The best animation of the year

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2008)

"Wall-E" was superb, I love and admire it/him, but "Bolt" does beat it! While the above mentioned (excellent!) movie did have some slow, insipid and predictable moments, in the spaceship setting - well, "Bolt" is coherent, self-consequent and true to itself from beginning to end!
The script is based on a treasure of meanings: the world seen by the eye of a dog; the difference between fantasy and reality; the role of the audience in an entertainment project; and, first and foremost, the main idea: A DOG'S SUPER-POWER LAYS IN HIS FAITHFULNESS! Anyone who ever owned a dog knows how true (and sacred) a fact is this!
Further, the same script is really intelligent - well structured and built up, with a solid dramaturgy and a captivating narration, right from the beginning. The starting premise, as expressed professionally, is:

WHAT IF a dog, loyal with his life to his master, plays next to her the part of a super-dog in an action TV series?

BUT WHAT IF, for him to act well, the trick is to make him believe that everything is true, and his super-powers are real?

...AND WHAT IF he gets lost by accident, and has to face the REAL WORLD (and his REAL SELF) to get back to his master?

...And this is how starts this truly initiatic trip, from New York City back to Hollywood, for the engaging Bolt, his acolyte Mittens (the stray cat who begins by being his sarcastic hostage, only to become his main supporter), and Rhino the hamster, his devoted fan. While the script continues in the same compact and fast-paced spirit, the direction adds up to it by being more than just adequate: it's expressive, enriching, imaginative, creative, bright. And what an admirable humor, what an elegant satire, what a perceiving look all over the American society, from the East Coast to California...!
Of course, one should add that the graphics are superb, and the 3-D DOES WORK, friends and neighbors - it ceases at last to be just a cheap trick, and invests the story with style and perspective (not only at an optical level!)
One last word, and the most important: yes, I'm an old bastard, harshly dragged along thousands of movies - but, when Bolt chose to die next to Penny, I wept.