Bolt: 3-D, Impressive Digital Animation of Animal Adventure

Well, I'm back from cruising and right back into the theater to see "Bolt".   "Bolt" is just the cutest, little, cuddly, puppy turned TV star.  Right from the outset when he's adopted from a pet store, he's cuter than any other pooch.  The other dogs run to and fro in a pack.  But Bolt battles a squeaky carrot toy, pouncing and rolling with glee.  He's got thick white fur -- synopses call him a 'White Shepherd'.  I wouldn't have known it by watching the story since he's just made to appear so cuddly.   My rating:  $6.00 (1.-10.).

Bolt stars in a TV action series with Penny, the child who owns him.  A lightening bolt on his back is the only color besides white fluff.  Miley Cyrus voices Penny and John Travolta gives Bolt his personality.  They are inseparable and very successful TV stars.  Then Bolt gets shipped across country accidently and has to learn to deal with the REAL world outside his sheltered Hollywood home.  Mittens is the scrawny street cat who gets lassoed into the long trip back to California with Bolt.  Their adventures make up the 1 hour and 25 minute story. 

There are lots of other voices of lesser-known supporting artists heard which include:  Susie Essman (Anita in 'Volcano'/Susie Greene in "Curb Your Enthusiasm") as Mittens; Mark Walton (Loosey Goosey in 'Chicken Little') as the hamster, Rhino; Malcolm McDowell  (the invisible Dr. Linderman in 'Heroes') as evil Dr. Calico; Greg German (Lawrence in 'Quarantine') as the slick, fast-talking agent; and veteran voice-over actress, Grey DeLisle as Penny's mother. 

Bolt's character is mostly the straight man, if you can imagine.  He thinks he has super-powers until staring at the lock on a truck doesn't make it melt.  Still, more looks than brains, Bolt has to be reminded multiple times that he's just a real dog.  They meet the chubby hamster, Rhino, in a trailer park where Bolt learns (with coaching from Mittens) how to cock an ear to beg convincingly.  Door after door folks 'Oooh' and 'Ahhh' over Bolt.  Mittens tries it once and gets a pan thrown at her -- only kinda of funny. 

The best part of 'Bolt' is the wonderful 3-D animation.  Colors are so vivid and the animation is crisp.  Not only are the glasses better quality of late, so is the finished animation product.  If anything, I would complain because we had 20 minutes of trailers before the movie started!!  Stuff like that uses up some of the brief attention span of the kids that the movie is aimed toward. 

The 'Bolt' screenplay was written by Dan Fogelman ('Cars'/'Fred Claus') in collaboration with Chris Williams who developed the story and co-directed (also storywriter for 'Mulan' and 'The Emperor's New Groove').  His directing partner was Byron Howard whose resume includes mostly animation credit on Disney movies such as 'Pocahontas','Mulan', and 'Lilo and Stitch'. 

It's rated 'PG' because seeing even a cartoon dog in peril might disturb some small kids.  My preview audience was almost at capacity.  Within the first 30 minutes, about 5 families I saw walked out.  Everyone else stayed and there was a smattering of applause at the end.  Personally, I didn't see anything modern kids of any age couldn't handle. 

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