http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0 ... 25,00.html Walt Disney started out with a mouse, 80 years ago this week, but his company has done all right by dogs too. If Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians can't be numbered among the animation studio's most ambitious projects, they both had a high satisfaction quotient. No wonder: the canine attributes of curiosity, affection and unshakable loyalty are an ideal fit for Disney family values of any era. (Cats, not so much.) From the live-action pup opera Old Yeller in the '50s, to the mixed-media friskiness of this fall's Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Disney has paraded and profited from its pooch panache. More Related Chihuahua: Hollywood’s New Top Dog Woof, Woof! Who’s Next? Rover to the Rescue Bolt, the first Disney animated feature made under the supervision of Pixar creative boss John Lasseter, has a premise straight out of Chihuahua: an adorable, pampered L.A. dog gets dropped into an alien environment and has to find its way back home, learning lessons of friendship, confidence and self-reliance en route. (It's also the premise of 140,000 other movies about animals, kids or hobbits.) Bolt fits this familiar mold without looking moldy. Its visual style is unpretentiously attractive, with a limber graphic line, and there's little showboating in the design or the dialogue. Directors Chris Williams and Byron Howard are perfectly pleased to have labored in the service of that humblest of genres, the dog cartoon. (See TIME's top 10 dog movies) The story, though, is high-concept and high-maintenance. In the Bond-worthy opening action scene, Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) is introduced as a Superdog: faster than Speed Racer, more powerful than Benji, able to hold a dangling car between his teeth, plus his gifts of bent-track laser-vision and the amazing thunder bark — all to help his "human," Penny (Miley Cyrus), escape an army of bad guys. He could be the family dog of the Incredibles. What Bolt doesn't know, yet, is that all this mayhem and all his powers are fake. He's the star of a TV adventure series, and if he weren't so focused on his Penny-paving mission he might notice the cameras, stunt men and effects technicians. Bolt, in other words, is a canine Truman Show, whose producers think he'll give a more intense performance if he thinks it's real. Thanks to conniving from the usual slimy coven of agents and network execs — and a tumble of coincidences nearly as endearing as they are preposterous — Bolt is shipped to New York City, where he strikes up a quick animosity with a sassy cat named Mittens (Curb Your Enthusiasm's Susie Essman). Their itinerary will be no secret to the youngest of viewers: cat and dog, joined by Rhino (Disney animator Mark Walton), a hamster who travels in a Plexiglas ball. Through Rhino, a diehard fan of the TV show, Bolt realizes that his powers aren't so super, and he comes to suspect that Penny was just another jaded Hollywood actress who'd forget about him when she left the set. There are stretches when the animal trio's westward trek packs no more excitement or amusement than a Presidential candidates slog through the prairie-state primaries. Mittens' yenta-like attitude can get grating, and for a while Rhino is the only character with much wit or verve. But from the moment Bolt sticks his head out the window of a speeding truck and feels the breeze of freedom and free will, the picture snaps to life and instantly acquires heart (Lasseter's favorite movie organ). Of course each character gets to show a heroism all the more special for being displayed without special effects. Indeed, Rhino's climactic declaration of purpose — that "All my dreaming has prepared me for this moment" — might be the motto, not just of this very satisfying film, but of the Disney-Pixar animators. They're smart kids who dream for a living. It's a satisfaction of another sort to have movies that appeal to the deepest, dreamiest parts of a tyro moviegoer's soul. In the pre-Thanksgiving lull, parents can take their young'uns to Bolt, drop their 10-to-14-year-olds off at Twilight, and the whole family will have survived the weekend. All it takes is a handsome vampire's bite and a cute dog's bark.
Don't know if time will allow us to go but we will try. I can't believe how much life can get in the way of life.
Rather annoying, isn't it? Humm...doubt I'll make it to see Bolt anytime soon. ; There will be no theatre movie seeing for me before Twilight!!
I live in Bolton, no need to pre-order movie tickets...rotfl. ; It's great, as we get to see every movie opening day weekend with no problemos. ; ;D
getting good reviews - Re: Bolt: Dog Gone Disney http://www.mlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2 ... _hila.html Disney's endearing 'Bolt' is hilarious and beautifully made by James Sanford | Kalamazoo Gazette Friday November 21, 2008, 7:20 AM Last Thanksgiving, Disney offered moviegoers ENCHANTED, the story of a would-be princess catapulted from her home in a mythical land into the heart of New York City. This year, Disney presents BOLT, in which a different kind of fish-out-of-water -- Bolt, a dog from the semi-mythical land of Hollywood -- ends up in the Big Apple and has to make his way back home. Although the concept may be almost identical, the two movies take wildly different approaches to the theme. Bolt, Mittens and Rhino combine their talents to make a cross-country trek to Hollywood in Disney's BOLT. ENCHANTED was a mostly live-action romantic comedy that lovingly spoofed the conventions of Disney animated films, while BOLT really is a Disney animated film, albeit one with a slightly different flavor than most. That might have something to do with the influence of executive producer John Lasseter, the man behind the phenomenally successful Pixar Animation Studios and the new "principal creative advisor" of Walt Disney Imagineering. Lasseter's guiding hand is evident throughout BOLT, which has much in common with such Pixar hits as FINDING NEMO and THE INCREDIBLES. For one thing, it's hilarious. BOLT immediately establishes a tone of gentle jokiness -- in a frenetic opening chase that could have been designed for the sequel to THE INCREDIBLES -- and proceeds to build upon it by bringing in beautifully defined characters with strong, engaging personalities. There's no real villain in the story, which means the challenges Bolt and his friends face often involve overcoming their own mindsets and attitudes instead of fighting off an enemy. Bolt (voice provided by John Travolta) is both the prized pet and screen partner of young actress Penny (Miley Cyrus, whose slightly gruff line-readings give a potentially sticky-sweet character a hint of edginess); they co-star together in a TV series that looks like a mad mash-up of "Lassie" and "Mission: Impossible." Bolt and Penny keep an eye on the bad guys in BOLT.Like Jim Carrey's character in THE TRUMAN SHOW, Bolt has been sheltered inside a studio for years and firmly believes he is the genetically enhanced super-dog he portrays on television. When he's accidentally shipped to New York, Bolt is shocked to realize that he's now operating in an environment in which he can't bend steel bars with his mighty paws, or dissolve locks with his "heat-ray vision." "The real world hurts, doesn't it?" snaps Mittens (Susie Essman), the street-wise alley cat Bolt kidnaps and forces to help him get back to California. But instead of dwelling on Bolt's disillusionment, BOLT turns into an odyssey of self-discovery: Bolt, who has always thought of himself as the one who must single-handedly save the day, realizes the value of teamwork as he, Mittens and the endlessly spunky hamster Rhino (delightfully played by Mark Walton) -- a born hero-worshipper who tells Bolt that "every minute spent in your company becomes the new best minute of my life!" -- learn to combine their talents during their cross-country trip. As in the Pixar films, enormous attention is paid to fine details in the animation, from Rhino's constantly twitching ears to the texture on Bolt's nose. Yet this is not accomplished at the expense of the plot or the personalities. BOLT manages to be consistently funny and exciting while never losing sight of the bond between Bolt and Penny that drives the story. It's as if THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY had been rewritten by a team of fiendishly clever comic minds that didn't underestimate the intelligence of their audience. Worth the extra price for 3D? Definitely Theaters generally charge an extra dollar or so for 3D presentations, and in the case of BOLT, the higher ticket price is well worth paying. In 3D, you can really appreciate the craftsmanship of the animation team and its splendid use of perspective. Instead of employing 3D for in-your-face gimmicks (the way JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH does, for example), BOLT utilizes the technology to present crystal-clear, perfectly defined images that literally give the movie an extra dimension: You can sense the space inside the plastic ball Rhino travels around in, and the various textures in the streets and fields the characters wander through. Plus, you get the thrill of being plunged into the complex chases and wild action sequences from Bolt's TV show. To paraphrase Rhino, it's beyond awesome -- it's "be-awesome"!
Saw Bolt Friday evening. Enjoyed it. DD 10 loved it. I thought that there would be an animation short prior to Bolt but there wasn't.
Saw Bolt last night with family. ; DD2 sat stock still, and didn't even ask to go to the bathroom. ; DD9 wants to buy it immediately. ; DH and I enjoyed it ; - great movie. ; But I was a little sad about the joke being on Bolt for the first half of the movie.
