Bolt

Under what label do you file a computer-animated movie executive produced by John Lasseter for an organization headed by Ed Catmull? That’s a Pixar movie. How about a film helmed by first-time directors who cut their teeth in many of the films of the final decade of traditional Walt Disney animation? That’s probably a Walt Disney Animation title.

How important is that label? If Bolt were being presented under the Pixar banner would it be generating more buzz right now? Is the fact that Disney has maintained Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios as separate entities (even if Lasseter and Catmull essentially run both) actually hurting movies released under the latter label just because audiences are too focused on the word “Pixar,” or is it a real indication that Bolt is from the B team?

At the moment, I’m going to have to lean towards the latter: Bolt does not come close to the narrative and character excellence of most Pixar movies. That is, however, an extremely high bar, and despite not achieving it, Bolt remains a fun romp, well combining action with comedy and maybe even cramming in some real emotion.

Anybody wanting to see Bolt simply because it includes the vocal contributions of Miley Cyrus should be warned that hers is a minor role bookending the movie with pop songs in the middle and over the closing credits.

Cyrus voices Penny, a young actress who apparently was allowed to pick her canine co-star for a kids action TV show. The only things is that Bolt, voiced by John Travolta, is living a Truman Show lifestyle. In order to get the most realistic doggy acting possible, the show’s director (James Lipton of Inside the Actor’s Studio) insists that Bolt can never be allowed to realize the show isn’t real and that his super powers are just special effects.

This has been working for some time but eventually sagging ratings requires that the evil Dr. Calico (Malcom McDowell) actually succeed in kidnapping (if only temporarily) Penny. Bolt, of course, does not realize that it is all faked—and in a frenzy, manages to escape his trailer and ends up mailing himself to New York City.

From there, Bolt needs to find his way back to Penny—and along the way, learn the truth about who he really is. All road movies need company and the first companion Bolt picks up is a street-smart alley cat named Mittens and voiced by comedienne Susie Essman. Since it is a plot in the Bolt TV show that cats work for Dr. Calico, of course Bolt assumes Mittens will know where she is.

They pick up their final member in a Midwest trailer park. Rhino (Mark Watson) is a hamster who loves TV, and like Bolt doesn’t realize it is fake. When he sees an opportunity to help his favorite action hero, he doesn’t hesitate and has no doubts in his abilities as evidenced, at one point, by his offer to “snap the neck” of an animal control officer. That sounds brutal, but I assure you it was funny.

That line also hints at one of the surprises of the movie: it contains perhaps the best animated action sequences since The Incredibles. Obviously the TV-show-within-the-movie provides a showcase, and the movie starts with a 10-minute chase scene from one episode. It is full of excitement, aided by both kinetic animation with physics that seem pretty spot on as well as by the Disney 3-D presentation. Disney 3-D is a pretty standard part of their animated releases now, but this is reportedly that first movie that planned for it from the very beginning. I feared this would mean a lot of jump moments with sharp things flying out of the screen towards your eyeballs, but I don’t recall a single one. The 3-D was simply used to provide depth to the scenes, a real aid to action cinematography. If you don’t mind having to wear the glasses, I do recommend you seek out a 3-D theater (it will also be presented in 2-D on many screens).

There are several additional action sequences that keep things moving pretty well. Unfortunately, things do have to stop in the middle for a couple of genre necessities. First, all buddy road movies require a traveling montage. Second, all Disney animated movies (especially if they involve a blockbuster pop sensation for pre-teens) need a musical interlude to provide a video for the Disney Channel—which means a lengthy pause while Miley Cyrus and John Travolta sing a duet while Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino make their way from Chicago to Las Vegas. I can very literally assure you that this sequence can be removed from the movie and do it no harm at all (during my screening, a technical malfunction caused those trivia slides played between movie showings to be projected onto the screen during the montage, to distracting effect). I leave it to people more aware of the musical arts to decide if the song itself has any merit for download to your iPod.

Last year I suggested that Meet the Robinsons was a promising failure. It didn’t quite work but it showed Walt Disney Animation was on the right track. Bolt continues that advancement. Once again there is plenty of humor, but it isn’t the ultra-ironic supremely meta humor found in Dreamworks animated movies (such as Shrek or the recent Madagascar 2

Perhaps they do have their footing back and we can all really look forward to Disney’s return to traditionally animated fairy tales with The Princess and the Frog next year.