BOLT (2008)

BOLT (2008)

Tagline: Fully Awesome 2008

(Animation, Adventure, Comedy) [PG]

Yeah! And who foiled his plan to infiltrate the Olympics with gymnastics cyborgs? Who, Bolt, who? Who?

In this one, a super-powered dog named Bolt is the star of a hit action TV show. It’s basically like INSPECTOR GADGET on steroids. Bolt ends up accidentally separated (by a great distance) from the TV studio and his loving co-star Penny. As he is introduced to the world outside his TRUMAN SHOW-like existence, Bolt realizes not only does he not have superpowers, but that without help from a cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino, he may never find his way back to the world he knows. 

Tidbit – this is another animated film Chloe Grace Moretz was involved in. She actually voiced the role of Penny all the way through the script, but in the final production she was only kept for the part of “young Penny” and the rest was replaced by Miley Cyrus. Miley was a huge star with Disney at the time which is likely why the change was made. 

This movie is loaded with freakin awesome design work and I especially loved the parts of the movie that involved the show Bolt was on. The rest of the movie is pretty funny at times, and sometimes heartwarming, but most of the really strong animation happens when Bolt is on the show. The best character in this movie by far for me is Rhino (voiced by Mark Walton). Mark has done some other voice work but is mostly known for being a storyboard artist. Rhino as a character is fully awesome and I honestly wish they had made a spinoff movie just about him. 

John Travolta was handed the task of voicing Bolt and he does a pretty great job. I did not feel the same about Miley Cyrus as Penny. Her voicing of Penny, unfortunately, came off as pretty cold and emotionless even though the character displays emotion in the movie. Susie Essman voiced another main character named Mittens and she did a fantastic job as did Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Calico (the villain on Bolt’s TV show). Malcolm has had a storied career which includes voicing himself on Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? 

This movie does a great job of introducing us to something just completely epic then pulling the rug out from under us for a large part of the movie. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming from the previews, but I would actually love to see a show revolved around the show Bolt is in, in this movie. For kids, this thing is a blast and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but for me, it lands at a 4 out of 7, which is probably a point down from when it first came out and the competition got stiffer. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

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