Rating: MMM

Review of Bolt first published in a February 2009 issue Spark*, the newspaper of Reading University Students’ Union.

Director: Byron Howard, Chris Williams
Starring: (voices) John Travolta, Miley Cyrus
Running Time: 96mins

If there is one undisputable fact about Bolt, it is the level of cuteness of its eponymous hero, the ‘super’ dog Bolt. But sadly, for all his sweet fuzziness (and when I say he’s cute, I mean CUTE), Bolt never really pulls the heartstrings the way that Wall.E did. And this is mainly because he is totally outshone by Rhino the hamster, the “master of stealth”, who by his own words, is “awesome!!!”. As stories go, the premise of the film isn’t half bad, in fact its quite original. Performing ‘actor’ dog is the star of a primetime television show in which he routinely saves his beloved ‘person’ Penny from the clutches of the evil ‘Green-Eyed Man’. Bolt however, does not realise that in reality he doesn’t have special powers like his famous ‘Super Bark’, and begins on a painful journey of self-discovery, learning how to be a ‘normal’ dog in the process.

In terms of characterisation, Bolt (voiced by John Travolta), and his feline friend Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman) are both characters who maintain a tension between being mildly sympathetic and fairly irritating in equal measure. Penny, Bolt’s on and off screen owner, (voiced by Miley Cyrus) only just manages to hold the audience’s sympathy, partly due to her genuine concern and love for her dog, conveyed in the photos of the pair of them that she collects (pictures highly reminiscent of the travelling gnome in Amelie).

Rhino, as previously mentioned, is the best character in the whole film, injecting into the last 45minutes some much needed laughs. And it is this, aside from the essential charm, that is what really lets the film down. All the pacy and defty handled action sequences and set pieces (and these are in abundance) just cannot make up for good dialogue. The repartee between dog and cat is laboured and clichéd, with their in-fighting and grumbling becoming grating after only 20 minutes.

The film does have its moments of charm, with the introduction of some peculiar Italian American pigeons, a fleeting glimpse of the hamster-obsessed little old lady who Rhino manages to escape from and the sweet series of montages that chart Bolt’s progress in learning about the things that normal dogs do. However, these vignettes and sequences do not make up for the overriding sense of banality which pervades the film. The jokes fall flat, the banter is poor, and if you don’t like the dog after the first act, it will certainly hamper your enjoyment of the film. Solid family half-term fare, just don’t expect anything amazing.

Rating: MM