Bolt (2008)

Bolt (2008)

7/10

Starring
John Travolta
Susie Essman
Mark Walton
Miley Cyrus

Directed by Chris Williams and Byron Howard

Bolt is a triumph if you consider that the last great thing from Disney before this 2008 masterpiece was in 1999 (Tarzan).

What made Bolt so grand was the script. There's nothing wrong with it. It played every trick in the book to make sure you’re laughing your head off (when seeing it for the first time) and looking forward to what drops next.

The voice casting was beautiful, and so was the screenplay. The way the scenes were well planned is something you have to give credit to. The animation was top class, as was the directing.

Making a series about a dog who doesn’t know his life is a TV show reminds you of The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey. In fact, it was like The Truman Show, except here Bolt got out. In The Truman Show, out got in.

The plot of Bolt goes: Bolt is a TV star who, like in Disney’s Homeward Bound, sees his human taken away. Believing she’s in danger, he breaks out of the studio to save her from the one-eyed man.

The thing is, Bolt has always been living in a TV studio, so his idea of who he is, is skewed. Bolt thinks he has superpowers, he can shoot lasers, he is indestructible, and he has a super bark. But they are all effects, which are done to make him, the dog, feel this level of confidence.

So in the show, there is this episode where his human is taken away. Bolt goes crazy trying to save her. She wanted to go to him, to make him feel ok, but she is restricted by the producers. Bolt, thinking it is his job to save her, breaks out of his containment and is now lost in a world he does not know.

The movie was originally being done by Chris Sanders, who had worked on Lilo and Stitch. Sanders was later dismissed from Disney Studios because he refused to address the changes to a movie he was working on called American Dog. Those changes eventually turned American Dog into Bolt.

Directed by Chris Williams, who had worked on Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove, and Byron Howard, who had worked on numerous Disney movies from Pocahontas (1995) to Tangled (2010), Bolt is a grand movie that was nominated for an Academy Award but lost to the better movie WALL-E.

The thing about the movie that I felt did not work is the middle part. The whole “Bolt discovering he is just a normal dog” — I felt Toy Story did it better.

This will be one of those Disney movies many would not see, but I recommend it.