Cast: (Voices) John Travolta, Susie Essman, Miley Cyrus, Malcolm McDowell; Directors: Byron Howard, Chris Williams; Producer: Clark Spencer; Screenwriters: Dan Fogelman, Chris Williams; Music: John Powell; Editor: Joey Ingram; Animators: Joey Ingram, Josh Mahan;Genre: CGI Comedy; Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Philippines; Location: USA; Running Time: 100 min.;Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 3
CINEMA Rating: For viewers of all ages
The pooch Bolt (voice of John Travolta) and Penny (voice of Miley Cyrus) are co-stars in a weekly action television show that has them battling the evil scientist Dr. Calico (voice of Malcolm McDowell). In the TV show, Bolt is a super-dog, with stare that melts steel and a sonic-boom bark that can wipe out an entire fleet of armor helicopters, but he doesn’t know it’s just a show. The dog truly believes he has super-canine powers, as he is carefully isolated in his cage and prevented from living a normal life outside of the film set. To please an adult audience that has gotten tired of the show’s happy endings, the network boss Mindy (voice of Kari Wahlgren) orders the Director (voice of James Lipton) to change his endings or he’d get fired. The Director then ends one episode with the villain Dr. Calico kidnapping Penny—something that Bolt takes for real. Bolt then escapes to rescue Penny, to be joined in time by the Mafiosi cat Mittens (voice of Sussie Essman) and the TV-watching hamster Rhino (voice of Mark Walton). In his self-assigned mission of rescuing his co-star, Bolt is shocked to discover that he has no superpowers after all.
Directors Chris Williams and Byron Howard see to it that all the elements of an animated adventure are present in Bolt. The plot is simple but credible, the CGI enhances the story, the characters so alive with their human qualities well projected by the just-right artistic rendering, etc. The chase scene is particularly impressive and can be thrilling to both young and adult audiences. If the viewer pays attention to the dialogue, he will see familiar characters in real life
There are many lessons to be learned in Bolt as the viewer—whether or not he goes for talking animals— becomes a “co-journeyer” of the dog in his self-revealing experiences. The movie is a modern-day parable about growing up, shedding the innocence (or naivete) of childhood, learning to trust change, others, and oneself as one wakes up to reality and sees that the world is not all pink candy floss and honey. There is something both pathetic and endearing about the Bolt character: he is a victim of exploitation, raised and trained to believe he is much more than he really is. In a way he is deceived and is bewildered to discover he is an ordinary dog, thus is greatly hurt when he is replaced in the set by a look-alike because the show must go on. This story says much of the movie world where “stars” are created by their publicists and made to believe they are much more than they really are—because it is what fans want. The movie offers food for thought and contains no objectionable material.
