'Bolt' Review

Bolt is the first movie from Walt Disney Animation Studios that has been under the "Lasseter/Catmull Regime" from beginning to end, and you can tell. Bolt has loads of laughs, tears, action, and, best of all, heart.


The movie starts out in the heat of the action, then you suddenly realize that all of this action is completely falsified for a TV program. After that, you are thrust into the story of a dog named Bolt. He is the star of a hit TV show, and believes all of his powers to be real. He escapes from his trailer one day after filming, and our adventure begins.


The whole adventure follows Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) as he finds his way back home to his human Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus). Along the way he meets some hilarious pigeons and he befriends a sarcastic cat named Mittens and a hyper hamster named Rhino.


During their adventure, Mittens convinces Bolt that he is not a superdog. This starts one of my favorite parts of the movie, a cat has to teach a dog how to be a dog. Mittens shows Bolt how to play fetch, stick his head out of the car window and do all kinds of other dog things. It is very ironic and entertaining.


One of my favorite characters is Rhino the Hamster. He is a big fan of Bolt, so he tries to help him take out the bad guys. It is really funny how the tiny rodent in a plastic ball acts so tough and confident for the entire movie. Rhino is my favorite character.

During the movie, I could really see that John Lasseter worked on it. For one, there was way more heart and story than Chicken Little or Meet the Robinsons. Also, there were two certain instances that were especially Toy Story-esque. When Mittens is convincing Bolt that he is not a superdog, it is almost identical to the scene in Toy Story where Woody tries to convince Buzz that he is a toy, not a space ranger. Also, when Mittens talks about how she was left behind and forgotten by her family, it is very similar to the part in Toy Story 2 when Jessie tells her sad story of being left behind to Woody. Here is Jessie's Story from Toy Story 2, and it is almost identical to Mittens' story in Bolt:




Bolt was a truly great movie. As Walt Disney put it, "for every laugh there should be a tear"--and there was. It was full of hilarious moments caused by coincidence, circumstance, and characters (mainly Rhino). A lot of the jokes were so funny because they were based on "pet things" that we encounter every day. It was much, much better than Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons, which were also Disney Animation Studio films. The only difference is that this was the first film under the new "regime", so hopefully this is a sign of things to come, and I know it will be, since Lasseter focuses mainly on the thing that matters: story. During Bolt you really cared and about each one of the characters, the movie had a lot of heart. I am also glad to see the classic Steamboat Willie Logo for Walt Disney Animation Studios before the movie (although the short before it was oddly missing). Anyways, I'd give Bolt a 9 out of 10.