Film Review: 'Bolt' carries on Disney tradition

By John Beifuss

Friday, November 21, 2008

"Lassie Come Home" for kids raised on superhero movies and "Hannah Montana," "Bolt" is a funny, charming and thoroughly family-friendly computer-animated tale of canine/human loyalty and companionship that marks an auspicious first feature for new Walt Disney Animation Studios chief John Lasseter, who also heads the now Disney-owned Pixar.

If this year's releases are an indication of Lasseter's strategy, Pixar will continue to produce ambitious (even pretentious) films like "WALL-E," while Disney will generate more traditional family fare. Unlike the cartoons of rival studios, "Bolt" isn't smart-alecky ("Madagascar") or would-be hip ("Shrek," with its Eels and Rufus Wainwright songs on the soundtrack); it's no offspring of Looney Tunes but a true heir to the quality (if sometimes toothless) Disney tradition represented by the "Steamboat Willie" Mickey Mouse clip in the animation studio's logo.

Directed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams, from a script by Williams and Dan Fogelman, "Bolt" cannily taps into several competing yet compatible irresistible-to-kids fantasies. Bolt himself (voiced by John Travolta) is an American White Shepherd puppy who stars as a superdog on a popular TV series; this double identity allows young viewers to imagine the fun of owning a cuter version of Krypto while it also affirms Charles M. Schulz's assertion that happiness is a warm puppy, even when the puppy doesn't really have a super-bark.

Bolt's "person," Penny, the girl who co-stars with him on TV, is voiced by Miley Cyrus, a choice that is smart for reasons beyond Disney cross-promotion. As they do with Hannah Montana, young viewers will be able to vicariously enjoy Penny's celebrity while at the same time being reassured that "normal" life has its own allure; in fact, "Bolt" goes beyond "Hannah" by suggesting that non-rock stars have more fun. As Bolt himself learns: "Being a regular dog is, like, the best gig in the world."

Most of the movie follows Bolt on a cross-country journey from New York to Hollywood, as he learns the truth about his non-superpowered self while desperately trying to rejoin the person he loves. Bolt isn't alone on his trek: Despite the title, "Bolt" is really a three amigos story, with the dog playing straight man (straight mutt?) to a pair of indelibly rendered and characterized companions: a sardonic, scrawny alley cat (voiced by veteran TV actress Susie Essman) with the humiliating name of Mittens; and Rhino (Disney animator Mark Walton), a Bolt-worshipping hamster who travels by rolling inside a clear plastic exercise ball.

A hilarious hyper burst of fur, Rhino will be the movie's breakout star, thanks to Walton as well as to the animators. In fact, in a welcome return to old school cartoons, most of the characters in "Bolt" are "portrayed" by talented voice actors rather than by name celebrities.

-- John Beifuss, 529-2394