FULLY AWESOME. RIDONCULOUS. LET IT BEGIN.
A dog called Bolt has been raised (by filmmakers) to believe that he and Penny, the girl who owns him, are in constant conflict with a heinous villain and that he has superpowers. This computer-animated 3D flick from Disney may look nothing special on paper, but it has plenty of treats for kids and grownups alike. Much like Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear, Bolt is forced to confront reality in a series of adventures that pairs him with a world-weary cat and a hyper hamster who’s stuck inside a see-through plastic ball. Bolt is a likable character and his hugely entertaining journey is well-paced, fun and has great voice work.
2008-U.S. Animated. 96 min. Color. Produced by Clark Spencer. Directed by Chris Williams, Byron Howard. Screenplay: Dan Fogelman, Chris Williams. Song: “I Thought I Lost You” (Miley Cyrus, Jeffrey Steele). Voices of John Travolta (Bolt), Miley Cyrus (Penny), Susie Essman (Mittens), Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell, Diedrich Bader… James Lipton.
Trivia: Co-executive produced by John Lasseter.
Last word: “One of the great things about ‘Bolt’ was that it was really [John] Lasseter’s first film with us, and because it was his first film at Disney, we kind of got exclusive rights to him for about a year and a half. He spent a lot of time on that film with us, so for Chris Williams and I, it was a great mentorship programme and we learned a lot from John, as did Nathan [Greno], who was our brilliant head of story on that film. We got to spend a lot of time around John, learning his likes and dislikes, and he would communicate what he had learned from others, you know, he would talk about Lee Unkrich, who had taught him screen direction tricks and editing tricks, because he was an editor.” (Howard, Phil on Film)
