Bolt
The last time Disney released an animated feature of any kind not produced by the CG-geniuses at Pixar during the holiday season, it was 2005’s “Chicken Little” (last year’s “Meet the Robinson’s” was the latest one in general). Though a huge hit, it was nonetheless a very generic animated offering of the time. It’s heart was in the right place, but it’s soul was overrun by hip references and modern sensibilities that made for a cute, but utterly forgettable, effort.
By comparison, “Bolt” feels pretty timeless. I’m pretty inclined to rack that up to the influence of the man who has an executive producer credit on here- John Lasseter. Yes, the same who- at his home base at Pixar- is responsible for the two “Toy Story” classics, “A Bug’s Life,” and “Cars.” Word is, when Pixar was absorbed into Disney, and Lasseter became Chief Creative Officer at Disney, when he looked at what the studio had going on with “Bolt,” he was instrumental in getting the company to rework the material in his image.
Smart move, and the result is a sweet and altogether engaging animated comedy in the Pixar vein. The story is straight out of the Pixar playbook- a tale of self-discovery and misfit alliances as the canine star of a smash TV show (voiced by John Travolta) goes missing when he thinks his owner Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana)- both on the show and in real life- is kidnapped by the show’s villain. Through circumstance, Bolt gets his way to New York, where his delusions of being a “super dog” have comedic impacts on a street-wise cat named Mittens (a scene-stealing Susie Essman) and a superfan hamster named Rhino (Mark Walton) he picks up as companions along the way back to Hollywood.
So far, so formula. But look closely, and you’ll see a carefully-crafted story (by co-director Chris Williams and “Cars” co-writer Dan Fogelman) that borrows beautifully from not only the Pixar likes of “Toy Story 2” and “Finding Nemo”- in just the right doses- but also starts with a brilliant bit of misdirection that’s right out of “The Truman Show.” The emotional bond between the audience and Bolt and Penny and Bolt is established effectively in the early scenes (as we see Penny pick Bolt as a pup, and then see them in their trailer together), as is the very Hollywood choice the show’s director (with just the right amount of pomp by James Lipton from “Inside the Actor’s Studio”) makes of having Bolt’s performance on the show be method, never allowing him off the set, making it all the more believable to the audience and for his performance. This allows the filmmakers to play with Bolt’s character in a way that recalls Buzz Lightyear in “Toy Story,” who is just as clueless as to his actual limitations as Bolt, but more importantly, it creates an immense level of emotional satisfaction when Bolt- with some help by the sarcastic Mittens- figures out what it means to be a real dog on his trip home. Lord help me, I even cried at the transformation (and during the country song that played during the obligatory montage showing said transformation), which makes Bolt a full-blooded pooch instead of just a 96-minute comedy machine. By the time Bolt and Penny find themselves on a burning set, forced to live out the sorts of danger they only pretended to face before, we’re immediately swept up in the action, and our hearts are with both of them as Bolt proves himself to be a real-life superdog. Seeing it all unfold in 3-D digital projection was one of my favorite experiences of the year, and this has been an uncommonly good one for animated films. This dog’s got some bite.
