Review of Bolt (2008) by Naeem A — 20 Apr 2011

Bolt is a highly enjoyable CG animated film from Disney, without Pixar's help, and in my opinion the best they've done without them. The film had great characters, outstanding animation and an interesting story to follow. Disney have nailed this animated wonder about a famous dog who discovers the outside world.

Meet Bolt (John Travolta), the celebrity wonder dog who has his own show, titled 'bolt', and believes everything is real on set 100%. the film opens with a scene of Bolt being picked up at a pound by a little girl called 'Penny' (Miley Cyrus). The film then goes right into a full scale action scene, straight out of 24 it seems and was very impressive to see. Nice editing, great camera movements and lighting. We then discover how it is all on set as we meet the TV Show producer. Well basically Bolt, runs off set in search for Penny thinking she is in trouble, because the TV producer was told to make a cliffhanger and did just that. So Bolt ends up lost, and Gullible as he is, he has a hard time getting back. Along the way we meet 'Mittens the cat' (Susie Essman) , the gangster type kind of cat, who I might add is a female; and the guinea pig called 'Rhino' (Mark Walton). I thought the name was lever because of the scale difference. Rhino is also a huge TV couch potato, and is a fan of Bolt.

I loved all the characters in the film, and I even thought Miley Cyrus did a good job as Penny. Her voice matched well with the character and suited the tone and emotion of the film. John Travolta wasn't half bad either. Not a big fan of Travolta, but his voice seemed suited to the roll. Mittens was probably my favourite though. I just enjoyed how she knew more about dogs than Bolt, and hows him 'the ways of a dog'. A very interesting contrast between the two characters. Rhino can easily be called 'a totally not funny character', but I thought he was pretty funny. Especially in the scene when he breathes really fast and it steams up his ball.

Now being a huge animation fan, and someone who makes 3D animation (with cinema4D if anyone knows it), I absolutely praise the animation in this film. It has a Pixar kind of feel to it, but with a whole new kind of design. John Lasseter (Head of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios) was the Producer of the film, which probably added to why the film felt very natural. The textures where great, and the animation of the characters was very fluent. So thumbs up to the visuals by far for this one.

The film has some great emotional impact, and especially near the end. I shall not spoil, but the scene was very sad and will certainly make you feel something. Especially you dog lovers. so overall the film is highly Enjoyable for people of all ages. the animation was great, the characters where great, and the story was nice. It has the things a good film should have. However, some of the jokes felt too pop-culture held and cliché, but that didn't bring the film down. A fantastic animated gem well worth checking out if you haven't.

Ratings:

Story: 88%.

Characters: 90%.

Emotion: 87%.

Visual: 94%.

Music: 82%.

Overall: 86%.