Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013)

Justin and the Knights of Valour is a 2013 Spanish 3D animated adventure fantasy film co-written (with Matthew Jacobs) and directed by Manuel Sicilia. The film features voice acting from Freddie Highmore, Antonio Banderas, James Cosmo, Charles Dance, Tamsin Egerton, Rupert Everett, Barry Humphries, Alfred Molina, Mark Strong, David Walliams, Julie Walters, Olivia Williams and Saoirse Ronan.

Plot
Justin (Freddie Highmore) lives in a kingdom where bureaucrats rule and knights have been ousted. His dream is to become one of the Knights of Valour, like his grandfather, Sir Roland. But his father Reginald (Alfred Molina), the chief counsel to the Queen (Olivia Williams), wants his son to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. After an argument with his father, Justin seeks comfort from his grandmother (Julie Walters) who encourages him to follow his dreams. Justin notices that his grandfather's sword is missing. He decides to go and find his grandfather's sword as his quest. His grandmother gives him a key which originally belonged to his grandfather and tells him to go to an abbey where three wise monks would train him. Before Justin leaves on his quest, he visits his crush, Lara (Tamsin Egerton), who is a spoilt brat to say farewell to her, though she wasn't really listening. Justin then slips out of home and embarks on a quest to become a knight.

Along the way he meets a beautiful, feisty girl named Talia (Saoirse Ronan), a barmaid who works at the Broken Eagle Inn, a job which she doesn't enjoy, and a quirky wizard called Melquiades (David Walliams). Talia is immediately enamored by Justin, which Melquiades notices. Meanwhile, Justin's grandmother visits the Queen, who tells her that she regrets her decision of ousting the knights. An armour polisher overhears their conversation and turns himself into a knight, naming himself Sir Clorex (Antonio Banderas). He instantly becomes popular with the townsfolk, and is used to attract customers at the Broken Eagle Inn, but Talia is immediately able to tell that he is a phony.

Justin arrives at the abbey and receives training from the monks, Braulio (Barry Humphries), an inventor who receives nervous attacks when something goes wrong with his machinery and inventions, Legantir (Charles Dance), the head monk of the abbey and Blucher (James Cosmo), a knight and an old friend of Sir Roland. They train him using the ways of the Knights of Valour.

The monks then receive news that a banished former knight Sir Heraclio (Mark Strong) and his accomplice Sota (Rupert Everett), have returned from exile and have started gathering an army to seek revenge on the Queen for outlawing knights. The monks later reveal to Justin the Hall of Knights, where all the statues of the finest knights were kept. Justin finds his grandfather's statue and notices that his grandfather's sword is not in the chest below it. Sir Heraclio's space is empty. The monks tell him that Heraclio betrayed the knights, thus removing him from the hall. Blucher then tells Justin what really happened to his grandfather and how the Queen outlawed knights: The King was killed in a battle and all the ruling was left to the Queen. The Queen started depending on lawyers and Justin's father chose Law over Knights, thus making a contract that outlawed Knights, which the Queen signed. Heraclio was furious. He tried to attack the Queen, but Justin's grandfather defended the Queen and was killed by Heraclio with his own sword. Justin then realizes that his grandfather's sword is with Heraclio.

The monks then attempt to challenge Justin by battling a dragon, which turns out to be a crocodile named Gustav, in mechanical gears. Justin gets injured after he succeeds in hitting the target. The monks fear for his safety and decide to end the training. Just before he leaves, Blucher gives Justin his sword and tells him that he'll need it. On his way back home, Justin saves Talia when she gets intimidated by thugs. Talia joins in and helps Justin defeat the thugs, resulting her getting fired, which she happily interprets it as quitting. Justin is amazed that Talia is able to fight like a man, which she had learned to do from her brothers. She gets slightly disheartened when she learns that Justin already has feelings for Lara. Meanwhile, Justin's grandmother tells her son Reginald to understand Justin's desire of becoming a knight, just like his father allowed him to become a Lawyer. She persuades Reginald to bond with his son at Lara's party, an event that Justin won't miss.

Justin attends Lara's party with Talia as his date. Justin is shocked when he finds out that Lara has fallen in love with Sir Clorex. Like Talia, Justin can also tell that Sir Clorex is a phony. Sota and his dim-witted brothers evade the party in order to kidnap Lara for ransom. Justin attempts to save Lara, but Sota injects a drug in him making him disorientated and ends up embarrassing himself in front of Lara. Sir Clorex saves Lara, but Sota and his brothers escape. Lara mocks Justin about his desire to become a knight, and Reginald attempts to bond with his son, but Justin sadly tells him that he will go along and go to Law School (earlier on in the story, Justin was immediately accepted into Law School since he was Reginald's son). Sir Clorex and Lara share a seemingly romantic moment together, until Sir Clorex 'kidnaps' Lara and rides off with her.

On his way to Law School, Justin bumps into Talia who tells him that Sir Clorex and Lara have been captured by Heraclio and Justin is their only hope to defeat him. After some encouragement and persuasion, Reginald finally accepts his son's desire to become a knight and allows Justin to stand up against Heraclio. Justin, Talia and Melquidas then go to Heraclio's hideout, where they find Sir Clorex, being questioned by Heraclio about his knighthood, and Lara being help captive. Justin and Talia break into the room and briefly fight. Sir Clorex then grabs Lara and runs off with her. Justin and Talia defeat Sota and his brothers, before coming face to face with Heraclio's army. Talia then confronts Sir Clorex and engages in a fist fight with him. She eventually corners him and finishes him off by kicking soot all over him, telling Sir Clorex that he is simply a phony and that it's not armour that proves he's a knight, it's the man inside.

Blucher arrives with Gustav to aid Justin and defeat Heraclio. Gustav scares the army away, while Heraclio and Blucher engage in a duel. Heraclio takes the underarm and stabs Blucher. Justin then duels with Heraclio. The two then get stuck on a water mill above a waterfall where they fight over Sir Roland's sword. Heraclio slips and falls to his death in the water and Justin retrieves the sword. Blucher is on the brink of death due to the wound and Justin, Talia and Lara attempt to save him. Justin then uses some cool leaves to sooth the wound. Just as it seems as though it was too late to save Blucher, it turns out that the leaves worked on him and he recovers.

The Queen then gives Justin the title of Sir Justin and praises him for his bravery. She decides to abolish the outlawed knights by signing a contract. Reginald is hesitant at first, as he fears that his son would follow the same fate as what had happened to his father. Seeing this, Justin attempts to not make change to appease his father, but Reginald signs the contract. When it seemed as though Justin still has feelings for Lara, he turns her down much to her disappointment and surprise, as she was starting to like him. He then turns to Talia and tells her that he wants her to continue accompanying him on quests, as he has realized that she is the girl whom he truly loves. Talia happily accepts and shares a romantic kiss with Justin.

At the abbey, the monks have finished creating a statue of Justin in the Hall of Knights. A wall is then torn down, revealing another hall for future knights.

Voice Cast

 * Freddie Highmore as Justin, the hero of the story and a curious young man who dreams of becoming a knight like his grandfather. He is Talia's love interest.


 * Saoirse Ronan as Talia, the film's heroine and a feisty woman who works at the Broken Eagle Inn. Justin eventually falls in love with her in the end.


 * Antonio Banderas as Sir Clorex, a pompous cleaner turned fake knight with deceiving looks who learns his lesson when he gets mixed up with the evildoers who try to take over the kingdom.


 * Tamsin Egerton as Lara, the spoiled, fashion-loving daughter of the richest man in the land. She was originally Justin's love interest.


 * James Cosmo as Blucher, who was once Justin's grandfather's best friend and helps Justin.


 * Charles Dance as Legantir, the head monk of the abbey who is very severe, wise, and trains Justin.


 * Rupert Everett as Sota, Heraclio's right-hand man.


 * Barry Humphries as Braulio, one of the three wise monks who is highly intelligent and his faith and nerves are tested when Justin arrives.


 * Alfred Molina as Reginald, Justin's father and chief lawyer of the kingdom, who firmly believes in law and order and forbids his son to become a knight, due to his rule of outlawed knights, his father's death and not wanting his son to die in a similar way his father did.


 * Mark Strong as Heraclio, the villain of the piece and a fallen knight who plots to seize the throne.


 * David Walliams as Melquiades, a wizard who suffers from a split personality.


 * Julie Walters as Gran, Reginald's mother, Sir Roland's widow and Justin's grandmother who is caring and believes in Justin and convinces him to follow his heart.


 * Olivia Williams as the Queen, whose noble spirit was dampened after the king died and has outlawed knights to prevent further tragedy.