer had quite some amusing bits. The movie? Not so much. The story drags, the characters are bland and by times annoying. The setting was uninteresting and bland too. A mixture of Renaissance and medieval, done in the most jarring way possible.
But, what got me really annoyed was that the animators, director and editors fell for the big no-no in CGI-animation: " We built it. So we shall proceed to light it, ALL of it, as harsh as possible" The result? The picture seems burnt-out, bland, pale, and only got slightly interesting when the hero treks through misty mountains.
Oh, and the producers of the Bue Ray couldn't help themselves, and HAD to put in (almost) unskippable trailers of some extremely uninteresting CGI glut.. Having paid for the Blue Ray, I felt quite insulted by that, and started to understand some of the reasons that people decide to rip movies. It really, REALLY ticked me off.
I still refuse to rip DVD's and such as a matter of principle, but stuff like that, makes it really hard to keep steadfast.
On a side-note: it's not just "Justin and the Knights of Valour" that does that. It's an affliction shared by many big names. I hope, one day the industry wakes up. Offering a bare-bones download version of a movie is a first good step, seen with many movies nowadays.
All in all, it's -maybe- nice for kids, on a TV cartoon afternoon, but it's no feature film material. Too long, too bland, too predictable, and iffy animation to boot..
It gets a "4" for effort, being a smaller European studio, but that's about it.