Review: Bolt

Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) finds out that he’s not the scientifically-altered superhero dog that he had been led to believe. He’s actually the unwitting star of a “Truman”-esque TV show. His owner and best friend Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus) is a paid actor. Somehow Bolt finds himself shipped to New York, without anyone on the show realising. There he comes to realise that even his superpowers are the work of Hollywood fiction, and he’s forced to go through life for the first time as a regular dog. He eventually comes across a streetwise cat named Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman) and a chubby hamster in a ball named Rhino (voiced by Mark Walton), as Bolt tries to find his way back to L.A. and Penny. Greg Germann voices Penny’s cynical agent, with Malcolm McDowell voicing Bolt’s fictional supervillain.

 

Pretty good 2008 Disney animated movie that is not in any way a Pixar flick. Directed by the duo of Chris Williams (“Big Hero 6”) & Byron Howard and scripted by the duo of Dan Fogelman (“Cars”, “Last Vegas”, and writer-director of “Danny Collins”) and Williams, I wish I caught this one earlier, actually. It’s a little bumpy early on, though, with a rushed prologue that I found flippant and almost insultingly half-arsed. Thankfully, the film recovers nicely, even if I might’ve preferred a less ironic approach and more of a straight superhero treatment. I mean, Bolt’s abilities are frigging awesome, so it was initially a bit of a letdown for me to have the rugged pulled out from under me. It’s barely an issue though, as the 007/“Spy Kids” vibe is kinda amusing and definitely exciting, and when it takes more of a “Truman Show” bent, it’s not exactly a bad thing, just personal preference. In fact, the film could best be described as an ironic mixture of “The Incredibles” and “Big Hero 6”. Or to put it another way, it makes Bolt seem like a more likeable version of Buzz Lightyear in the first “Toy Story” (Buzz was an arrogant dick in that movie).

 

The human character animation is typically blobby, but otherwise, the look is nicely textured and relatively photo-realistic with even some nice use of light and shade. I’ve read that the animation team weren’t even aiming for photorealism, so they should be commended for doing what they’re doing in a way that still ends up being at least a textured 3D look, particularly with the background animation. Bolt, by the way looks absolutely adorable as a puppy in the early scenes and still cute when he’s older. The fur is probably the most realistic I’ve seen in any animated film that doesn’t have “Monsters” somewhere in the title. Some of the supporting characters are great fun too, especially Penny’s hilariously soulless agent (voiced by Greg Germann) and Rhino the Hamster in a ball (voiced by Mark Walton), who is just priceless. Dude needs to go on a diet like a year ago, he looks like he swallowed a puffer fish whole. Definitely one of the best-ever Disney animated comedy sidekicks. I also just love the idea of a streetwise cat named Mittens. That’s so tough-sounding right there.

 

I personally prefer voice actors that you can readily identify or voice actors who are complete unknowns, but a lot of people find the celebrity approach to voice acting distracting. There’s some big names lending their voices here (and Miley Cyrus), but you’d be hard pressed to identify them if you ask me, so if that’s how you like it, you’ll enjoy this. I find that approach slightly distracting because I’m finding myself wondering who it is.

 

A good story, some enjoyable characters (Bolt is innately loveable), and quite detailed animation combine to create a rock-solid Disney animated film that I should’ve seen a long time ago, to my shame. This is good fun, and much better than the Oscar-winning Pixar flick from the same year “WALL-E”.

 

Rating: B-