Good entertainment value

Rating: 8/10 (7 December 2008)

With many good animation flicks in 2008, Bolt has rightfully cemented its place among Disney/Pixar's masterpiece CGI/animation collection over the years which began with Toy Story over a decade ago. While it will not be a classic like Finding Nemo nor as good as one of my favorites, The Incredibles, it is a very enjoyable animation movie.
Bolt has the right touches of heartwarming moments, action sequences, and funny scenes (some of Bolt's thunder were stolen by a hamster inside a ball named Rhino so watch out for them), and the concept was quite different in that the protagonist thinks he is an actual super dog. That was new.
My wife and I saw this, and we have to say that we left the movie theater feeling good and entertained. It will have to be tied with Wall-E for 2nd best animated movie that I've seen in 2008, behind Kung Fu Panda and ahead of Madagascar 2. I went into this not having as high expectations like when I went in to see Madagascar-Escape to Africa... my expectation coming in was just OK; it was comparable to when I went to see Kung Fu Panda (which was far exceeded by Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and the rest of the Dreamworks' team). So it was a pleasant surprise that there was something different to the plot, and that the funny moments were well placed.
The movie may be less star studded compared to KFP or Madagascar 2; sometimes in the other movies, you can imagine the famous actor while he's delivering the funny line (say, Jack Black as Po or Chris Rock as the Zebra) so it's a little different with Bolt because neither John Travolta nor Miley Cyrus is as well known for their over-the-top comedic voicing, but I think that the casting was quite solid.
The guy voicing Rhino was pretty good, especially considering the producers could have gone with one of those well known "big" comedy guys like James Belushi or Kevin James. But here was a guy voicing a really funny character pretty well, so kudos to the movie's producers for going against the grain and not following the usual Hollywood thing and hire someone well known.
Overall, the movie was well-paced, the story was simple but clear, and there was a good balance of entertainment value.
Something worth watching, guys! Enjoy!