The Film Council has joined forces with Disney and the producer of box office smash Shrek in an attempt to reinvent Ealing Studios, the birthplace of British cinema, as a creator of computer animated movies.

Almost half a century after actors including Sir Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers filmed black and white classics such as The Lavender Hill Mob at the west London complex, financing has been agreed to create 120 jobs in building a new animation studio.

The first project will be Valiant, a $40m (£27.5m) Battle of Britain-style animated film in which the heroes are second world war carrier pigeons and the enemy German falcons. The Film Council, through its National Lottery-backed £30m Premiere Fund, has committed £2.58m to the project, its biggest investment yet in a single film.

"Valiant offers a chance to invest in the bricks and mortar of a new studio that we hope will create a world-class computer generated image studio in the UK," said Robert Jones, head of the Premiere Fund.

Other investors include Ealing Studios itself, Disney, Shrek producer John Williams's Vanguard Films and British film sales and financing company Odyssey Entertainment. Disney and Odyssey have guaran teed the majority of the budget by pre-buying international and UK rights.

Mr Jones's brief is to spend £10m a year over three years on popular films that offer entertainment to the widest possible audience, after criticism that too much public money was being spent on obscure films and quantity of titles was taking precedence over quality.

The Premiere Fund, established at the same time as the Film Council in 2002, has had mainstream successes with Gosford Park and Mike Bassett: England Manager.

About 10% of Valiant's budget is thought to come from tax incentives devised to attract foreign corporations and high net worth individuals to invest in British film. US studios are increasingly looking overseas as costs of making films in Hollywood rise.