Bolt

John Travolta has had an up and down, turbulent career. You can blame it on weight gain, Scientology, poor role acceptances, whatever. But perhaps now, Travolta has collected another wind to go on or even this third coming – his second coming being Pulp Fiction. That new wind would be the fierce animated comedy, Bolt, in which Travolta voices over the title character.

Bolt unravels as a formulaic tale about a dog named Bolt (John Travolta), who was adopted by a Hollywood studio to be the star of a smash hit TV show. The crew exhausts all efforts going to great lengths to make sure that Bolt thinks that the world he’s saving is real and that he actually has superpowers. His method acting might give Daniel Day Lewis a run for his money. Bolt’s person – as he calls it – is Penny (Miley Cyrus), who is caretaker both on the show and off. However, when Bolt stumbles into the real world and is accidentally shipped to New York, he must travel cross country with newly acquired animal pals back to Penny as the real world shows him that he’s been living in a dream world.

What grinded my gears about a movie like WALL-E, was that it was so cute to the point that it was disgusting as you watched a lonely robot in a desolate world strive for companionship. In Bolt, it’s cute and adorable, but not to that extent as it shows us Bolt as a puppy being affectionate with a young Penny, thus establishing the love he already has. So when he loses it and tries to get back to it cross country, we feel for him, but are not depressed.

I think Bolt is a film that follows the traditional formulaic routines, but not to the “t,” as it really fleshes out the characters and harnesses the elements of all movie genres to make for one entertaining blockbuster of a time and a stellar blend of story telling. When we watch Bolt and Penny dodge explosions and enemy attacks, the explosions and action sequences are unbelievable and contain stunning visuals that make it parallel some of the great action flicks.

The side characters of stereotypical Hollywood and even the animal critters Bolt runs into produce a hilarious onslaught that splits your sides. Bolt captures the drama and sentiment of true Hollywood tearjerkers. It shows the love between Bolt and Penny, without getting too mushy. The animated world has the oddball looking characters with accentuated features ranging from skinny and gangly to rotund blobs.

Bolt is a truly remarkably well made film that stirs emotions in your belly tapping empathy on the shoulder. The animated characters with tick-like twitches, coined sayings and radiant swaying make for a funny cast. At the core of Bolt, it’s the beautiful story of joint affection between a pet and its owner and a journey to bring them together, reaffirming that kindled love.

Written by: John Berkowitz

Reviewers Rating: 8.5
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0

Rate It