Couldn't Get Into The Characters Or Voice Of The Dog

Rating: 4/10 (15 April 2009)

I find most animated films of late to be very entertaining. The best are the ones with a lot of humor. There are exceptions to that ("The Polar Express," for example) but humor seems to go hand-in-hand with animated feature films.
I say all of the above because this Disney animated film, "Bolt," wasn't too funny. Thus, at least for me, I didn't think this was involving and entertaining enough for me to care about the story much after the first half hour. I didn't find the characters appealing nor the story and I thought the graphics were overrated.
I disagree with most of the national film critics who thought this was great. "Penny," voiced by Miley Cyrus, was a bit aggravating and John Travolta doing the dog's voice was just too weird. Maybe I'm just not used to hearing Travolta's voice on animated films, but it just did not sound right here. It would up being a distraction from the story, and I see other reviewers here agree with me on that one.
They lost me early on when the dog was shipped a long way in a box with no room to breathe, no air holes, and yet.....no problem. Hey, I know it's just fiction and a fun, animated movie but let's have some sense of realism on things like that.
I'm normally easy to please with animated stuff, so it's unusual for me to be disappointed as I was with this one.