'Bolt' no lightning strike of originality, fun
Walt Disney's "Bolt" leaps on to the silver screen as a serviceable but uninspired animated adventure that kids will appreciate far more than adults weened on the breathless ingenuity and clever, multilayered scripting of such recent works as "Ratatouille" and "Wall-E."
The plot involves a scrappy, white, superhero dog with a lightning bolt etched onto his side. His name is Bolt, and John Travolta, who has had his share of acting in dog projects, supplies his generically agreeable personality.
He belongs to Penny (voiced by Disney superstar Miley Cyrus), a seemingly normal young girl who every week gets menaced by evil villain Dr. Calico (Malcolm McDowell), requiring Bolt to use his powers - giant leaps, heat-vision, herculean strength, warp-speed and the atomic-bomb-inspired super bark - to save pretty Penny.
The gimmick? Poor Bolt doesn't realize he's living a "Truman Show" existence, thinking he's really a superdog when, in fact, he's working on a fantasy TV series where special effects give him his powers.
Living in a bubble and denying reality could have been a cleverly planted political metaphor during this election season, but "Bolt" has no such lofty subtext. It prefers to be a straightforward, unremarkable buddy/road movie (think "Incredible Journey" with overacting) that never achieves the entertainment zing of the Pixar pictures, although former Pixar boss John Lassiter serves as executive producer here.
When Bolt accidentally escapes from his Hollywood studio trailer, he winds up in New York and must make his way home with help from a skinny, street-wise cat named Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman) and Rhino (voiced by Mark Walton), a garrulous, chunky hamster in a transparent exercise ball.
"The real world hurts, doesn't it?" Mittens asks Bolt when he slowly realizes he possesses no powers. Bolt and Mittens spend a lot of road time barking and hissing at each other, leaving Walton and his appropriately over-the-top shouts of "awesome!" (in various usages) to shape the film's most engaging character.
Extra credit goes to the fidgety pigeons, captured in perfect, head-bobbing form.
Note: If you're seeing "Bolt," be sure you're getting the dynamic, digital 3-D version, even though the imagery looks starved of vibrant colors by the necessary use of polarized 3-D lenses.
"Bolt"
Rating: 2½ stars
Starring the voices of: John Travolta, Mylie Cyrus, Susie Essman, Malcolm McDowell and James Lipton.
Directed by: Byron Howard and Chris Williams
Other: A Walt Disney release. Rated PG. 96 minutes