Review of Bolt (2008) by George T — 30 Apr 2011

Bolt, (voiced by John Travolta) , as you probably already know from the previews, is about a dog who is raised on a Hollywood set as the star of a television show. He believes he has super powers, but when he gets out into the real world he realizes he doesn't. (Basically a canine Buzz Lightyear).

The animation is the highlight of this feature, which otherwise pretty ordinary and familiar. It starts out with an action packed stunt scene and then lapses into the basic Homeward bound "get home journey thing". As usual the secondary character is the funnier and more memorable. In this case it's a hamster named Rino who thinks he can handle anything or anyone, and he's thrilled to be on Bolt's "team". Obviously there's no real villain, so they have to come up with some other climactic conflict.

The thing is they go for completely hilarious, non-stop, over-the-top comedy all the way, and that can get tiring. But the hamster is often hilarious and has great quick gags, like when he offers to snap a guard's neck at the dog pound.

Not as good as Madagascar 2, which works more overall, but still pretty funny with very impressive animation.