Check Out the Trailer

For those that don’t know the history of BOLT’s production, it started as a project titled AMERICAN DOG written and directed by LILO & STITCH helmer Chris Sanders. It was the second feature left over at Disney that the new Pixar heads had to work with. To make a long story short, Sanders was removed from the film and directors Chris Williams and Byron Howard were given the task of reworking the entire film in 18 months, which is ridonculously short for an animated feature. I write this as a bit of background and to make the point that this isn’t Sanders’ film; it’s Williams and Howard’s film. So that’s how it must be judged, not what it could have been in some alternative universe. Considering how BOLT was made, it’s surprising that it works so well.

Bolt (John Travolta, LOOK WHO’S TALKING) is a TV super dog. Like THE TRUMAN SHOW, he has been raised to believe that everything in the show is real. His owner is the young girl Penny (Miley Cyrus, TV’s HANNA MONTANA), who despite being an actress truly does love Bolt as her own pet. But then Bolt accidentally gets shipped off to New York City, believing that his arch nemesis Dr. Calico (Malcolm McDowell, TV’s HEROES) has kidnapped his beloved Penny. Desperate to find the evil man with one green eye, Bolt seeks out the most obvious evil collaborator — a cat, any cat. Poor Mittens (Susie Essman, TV’s CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM) fits the bill and Bolt forces her on a cross-country adventure back to Hollywood. Along the way, they meet up with Bolt’s obsessive fan Rhino the hamster (Mark Walton), which convinces Mittens that Bolt not only doesn’t have super powers, but also is delusional.

While the premise stretches credibility as far are it can, it never breaks the illusion. Animation always helps in this area because it adds another level of fantasy. So in this hyper-reality, we buy an extreme Director (James Lipton of INSIDE THE ACTOR’S STUDIO) wanting to get the most realistic performance from his canine star. What is a little harder to swallow is Travolta as Bolt. Star voice casting is not new, but here, it always seems like Travolta’s voice coming out of a dog. But even though Bolt is the star of his own show, it’s Essman’s Mittens and Walton’s Rhino that get the laughs. Walton, a storyman for Disney, was only supposed to be a rough track for the animators to work from, but was so good that the filmmakers left his voice in the film.

The characters have a conventional CG look while the backgrounds capture a unique painterly feel that was inspired by Edward Hopper paintings. With such a distinct difference between the characters and the world, it’s impressive how the filmmakers make them feel like the same film. This hand-painted quality only comes in as part of the cross-country journey section. This film begins with a nicely paced and well-choreographed action sequence, which represents the TV world that Bolt believes is real. Maybe live-action films like QUANTUM OF SOLACE should take lessons from this animated adventure where if it takes the animators have to spend so much time to build a set for an action piece the directors want you to actually see what they have created.

BOLT is a decidedly better film than Disney’s CHICKEN LITTLE and a step up from the first CG effort under the Pixar reign, MEET THE ROBINSONS. With the studio going back to its fairy tale roots, it will be interesting to see how they will find their identity now that Pixar is the brand animation fans trust. Like Bolt realizing his powers were an illusion, Disney can’t simply rely of the name Walt Disney to magically put butts in seats and sell DVDs. In 18 months under John Lasseter and Co., Disney Feature Animation turned out its best film since LILO & STITCH. If the improvement of this film over the last two films is proof that the Pixar brass are a good influence on story then fans will not have to worry about what could have been.