How do they do it? How do Pixar and Disney, year after year, come up with the kind of movie that's so near perfect, so emotionally gripping, so exciting, so funny, so lovable, and so all around spectacular?
Bolt is the overshadowed masterpiece that most may overlook and, to your surprise, actually isn't made by Pixar Animation Studios. Instead, Disney's animation department took the wheel and drove Bolt all by itself.
In 2008, Wall-E got all the recognition and praise, by far beating out Bolt for best animated picture of the year. To compare and contrast the two, however, is a crime against humanity, for Wall-E is a deep biopic of human emotion and society while Bolt is simply the most perfected family comedy ever concocted. In fact, I have so much praise for Bolt that I would rank it, in its 3-D goodness, amongst the ranks of The Lion King, Aladdin, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, and Wall-E.
Bolt tells the story of a dog named, of course, Bolt (John Travolta) who stars in the self-titled action series on television alongside a girl named Penny (Miley Cyrus). The trick, though, is that Bolt thinks all the action on the set is 100% real, therefore thinking that Penny is in actual turmoil at any given moment. He also believes that Calico (Malcom McDowell), a.k.a "The Green Eyed Man" is a real super villain hell-bent on using Penny's genius dad for his own personal gain. Basically, the cliche' villain in almost every sense of the word...but that's not where the story lies. The story lies within Bolts belief of the show being real and, one day, he escapes the studio after a cliffhanger on the show shows Penny being hoisted away by Calico's helicopter in a strange pod. Bolt dashes out of the moonroof of his trailer into the real world, and thus his adventure begins. Along his trip he meets Mittens (Susie Essman) and Rhino (Mark Waltman), which sounds like your typical naive protagonists meeting quirky characters on his adventure, but each of these two supporting roles actually have quite a bit of depth to them.
Bolt is a high concept jam-packed full of ideas from beginning to end. An excellently produced feature throughout, Bolt just so happens to entertain without letting up even for a second. Honestly, I can't even think of one moment in the movie where there was a lull, but perhaps that's because I've been deceptively duped by the beautiful rendering in the film. Really, the colors are so vibrant and exciting, and you'll swear during some scenes you're watching a real movie, even for just a second. The animals themselves, even the recurring pigeons, are so richly detailed and defined and you could pause the film at any moment and actually count the hairs or feathers on an animal's body. While Wall-E was commended for its excellent use of body language and lack of dialogue to evoke emotion and a story, Bolt does just as good of a job. Yes, Bolt contains much much much more dialogue than Wall-E, but animation and subtle nuances of each character are so fervently felt that its really mind-blowing to believe you're feeling emotion from a 3-D cartoon. You will feel an immediate attachment to each of these characters, and by the end of the film, you're not going to want to see them fade to credits.
I found myself heavily tearing up at numerous parts just from the cuteness of the movie as a whole, though. Disney, even though their movies tend to deal with supernatural or animalistic characters anyway, have perfected a doggish character to a tee. Every little sound, every tiny movement, and every choice of words fit so perfectly with Bolt that you'll actually start to like John Travolta for the role! (Just kidding, everyone loves John Travolta...)
But in all honesty, even Miley Cyrus does a good job portraying the human counterpart to Bolt. Yes, I said it. Miley Cyrus did a good job on something. Shoot me...I mean, sure this was just Disney trying to cash in on her preposterous musical success already, but I'll admit I didn't dislike her in any way. But, of course, you could probably cast anyone behind the characters in the film and you'd still fall in love with them due to the tremendous and tumultuous amounts of work and dedication put into the movie.
Complaints?
Its quite the task to nitpick real negatives of a movie so lovable as Bolt, but here's one that bugged me a little bit: some of the jokes. Now, of course Bolt is mainly targeted to younger audiences, who will, without a doubt, fall in love with this movie and laugh at every thing. For the older folks though, there's a few little script-writes that feel forced...maybe even gimmicky. As if someone said "Well, this isn't that funny...but kids talk like that so lets put it in." Particulary, this problem arose with Mittens' character, but hey, what're you gonna do? Its for kids anyway.
Other than that, I really can't express any more love for Bolt. It's near perfect in almost any regard. No, its not particularly deep and mind-probing like plenty of other animated features these days, but what it lacks in philosophical depth it more than makes up for in fun and modesty. Bolt is that film that never feels like its trying to be anything, but just like the creators made a film composed of several ideas and took you along for the ride. When it comes down to it, maybe not every film has to have a significant, long-lasting purpose, but they can just be enjoyable to the point of happy-crying. It has a lesson to be taught, although a little cliche'd, and that is to never give up, and to say you can when you think you can't. Bolt can, does, and bolts.
9.5/10
-Kyle Shelton
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