Review 542: Bolt

Bolt is a beautifully animated, wonderfully charming Disney animated film that succeeds on the strength of its surprisingly poignant story and loveable characters.

Bolt (John Travolta) is a White Shepherd puppy who is adopted by an eight-year girl named Penny (Miley Cyrus). Five years later, Bolt and Penny are the stars of the hit TV series called Bolt, in which Bolt is a superhero dog. In order to gain a more realistic performance, Bolt has unknowingly been isolated in the TV studio and believes that the fictional world of the show is all real. When Penny is "kidnapped", Bolt manages to escape the studio and attempts to "rescue" her.

Firstly, I believe that critic Kenneth Turan of the L.A. times said it best when he described the plot as an animated family version of The Truman Show with Jim Carrey

Directors Chris Williams and Byron Howard's animation direction is  the Edward Hopper/Vilmos Zsigmond inspired animation is resplendent lending itself to very different, real and unique looking film compared to what Disney has produced thus far. The character design is splendid and alive with texture and detail; The scenery is breathtaking, the score by John Powell is catchy, the production design is marvellous, the

As Bolt goes on his long and illustrious journey of self discovery, he comes across a cast of colourful characters that help to him to come to grips with the real world. These characters include, Mittens (Susan Essman) a stray/runaway cat who Bolt initially meets after mistaking her for one of the villains on his show and over time grows to care for and Rhino (Mark Walton) a hamster whose also something of a fan of Bolt's TV show and jumps at the chance of going on an adventure with his hero. I mean who wouldn't?

This is one of the few Disney animated films that features no antagonist or villain to speak of.
Whilst there are certainly obstacles and foils throughout the film such as studio execs, Animal Control etc, none of them pose much of a threat to our heroes. Though, the closest thing the film has to an antagonist is Penny's agent (Greg Germann). He is such a sleazebag in how he is constantly trying to turn even the worse to his advantage mainly for publicity.

4/5.

The Anonymous Critic.