Review of Bolt (2008) by David C — 05 Feb 2011

Ok, let's face it, CGI came to stay. And I have to be completly honest, I don´t think that they killed the hand drawn animation. Tecnology evolved so much in recente years so why not use it in filmmaking? As long as a movie doesn't rely to much on the visuals, I am completly in favor.

I admire what they did with "Bolt". The story is not a very original one but thwy made it really fun to watch.

The premise centers on Bolt, a dog actor who stars in an action series where he is a superdog, along with his real life owner Penny. He lived his entire life on the set, so he really thinks he is a superdog. He is accidently sent awat from the studio and struggles to go back to his owner. On the way he finds two new friends; Mittens, a street cat, and Rino a hamster who lives in a ball.

I really liked this movie. As I said before, the story is nothing amazingly new. I mean it is original but the formula has been used lots of times. In this case, however, they used it perfectly.

There is two major points to this film. The first are the visuals, which prooves, once again that Pixar is not the only one to make visual masterpieces. Ok,it is still Disney and John Lasseter was involved, but still it has pretty amazing visuals.

The second, and the best for me, are the characters. There are few animated films on which we encounter such entertaining main characthers. Bolt is the lead and the more illusioned characther so it is the character taken more serioulsy. Rino is the comic relief and a pretty funny character. But Mittens is simply a amazing and HILARIOUS! Everytime a scene cut out to her I was eager to see what she would say. It is hilarious and has a simpatetic side too. I also laughed so much everytime a pigeon appeared on the screeen.

The human characters are good too but the animals are much more likeable, I watched this in portuguese so I don't actually know if the originals are so much fun but I will take a look.

The film has some flaws and things I didn't like so much. The way they convince the dog that it isn't a show is a little bit strange. They don't actually explain some of the effects they do to make the dog super. Sometimes we start thinking that the dog is just stupid. That's way the film is much better on the seconf half. Also, Rino is funny but the character is, as I said, a comic relief to the movie. The problem is that it is there mainly for the purpose, at least in the first times he appears. Mittens is funny but she also serves has a bit of a guidance to Bolt.

By the end you can see that the movie is really predicatble. But, it is a Disney film, what the hell did you expect?

To finish, I think the magic previous Disney works have brought to us sustained in here. We see it in the story, we see it in the characthers and the way they interact with each.

Others are fantastic. The scene where Mittens (the cat) is teaching Bolt how to be a dog is simply marvelous.

It is not amazingly brilliant but captivates, entertains and is funny as hell!