Electrically entertaining from Trabolta

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2009)

In Bolt, a TV-show canine (John Travolta), who doesn’t know he’s on a TV show and therefore has no super powers, races across the country to find his TV girl-owner (Miley Cyrus), convinced she’s in the clutches of the evil Dr. Calico, the bad guy on the show. Aided by a cynical alley cat and a hamster in a transportation ball, Bolt must fight the forces of gravity and the other laws of physics to be reunited with his Penny in this sweet, charming Disney animated film.
It’s encouraging to see a good Disney-only animated film for a change. Bolt does what an animated movie should do – it has a quick pace, it’s humanistic, it’s funny, and it’s adventurous. Oh, and there’s character growth. It’s no surprise that the intended audience – little kids, not me – found this entertaining, on average.
Bolt, an American White Shephard, escapes from his trailer on the set of his hit television series and finds himself shipped to the East Coast. Thinking that his Penny is in imminent danger from the man with the green eye (played with the usual maniacal glee of Malcom McDowell), Bolt tries to use his super powers – super speed, the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes, a Super Bark – to rescue her. Of course, since he’s just a normal dog, these super powers don’t work, but they do lead to some hilarious physical comedy.
One departure this movie offers is the casting of unknowns in key roles. Mittens the Cat is played by Susie Essman, and the scene-stealing Rhino the Hamster is voiced by Mark Walton. Who and who? And yet both actors are perfect for the roles. Sometimes it pays to cast someone based purely on their fit for a character, rather than hiring a “name” actor and letting their celebrity overtake the character completely. Which is how Disney did it for years and years; when the studio enjoyed its resurgence in 1989 with The Litter Mermaid, it cast Buddy Hackett amid character actors, and the landscape of animation changed. Next thing you know, you had Robin Williams in Aladdin and James Earle Jones in The Lion King. Not that these were bad casting choices, but they represented a change from olden times, for the most part.
Travolta is excellent as the intrepid, resilient, and initially deluded Bolt, a canine who learns that his super powers come from within him. Why, he had the power to save Penny all along! All he had to do was click his heart together, and.. Oh, never mind. The point is, Bolt learns that help can come from unlikely sources (a cat!), and comic relief is always welcome (a hamster!) And Cyrus – who has limited screen time, compared with Travolta – is spot on as the innocent Penny, who pines for her lost pup. In fact, if it weren’t for an extended musical montage (sung by Jenny Lewis), this would have been a great movie instead of merely a very good one, but you can’t please everyone.