BOLT

“BOLT” (Voice of John Travolta)
To save you a couple of bucks, there isn’t any reason to see this cartoon in 3D;
as there are no special 3D effects with that ‘wow’ moment.
I would recommend it highly for young children as ‘Bolt’, the animated dog is absolutely adorable, despite being voiced by John Travolta. There aren’t any
‘adult humor’ lines as in most modern-day cartoons – It is very much like an animated ‘Underdog’.
I wanted to see this when I heard about the premise; a TV superhero dog believes
that he actually has supercanine powers (Well, they aren’t superhuman powers now,
are they?)
He gets separated from his owner/Co-star & finds himself out in the real world thinking he can stop evil doers with his ‘power bark’. Fortunately the lead v/o
work of Travolta & Miley Cyrus (voicing Bolt’s co-star, Penny) doesn’t detract from the story, which uses tried & true standard Disney fare – it is cut from the same mold as ‘The Incredible Journey’ except instead of a second dog, there’s a delusional hamster that believes Bolt is a real superhero dog.
To bolster ratings of the TV series, a 2-part ‘Bolt’ episode is devised; the cliffhanger involving Penny being kidnapped by the evil ‘Man with the Green Eye’. Bolt has lived is entire life on the set & the producers have gone to great lengths to make the pup believe that all of his adventures are real by hiding cameras & microphones. They do this to make Bolt stand out as the single greatest canine method-actor in the business – If the dog believes he has superpowers, so will the audience. Penny begs the director to let Bolt see that she wasn’t really kidnapped, but they claim that will give away the secret of the TV show. So Bolt escapes from his trailer & ventures out to rescue Penny...
Styrofoam is blamed for Bolt’s weakened powers (After he lands in a box full of ‘peanuts’ & gets transported from Hollywood to New York)
The Man with the Green Eye has a black cat so when Bolt encounters a lookalike black cat, he captures the feline & forces her to take him to Penny. The cat, Mittens (nicely voiced by Susie Essman) initially thinks she’s in the clutches of a psychotic nut-hound, but after meeting a TV addicted hamster named Rhino (Mark Walton) she comes to realize that Bolt is a duped 'TV actor'. The transformation from arch enemies to best friends between Bolt & Mittens gives this animated tale its heart.
For comedy, it doesn’t offer too many guffaw inducing lines, but it has numerous whimsical moments; a trio of dimwitted pigeons provide some of the funniest scenes, but they ARE over-used & by the end you kind of wished they’d brought in some different characters to deliver their lines. (I guess since they were aiming at a younger audience they figured they should keep it simple)
If you’re a dog lover you’ll probably enjoy this film, but if you have kids 10 or under, take them to see it.
Normally my wife will say, “Wasn’t that cute?” at the end of a cute little movie like this, but for ‘Bolt’ I beat her to the punch by saying, “Wasn’t that adorable?” And that is the best adjective to describe ‘Bolt’ & his journey across America to rescue his ‘person’ & continue the quest even after he discovers the truth about his life & that Penny is just an actor pretending to love him. It is a nice lesson in friendships & (puppy) love for kids of all ages.