Disney, Welcome Back: We Missed You

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2011)

What do you get when you take a directionally-confused company, give it to John Lasseter for the breath of life, go 3D and merge The Truman Show, The Incredibles and Dr. Doolittle into a nice package? You get Bolt, a surprisingly-entertaining movie that may have very well removed Disney Animation Studios from life-support and brought them back to centre stage.
John Travolta voices Bolt, a dog who acts as a superhero and constantly rescues his owner, Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus, go figure,) in an over-the-top action show that both makes fun of and puts to shame Michael Bay. The only problem? He thinks it's all real. So when Penny is "kidnapped" one day by the green-eyed man, Bolt-thinking she's in trouble-dashes out of his trailer and decides to search the country for her. Along the way, he meets up with a black cat named Mittens (Susie Essman,) whom he believes is in league with Penny's kidnapper, and an obsessed fan/hamster, named Rhino (Mark Walton,) in a comedy that teaches people about the dangers of blurring fiction with reality.
In terms of the movie itself, this is Disney at its finest: you have the comedic relief (i.e. Rhino,) the intricate subplots-Penny's relationship with Bolt, the corporate hold on both Penny and Bolt-the running gags-the pigeons standing next to billboards with his face on them and still not knowing who Bolt is, Bolt attempting to use his superpowers and failing-and the crisp-clear animation, which converts surprisingly well to 3D. Adding to the excellence of this movie is Lasseter's supervision, especially since you can't go wrong with a guy that made talking toys, talking insects and monsters in your closet work so well in practice. Despite Bolt not being up to par with the typical Pixar film, it's nice to know that the legend himself has added a few "Pixaresque" moments to an otherwise standard Disney venture.
Overall, this is a very fun and enjoyable film. Despite the disappointment of this movie not being as funny as I would've liked it to have been, it certainly had enough humour that I found myself laughing in places I never thought I would've when I sat down to watch it. Additionally, the voice-acting was top notch (no surprise there,) and it's a relief to know that Miss Hannah Montana is actually in a role for a change that WON'T make you cringe in irritation. I also liked how well the movie transitioned from its "action sequences" to its real-life sequences, as it showed just how much care Disney put into making the audience truly believe that there was a show within a show. If that's not proof that animated movies can have just as much heart as live-action films, I don't know what is.
Bottom line, this is a must-see for Disney fans, animation fans and just movie fans in general. Disney gets a lot of sh*t for making cheap and emotionally-draining movies these days, but Bolt has actually paved the way for a revival of Disney Animation Studios and shown that not all hope is lost, especially given the two movies that the studio released following this one. Bolt has action galore, suspense, humour and-most-importantly-heart. It's not the best thing to ever come from the company, but I'll be damned if it isn't the start of Disney's slow redemption.
Final Score: 8/10.