Plummeted to the ground to a slow recovery

Rating: 3/10 (20 February 2009)

Now why do you take the 3 poster characters and add two only mid in the film? Because it had a really slow start.
The first 10 minutes we get one of the worst action spy flicks in history. Choppers (both) on standby, bionic superdog, a small kid with an attitude of all MI6, cheesiest villain in the world and much like that just happens. Then we get a crummy explanation that it's all a movie (which we knew from the start from ads and trailer so cut it down to 5 min) with "plausible deniability" candid camera for the dog alone. The audience (kids) can tell that Lassie is faking it? Better yet, explain how they change the scenery the size of a city, or how the dog can leap propeller blades. The entire "a bad movie inside a movie" doesn't work.
We get a sanity break with realist "to the point" Mindy, and the cats, and the look alike henchmen with the set crew, before Bolt gets extracted into the real world and we get the plot of the film (at about 25 min). After that it's the same old "Travel coast to coast to find true love" with a "fight to be loved" in the end. The montage music was too distracting to enjoy the montage itself.
Mittens improves the movie with animal street experience and intelligence. Rhino, the fan geek parody hamster, was a plus  we don't see these characters in big parts, so this was slightly original. But his "I'm also 1/16 wolf and part wolverine somewhere" made me "If I had kids, they would ask how is that physically possible". My favorite were the henchmen small speaking parts, they actually seamed more alive and with a life than the girl. And what's with the agent? How many pins did he put up over the series? How Bolt learned to talk and read before he learned what hunger was? Who paints the bolt on Bolt, because the bolt smears? The first bunch of pigeons are blind by pigeon standards and dumb to fly away from the cat. The second are even worse and annoying. I agree with the hamster on "no aliens" part.
Some compare this to The Truman Show. It's more like canceling the Truman project in the mid of film and giving Truman the boot. Plus Truman wanted to leave and we are left to wonder when he does. Bolt is just to predictable and the jokes about him and his actions are worn out.
So I gave a 3/10 because of Mindy, Mittens, Rhino and the henchmen. Would have been more if they didn't plummet for 10 minutes at the start. Hope the creators are smart enough to quit while they are ahead and not ever make a sequel.