Good but not great

Rating: 7/10 (11 February 2009)

This CGI animated movie from Disney/Pixar (under John Lasseter's aegis within the new arrangements, but not actually initiated by Pixar) illustrates how far CGI has come. Character design, backgrounds, and animation are all of a standard which would have been drooled over a few short years ago - now they are simply taken for granted.
The story concerns the efforts of Bolt (a dog who stars on TV as a superhero, and believes that his TV show is real) to travel across the USA in order to be reunited with Penny, his human. His companions are Mittens, a cat with a jaundiced attitude, and Rhino, a hamster (complete with transparent ball) who has had a great deal of exposure to TV.
The movie is good, though it should be noted that there may not be quite as much for adults as there often is in these movies.
Of more interest is the 3D. Technically, it is perfect - there is no ghosting across of right eye image to left eye or vice versa - each image is absolutely discretely delivered to its own eye. I'm pleased to report that the film is not filled with things being jabbed into the camera constantly - sure, it happens once or twice, but not enough to distract - instead, the 3D is for the most part simply quite natural. In fact, the thing which impressed me most was Rhino's globe - the distortion of the background through the plastic makes the globe the most believable thing in screen in the entire film.
And I suppose, in five years' time, we'll be taking the quality of the 3D for granted, too.