A Doggy "Don Quixote"

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2008)

It's been a long time since I've wanted to see a Disney movie that didn't have Pixar or Hayao Miyazaki attached to it. For whatever reason, the past several films Disney has made by themselves have failed to live up to the standard of classics like SNOW WHITE, PINNOCHIO, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and THE LION KING, to name a few. Only time will tell if BOLT will be lucky of enough to held anywhere near the regard those movies are, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
I'll go ahead and admit it's nothing that hasn't been done before (just once can't we have talking animal movie that doesn't involved a journey of some kind where the characters learn things about themselves and some life lessons?), but it has so much humor and heart that makes up for it's clichés.
The movie sure starts out good enough, with little Penny getting Bolt, a frisky and active puppy, from a pet store in a scene I thought was kinda sweet. Then we flash forward 5 years later to the action parts. As you probably know by now, Bolt is the star of his own action/science fiction TV show, where he uses super powers to regularly save Penny from the henchmen of the evil Dr. Calico. The tone setting scene for the show is like an entertaining cross between Lassie, James Bond and a little of the Matrix Trio (only better). Only Bolt doesn't know it's fake, as the studio does what they can to make him think he really is a super dog in order for him to give a better performance. The situation is made a little worse because Calico's cat (who's in on the sham) taunts him nightly for fun. There's also the fact that he and Penny really care for each other, having a relationship I found fairly touching and doubt most Timmies and Lassies ever had.
One day, the show ends shooting with a cliffhanger and Bolt escapes his trailer to rescue Penny only to end up in a box that's shipped from Hollywood to New York. With the "advice" of some pigeons, he takes a stray cat named Mittens hostage and forces her to help him get back to Hollywood & Penny and along the way they get help from a hamster named Rhino, who's a fan of the show.
The movie is helped by a colorful cast of characters. Bolt is the canine version of Buzz Lightyear or Don Quixote, completely deluded into thinking his powers are real. Seeing him talk old fashioned heroic dialogue at the beginning of the movie bought a smile to my face, and then when he starts doubting his powers and finds out they aren't real, it brings some depth & pathos to his character. Mittens makes the perfect straight man to him early on, street wise and sarcastic, then helps him learn to act like a real dog. And then we learn something about her past that makes us feel some sympathy for her. Rhino is as delusional, if not more so, than his hero, and could be the kind of pudgy, excitable fan boy one encounters in real life at various convention. And Penny is a likable girl who truly cares for Bolt and is even forced to make some hard decisions about her feelings for him. And there's a good supporting cast, from the pigeons to Dr. Calico to his cats to Penny's Agent, who keep things lively. And it's made even better by the great voice acting of the cast.
I'd like to talk about the great animation, but enough people have done that and all I'll say is that the animals, especially the pigeons, move like their real life counterparts.
There are some pretty funny jokes here. Almost everything with Rhino and the pigeons will get some laughs. The pigeons are made funnier because different groups of three are encountered who have the same character design, but have different color schemes and accents. And for a while Bolt thinks his powers were taken away by the Styrofoam packing peanuts in the box he was shipped in and we get a clever running gag about Styrofoam being his kryptonite.
My biggest gripe was said before, as we've seen the story before. And there are times in the middle it drags just a bit. And near the end, things got a little hokey for me.
However, this is still the best non-Pixar movie Disney has made in years as far as I'm concerned. If they can keep it up, they can get back on the right track to being the kings of animations again.