Bolt

Copyright 2009, Walt Disney Pictures

I finally caught up with last November's Bolt on Blu-ray yesterday. From Walt Disney Pictures' animation studio (but produced by Pixar's John Lasseter), Bolt was a modest success at the box office and was thought of by most people I read as a charming addition to the Disney canon. Though it is absolutely better than other recent Disney-only animated films (less said about Chicken Little and Meet The Robinsons), Bolt is, by no means, a great movie.

Overall, the animation is probably the best thing about the movie. Though it's still hard to hold a candle up to what Pixar's doing with its films, the characters in Bolt are strikingly animated, both quirky and realistic. The title character is at once adorable and fierce; we can see why his "person," Penny, falls in love with him when she sees the pooch at a local pound in the opening scene. The humans don't look too garish nor too realistic, and the colorful backdrops also work in the film's favor.

Whatever issues I have with this film are strictly in the plot. Before I harp on the film's slight lack of originality, let's get this out of the way: there is no way that, in the real world, an entire television show's production would care AT ALL if the sole dog in the show thought everything was real. The whole plot of the movie is that Bolt doesn't realize he's just a dog on a TV show; he thinks he really can shoot heat from his eyes, his bark can destroy people, and he's incredibly fast. Why does he think it's real? It's not because, you know, he's a really dumb dog, it's because the director of the show tries to keep him in the dark. The best part about this early explanation is the rejoinder that comes from the network executive who's on the receiving end of the director's monologue: in essence, make a better show, or you're fired.

Why, though? Why would a dog have to be kept in the dark that much? It's just ridiculous. Thus, despite the fast-paced opening action sequence, I was kept at a distance from really enjoying this movie. I realize that I have to suspend my disbelief when I'm watching a movie about a talking dog, but there's a limit. When the filmmakers spend more than a few seconds on discussing a TV show's ratings points, I feel like there's a disconnect between fantasy and reality. There's a way to make something unbelievable seem realistic, but no such luck with Bolt.

As the title character, John Travolta's fine, selling some of Bolt's bombastic lines and also his third-act realization of his true self. The infamous Miley Cyrus plays Penny and has little to do, aside from worry that Bolt's been lost; the actress is billed second but is only in about 20 minutes of the movie. I'm sure her agent helped that second-billing happen, which is ironic thanks to the smarmy agent character who follows Penny around during the movie. The real second lead is Mittens, a streetwise cat who helps Bolt get back to Los Angeles, voiced by comedienne Susie Essman. Essman's pretty good, managing to tone down her sly harshness for the movie but not too much.

The other issue with the plot, as I mentioned above, is originality. Having a lead character believe he is a superstar of some kind has been done before...by Pixar. Having a female lead character with self-pity because her owner or owners left her behind has been done before...by Pixar. Moreover, Pixar's done it better. I know that Bolt went through a lot of changes in every level and, again, it's a good movie, but the potential for greatness was here. I know I sound like a real downer, but Bolt is a good movie, a strong entry for Disney. If they're able to make more movies like these without Pixar being attached, I'm thrilled. I just hope they work on improving with the next film.