Bolt (2008)
Bolt is a CGI feature created by Walt Disney Animation, which is not to be confused with its sister (cousin?) animation outfit Pixar Animation Studios.
Bolt is the canine star of his own action adventure TV series, which from the clip they show at the beginning of the film has to be the MOST expensive TV program in history. The opening sequence looks like the highway chase from The Matrix Reloaded mixed with every other James Bond movie and big budget summer action film. It’s big, loud, fast and totally outrageous and impossible (and as it's played totally straight, more than a bit boring). Bolt however believes it’s all real, making him a sort of canine Truman Show subject. It also makes him a very sad pathetic character. At least at the beginning.
This movie really takes a freakin’ while to get going, something like at least 40 to 50 minutes. It picks up right around the time Bolt (voiced appealingly by John Travolta) gets together with Rhino (voiced by a very funny Mark Walton), the chubby hamster in a clear plastic ball and the sassy alley cat Mittens (well voiced by Susie Essman) and go on their road trip across America to get back to Bolt’s owner and TV co-star Penny (Disney mainstay Miley Cyrus). Bolt learns about the real world and how dogs really act, so instead of shooting laser beams out of his eyes he learns to fetch and drink out of a toilet.
Bolt was much more fun than I was expecting, with the exception of those first 45 minutes. You could just start the movie at the 45 minute mark and have a much better time. (Do that and let me know how it goes.)
Come for the dog, but stay for the hamster in the ball.
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