Bolt - Review

Bolt


In a nutshell...
So...Disney...For anyone reading this who knows me, they should know by now my undying love for this animation company since pretty much I was old enough to register images into my brain back when I was a tiny infant. From Snow White to Sword In The Stone to Sleeping Beauty to Beauty And The Beast To Aladdin and all the way back again I grew up and loved them all. Until that is, the late 1990s/ early 2000 came, 2-D animation is vast becoming outdated and Disney's storylines are becoming dull and frankly shite (Treasure Planet and Atlantis anyone? Really?) which resulted in Disney slowly becoming merely another childhood memory. "Getting fat and lazy, and he walked in and ups a daisy!" That man is of course John Lasseter, creator of one of the most important animation studios in the world, Pixar, that brought you the likes of Toy Story 1&2, Finding Nemo and my second favourite film of last year the ground breaking Wall-e, and now back where he started at Disney he is now the head chief creative officer for the company and vowed to bring it back to where it should be, and that's at the top of the animation mountain.

Bolt marks the 48th film under the title of Walt Disney Pictures and follows in the footsteps of its CGI predecessors, the dull and depressing Dinosaur, the film that could've been great but wasn't, Chicken Little and the distinctly average and forgettable Meet The Robinsons (what you say? Exactly). However with Lasseter at the helm of producer and a directing team of Chris Williams and Bryon Howard from one of the company's last great 2-D films, Mulan surely it can be better...right? Yes! Right! Bolt is a tale about a dog (voiced by the man who keeps coming back John Travolta) who has been sheltered for most of his life on a film set leading him to believe he is actually a super enhanced hero (imagine The Truman Show crossed with Buzz Lightyear, except...a dog) protecting his human or "person" as he puts it, Penny (voiced by some doll who all the kids love these days...Miley Cyprus? Cyrus? Stratus? Sterruss? Stratocaster? Ah who cares). With his delusions eventually leading him astray from his owner he embarks on a country wide travel from New York to Hollywood along with his travel companions, cat Mittens and hamster Rhino of course getting into all kinds of funky trouble along the way.

The visuals are beautiful and lush which, is what you have come to expect from Pix....um I mean Disney, and honestly would not look out of place in the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles or to a somewhat lesser extent Cars. It was colourful, bright, cute and topped surprisingly with a witty enough script to keep the kids and adults amused for the whole duration, however what was a little disappointing was that it failed to deliver anything new or exciting to really announce Disney's "2nd Coming" as many other journalists have been putting this recent renaissance. The voice cast however do deserve praise and for me personally top props go to the cameos of the pigeons who actually made me "LOL" (jeez I feel so dirty for putting it like that) a couple of times. Animated and performed with true warmth and heart Disney have made the "Oliver & Co." of their CGI productions, and if history is to repeat itself, (the film that came after Oliver & Co was of course the legendary and absolutely spell-binding Little Mermaid) then the next film to come under the "Walt Disney Pictures" emblem is something truly to look out for. To round up Bolt is a loveable tale that, although been told time and time again in films like Homeward Bound, Oliver & Co, Lassie, Old Yellor! The Aristocats about a human and their pet, it should not take anything away from how much the kids will enjoy it. However as I'm sure the amount of traffic from people under 13 is low in these parts, to any devote bloggers out there who wanna watch an animation masterpiece, go watch Wall-e instead...or Beauty and The Beast. Walt, mate, you're nearly there but just slightly off the finishing line. One more try!

Stand out scene...
Any involving the pigeons for me, some comedy gold there.

Stand out quote...
Rhino (the hamster) with an upset stomach, "That meat lover's pizza is NOT loving me back"

If you liked this go watch...
The Truman Show or any Disney film involving talking animals!!