Lego Batman The Movie - DC Superheroes United: lego pigeons!!

Title: Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Superheroes United

Year:  2013

Director:   Jon Burton

Running time: 71 min.

Country: USA

I was very pleased when I discovered that the iconic megalopolis of Gotham City has pigeons living in it. I think that this is a good example of how we (humans) extrapolate our living environment to imaginary scenarios. One exception that makes me deeply sad is Star Wars, where I couldn't find a single pigeon appearance in the whole saga. It seems that the pigeons had been unable to reach the Star Wars galaxy, that is too far away. I think that we will address this topic in another post.

Regarding this film, the context of the scene is the following one: Batman and Superman are fighting against a robot piloted by the Joker and Lex Luthor. In the middle of the combat, the robot falls in a park in the centre of Gotham city. What kind of innocent creatures were in the midst of the combat, roaming around the park? I think that it is not necessary to answer this question....

In the screenshot above we can see Mr. Bruce Wayne... sorry! Batman, looking how the evil robot falls down. He is surrounded by pigeons.

When the robot tragically collapses, both  the pigeons and Batman escape scared. It is interesting to highlight that Batman does not pay attention to the pigeons. Of course, he is in the middle of a fierce combat. But, on top of that, it is well known that pigeons and bats are like water and oil.... they can be in the same place, but they don't mix. 

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Lego Batman The Movie - DC Superheroes United. Starring moment: 0:59:00
• Pigeon activity: They represent typical pigeon life in urban environments. 
• Symbolism: I think that pigeons are used to provide more realism to the scene. That is, the use of pigeons makes Gotham City to seem like any other large city found in the real world. 
• Relevance: None. Unfortunately, pigeons are unable to help Batman in his tireless fight against the Joker. 
• Training level: Not applicable. They are computer-generated images.  

The big stuff

Here we start a new section in this Blog: the pigeon appearances in advertisements. It is very interesting to see how companies use pigeons to encourage us to buy certain products.

The first advertisement  is a Fedex ad which shows us the distribution center of a company that uses carrier pigeons for distributing its products. In the advertisement we can see an office full of pigeons (it is very funny to see all the pigeon cross flights):

We can also see a state-of-the-art carrier pigeon equipped with GPS and night vision:

... and giant pigeons (genetically modified?) used for distributing heavy packages - these birds have a quite uncontrolled behaviour.

The ad can be seen here. A great spectacle.

Pigeon Impossible: the secret agent, the pigeon and the doughnut

Title: Pigeon: Impossible

Year:  2009

Director:   Lucas Martell

Running time: 6 min.

Country: United States

I really enjoyed watching this short action film, which includes one of the most intense human-pigeon duels even conceived. The story begins with a secret agent and a curious pigeon that is more interested in the doughnut that the agent is eating than the mysterious briefcase that he is carrying. In the following pictures we can see this initial scene: under the surface of this professional-looking secret agent with his serious expression there is actually an awkward, amateurish agent that is unable to keep under control a pigeon that is irresistibly attracted by his doughnut.

Accidentally, the pigeon takes the control of the briefcase, which is actually a high-tech nuclear weapon, armed with the latest technology. As we can observe in the picture below, the pigeon is not as innoccent as it looks and it will fight till the end for its doughnut. The rest of the story features the duel between both protagonists for the control of the briefcase and the doughnut itself. It is better to watch it on the official web site. Link here.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Pigeon: Impossible. Starring moment: all the recording.
• Pigeon activity: It is a common pigeon wandering around the streets. However, in the recording we can see that the pigeon progresses from a quite simple animal to a very skilled die-hard enemy almost impossible to defeat. 
• Symbolism: This is an example of how the combination of innocent-harmless creatures and deadly weapons can create lethal situations. 
• Relevance: Absolute.
• Training level: Not applicable. 

Toy Story 3: Mr. Potato Head vs Mr. Pigeon

Title: Toy Story 3

Year:  2010

Director:  Lee Unkrich

Running time: 103 min.

Country: United States

This film was a nice surprise. When I started watching it I had few expectations but after a while I started enjoying it. The second surprise that I had was to find a pigeon appearance:

Close to the end of the film, Mr. Potato Head uses a Mexican tortilla as his body. This allows him to slide through narrow places and start a night escape from his prison. However, he doesn't take into account that bread is one of the favourite foods of pigeons. Unfortunately, during his escape, he meets one of these birds. There is a lot of tension in the scene depicted below:

We can see Mr. Potato Head and Mr. Pigeon face to face:

The pigeon is probably thinking: is this bread with some attached extras (nose, mouth, etc.)?

The pigeon takes initiative...

But Mr. Potato Head defends himself very bravely....

Finally the pigeon flies away leaving Mr Potato Head with some injuries on his bready body.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Toy Story 3. Starring moment: 1:06:13
• Pigeon activity: It is a sweet tooth pigeon that hunts Mr. Potato Head. This behaviour is incoherent because pigeons don't like to roam around at night. It is too dangerous for them. Maybe this one was too hungry to wait for the next day.
• Symbolism: None.
• Relevance: Medium. The pigeon almost ruined everything: if the pigeon had finally eaten all of Mr. Potato Head's body he wouldn't have been able to complete his duty and the complete escape would fail.
• Training level: Not applicable.

Valiant: pigeons at war

Title: Valiant
Year:  2005
Director: Gary Chapman
Running time: 105 min.
Country: United Kingdom

This movie is about pigeons at war. At the beginning Valiant is a young recruit of the Royal Homing Pigeon Service. The film shows the pigeon training in Britain and subsequent service in France during the WWII. It includes all the ingredients of a war movie: hard training in a recruit facility, many action scenes, and a romance between Valiant and Victora, a nurse dove.

It is interesting that the characters behave just like humans and they are not pigeon-realistic at all. However, they perform a genuine pigeon duty: to deliver messages during war time. Another characteristic of war movies is the character's evolution: at the beginning Valiant is a young pigeon that seems to be unable to go to war, then during the war he evolves into a tough pigeon and finally he becomes a veteran hero (see pictures below).

Dickin Medal

I would like to mention that at the end of the movie Valiant received a Dickin Medal, which honors the work of animals in war. In the real world this medal was conceded for the first time to three pigeons named White Vision, Winkie and Tyke. All of them carried out outstandingly heroic actions. For instance, White Vision was released from a sinking flying boat. She flew 60 miles back to her loft carrying the plane's location in very hard conditions: heavy seas with low visibility and strong headwind. Thanks to this action the plane could be located and the crew rescued. After that, many other pigeons received this medal. In the Royal Pigeon Racing Association you can see a summary and a brief description of each feathered hero. This movie shows an important contribution of pigeons to the war effort. Is this an advanced kind of human-pigeon symbiosis?

Valiant as a young pigeon before recluitment.

Valiant as a soldier

Valiant as a veteran hero

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Valiant   Starring moment: the complete film
• Pigeon activity: Valiant and his friends are pigeons which serve the Royal Homing Pigeon Service. They are involved in many war actions against the enemy: German falcons.
• Symbolism: In the end, the pigeon characters behave like humans that do pigeon duties, so this is a mere excuse to record a war movie with a different perspective from the others. 
• Relevance: Complete.
• Training level: Not applicable.
   

Unconfirmed pigeon: When the wind blows

Title: When the wind blows
Year: 1986
Director: Jimmy T. Murakami
Running time: 84 min.
Country: United Kingdom

In this category we summarize unconfirmed pigeon appearances in movies. I don't provide a detailed summary of the appearance because it is not clear.

This film depicts the horrors of a nuclear holocaust in the UK. After the nuclear attack the town is completely devastated and in a scene we can see a dying bird that seems to be a pigeon. This scene can be seen here.

Details of the hypothetical pigeon starring 

• Source: When the wind blows. Hypothetical starring moment: 0:53:09

Special thank to ~T~ Commander of the Wild Empire for suggesting this movie. 

Pigeon Street: pigeons for children

Title:Pigeon Street
Year: 1981
Director: Alan Rogers and Peter Lang
Running time: 15 min.
Country: United Kingdom

Pigeon Street is a pre-schoolers oriented television series which describes the life in a British city in and around Pigeon Street. It includes many characters related to different roles in society and it also includes pigeons... many pigeons. In the figure below we can see the main characters.

Pigeon Street characters and pigeons.

The contents of the series are politically correct, including for instance, Clara, a long distance lorry driver. Another interesting character is Bob. He is the owner of a bike shop who breeds homing pigeons. In the picture below we can see how after transporting pigeons in his motorbike (note the pigeon symbol on the helmet) he opens the basket and frees the pigeons which head back to their home. This is Bob's pigeon song -I really like the expression they feather the sky-.

Bob's pigeons are ever so clever
You'll never seen pigeons quite as clever as Bob's
Whatever the weather they feather the sky
to fly home and dry 

 home and dry

to Bob

Bob (behind the basket) frees the homing pigeons.

Homing pigeons cross the city heading back to their home.

The music is very remarkable. Most of the theme tunes can be downloaded from the Pigeon Street Official Site. This site also includes a list of episodes and characters. Another resource for music and character descriptions is Little Gems.

I would also like to mention the main theme of the series which is played at the intro. I don't understand why, but I have this song playing in my head all day long....

 

If you lived in Pigeon Street,
Here are the people you could meet,
Here are the people who would say
Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye
Every day

If you lived in Pigeon Street,
Here are the people you could meet,
Here are the people who would share
the sights, the sounds, the air
Where pigeons beat their wings, wings beat.
Pigeons beat their wings, wings beat
to meet in Pigeon Street

Most of episodes are online. For instance, Noisy Neighbours can be seen here.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Pigeon Street  Starring moment: in all the episodes
• Pigeon activity: They are non-shy-friendly-urban pigeons which like to stay close to and interact with humans.
• Symbolism: Pigeons are described as friendly animals that live together with humans. I think that this is a very positive message for children.
• Relevance: Medium. Although several pigeons appear in each episode, they only occasionally feature in the plot. Usually they are relegated to secondary characters. 
• Training level: Non applicable.

Up: escorting the floating house

Title: Up
Year: 2009
Director: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Running time: 96 min.
Country: United States

The hot air balloons are freed and the whole house rises up! It was very nice to see the floating house crossing the city. During the journey it approaches a power line that is used as an observation post by a flock of pigeons. When house passes by, the flock flies alongside it and we can see, for just a moment, how they fly very close to the protagonist, Mr. Fredricksen. However, the pigeons are only distant animals or blurred figures. That’s all. Later, we can see other birds, but not pigeons. I understand that this is not a film about pigeons but it is a shame that with a $175M dollar budget they didn’t address devote resources to pigeon appearances. For instance, it would be funny to see a curious pigeon approaching the house and interacting with Mr. Fredricksen. Probably he would scare it away.

We can see a blurred pigeon on the foreground.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Up  Starring moment: 0:22:40
• Pigeon activity: It is a typical urban flock of pigeons resting on a power line.  It is not clear if they are scared by the floating house or they approach it with curiosity.      
• Symbolism: They are common urban pigeons.
• Relevance: Nothing. They appear briefly in the film.
• Training level: Not applicable.
   

Howl's Moving Castle: a regular pigeon day

Title: Howl's Moving Castle
Year: 2004
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Running time: 119 min.
Country: Japan

Sophie Hatter, a young girl, is transformed into an old woman when she is cursed. She helps Wizard Howl to remove the curse and return to her original appearance. Howl asks her to attend to an appointment with the new Royal Wizard. He promises her that he is going to be with her disguised but he doesn’t reveal which kind of disguise he plans to use. During her way to the palace Sophie asks herself about Howl's disguise. She looks at a flock of pigeons on a statue and wonders if Howl is one of these animals... no way!!

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source:  Howl's Moving Castle. Starring moment: 0:50:34

• Pigeon activity: Staying on the top of a big statue... typical activity for urban pigeons. It is a very realistic representation. You can even notice the pigeon droppings on the statue.

• Symbolism: They represent the typical urban pigeons.

• Relevance: Very low. They are used for presenting a city full of life and activities but they don't have any relevance in the rest of the movie.

• Training level: Not applicable.