I had the pleasure of seeing Disney's latest animated feature, Bolt in 3-D, completely free. With the economy today and being a college student, free stuff is good. Also, if it was bad, I wouldn't feel like I wasted my money. (This happens more often that I wish).
Bolt is the latest Disney animated feature about a Hollywood star named Bolt (John Travolta). He believes that the television show in which he plays a superdog with super speed, super strength, and super bark, is real. Penny (Miley Cyrus), his costar, wishes to treat him like a regular dog but the director and her agent refuse. To try to boost ratings, Penny is “kidnapped”, but Bolt takes it too far and escapes to try to rescue his person. Through an unseen event, he ends up in New York City where he meets up with a cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino and all three of them travel across the land to return back to Hollywood and to Bolt's owner.
The good news is I didn't walk out of the theater. The bad news is I had to suspend so much disbelief. In some Disney movies, you have to shut off your brain. This is one of them. And it was hard. It could be because I'm so much older than the aimed audience, but it bothered me how much I had to ignore. Not the dog crossing the land to return back to his owner, but the fact that the director and agent both tried to suppress Bolt into this fantasy to make his acting skills better. It was difficult for me. And of course, the whole fact that a dog, a cat, and a hamster got along but that is a bit easier to believe.
Another problem with this movie was the pacing. We can guess that at some important moment, Bolt realizes that he has no super powers, he feels depress and helpless, something happens that forces him to be a hero, despite not having powers, then ends happily. This is the expected. At least, this is what I expected. What I got was not this. Bolt goes from having super powers to realizing that he doesn't. There is no transition. He instantly accepts it. If I thought I had super powers all my life then suddenly not have them anymore, I would be a little more upset than just “oh, I have no powers, I still have to go save my friend though”. It emotionally didn't make sense. Although there was the big, “just because you have no powers doesn't mean you're helpless” speech, it went unheard by Bolt who had his own mental epiphany without telling anyone.
The 3-D aspect was interesting though. I say interesting because throughout the whole movie, I kept waiting for the overuse of the effect with things flying at me constantly but in all honestly, it wasn't abused. I barely remembered the 3-D aspect. It anything, it just enhanced the experience. All movies will probably use 3-D in the future and I hope they follow Bolt's example of not overusing it.
It was on the predicable side. I feel like this is an overdone idea. Someone plays a hero on television, believes that it is true, is forced into situations where it isn't true, has a big epiphany, and uses his own abilities to be a hero. This was Bolt completely with a little side story about Penny. But what was interesting was the fact that the moral of the story (which sometimes Disney bangs you over the head with) was hidden. Bolt was the hero at the end, but they weren't like “oh yay! You used your inner strength.” It was very subtle. And that made me walk out of the theater smiling.
This was funny too. I did laugh. It was humorous. It wasn't top notice humor. There were times when I laughed because I was suppose to laugh and not because I thought it was funny. This is one of those films that would be best to wait to rent. It's not terrible. It's not Cinderella II (different blog). But it's not a classic. I would rent it, test it out first or go to a dollar theater and see it. I was glad that I didn't have to spend ten dollars watching that film, no matter how cool those 3-D glasses were.
