Bolt - A Dog, Cat and Hamster take on Hollywood!
Written: Feb 28 '09 (Updated Mar 01 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great visuals and voice-acting, lots of humour, a hamster called Rhino...
Cons: ... starts off a little too slowly, rather predictable.
The Bottom Line: Bolt is a highly enjoyable animated movie for children and adults alike.
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| captaind's Full Review: Bolt |
Bolt is a highly enjoyable animated movie by Disney, written by Dan Fogelman and Chris Williams, about a dog who thinks he's a superdog. There is a reason for this of course - from a very young age he has starred in a TV show, only no-one has actually told him that it's not real - in fact everyone involved in the production of his show do everything to make sure he never finds out. His owner, Penny (Miley Cyrus) constantly wants him to be able to have a normal doggy life, but the show's director is convinced that Bolt's performances are only so good because he doesn't know the truth.
As things transpire, after an unintended sequence of events Bolt (John Travolta) ends up outside the TV studio one day, and far from Hollywood. Convinced that he actually has special abilities and puzzled by what he sees around him, Bolt takes as prisoner an unfortunate feline called Mittens (Susie Essman), thinking that the plot from the TV show in which Penny has just been kidnapped has really happened, and his mission is of course to save her. It isn't too long before Mittens gets wise to what's actually happening here, but she can't convince Bolt. After a while the twosome are joined by Rhino (Mark Walton), a hamster who's an avid fan of the TV show, who doesn't help sway Bolt towards believing that whole TV series idea. Eventually Bolt will have to make it back to Hollywood and confront the awful truth...
There are a lot of good ideas in Bolt, and they're mostly implemented really well. The basic storyline is simple enough for kids to follow but there are plenty of wisecracks and references that adults will enjoy. The quality of the animation is superb, and the voice acting is top notch as well. John Travolta and Miley Cyrus are fine as Bolt and Penny, Susie Essman is excellent as Mittens - but the main kudos goes to Mark Walton, who is fantastic as Rhino. To be fair Essman and Walton had by far the best characters to work with, but still, they were awesome - in fact, to quote Rhino, they were "beyond awesome".
The movie starts off okay, perhaps a little too slowly but there were some good laughs here and there (especially when the "evil" cats, who know it's only a TV show, taunt Bolt by putting on their on-screen personas while he's stuck in his trailer). After an enjoyable scene with some pigeons who are sure they recognise Bolt but can't quite place it (you might well have seen the bit in the trailer when a bus with BOLT and Bolt's face emblazoned across it stops right in front of the pigeons but they somehow manage not to notice), the story picks up considerably when Bolt tells them he needs to capture a cat to continue his message. The pigeons look at each other and say "we know just the cat..." Cut to a scene where Mittens is half-heartedly terrifying various pigeons to get food from them. From this moment on the movie gets funnier, but Bolt doesn't reach top gear until the introduction some time later. From there on it's frequently very funny and very enjoyable, even if the plot twists are rather predictable. The few scenes with genuine emotion come towards the end of the film and are very well done.
The kids in the audience all seemed to enjoy Bolt immensely - especially anything to do with Rhino - and it doesn't matter that they wouldn't be able to appreciate some slick dialogue that had the adults in the audience grinning broadly. Near the end there is a sequence with Penny and Bolt trapped in a burning building, and one very young member of the audience had to be taken out in tears. I wouldn't think most young children would find anything in this movie too worrying though. The music score is fun and adds to the movie nicely.
In the cinema (and I'm presuming it will be on the DVD release too), Bolt was preceded by a story based on the Cars characters. Visually this short was superb but frankly the voice acting was pretty bad, the story non-existent and it simply wasn't funny to anyone apart from perhaps four year-olds. Thankfully the main feature was infinitely better, as you've already read!
Quotes
Rhino: [with upset stomach] That meat lover's pizza is NOT loving me back!
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Bolt: Am I missing anything, Rhino?
Rhino: Just the knowledge that every minute spent in your company becomes the new greatest minute of my life!
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Louie: Mark my words, Mittens. One day, someone's gonna stand up to you! Someone's gonna teach you a lesson!
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Rhino: If Bolt's taught me anything, it's that you never abandon a friend at time of need!
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Rhino: It's a good day to die!
Mittens: Not on my watch, rodent!
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Rhino: All my training has prepared me for this moment.
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Mittens: Go on, use the dog face. This is gonna be beautiful.
Bolt: [looks confused]
Mittens: You know, beg.
Bolt: [further confused]
Mittens: Do the dog face!
Bolt: What? The dog face? What does that mean?
Mittens: [sighs] Figures, I'm tied to the one dog on Earth who doesn't know how to beg.
Related Links
My Top Ten Computer-Animated Movies
My Top Ten Animated Movies
Recommended:
Yes
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