It's A Bolt of Charm

Bolt, a computer animated Disney movie that did not come out of the PIXAR offices falls short of what PIXAR usually offers, but the movie proves to be one of the best animated Disney films in years.
The film is centered on a super-dog named Bolt (John Travolta). Everyday in Bolt’s life is filled with danger, adventure and excitement, but that is until the cameras stop rolling.
When the day of shooting the TV show “Bolt” is done they send Bolt the dog back into his trailer and cut him off from any contact from the outside world.
Due to his constant isolation, Bolt really thinks he’s a super-dog and when one of the episodes ends in a cliffhanger, Bolt escapes from his trailer and sets out to find his “person” Penny (Miley Cyrus).
He is soon accidentally shipped from his home in Hollywood to New York City, and there is where he begins his adventure, traveling cross-country, through the real world, to get back to his owner Penny.
He is equipped with only delusions that he has amazing super powers and also two companions – an abandoned house cat named Mittens (Susie Essman) and Bolt’s biggest fan, Rhino the hamster (Mark Walton).
Bolt is a great kid’s movie, but will not keep most adults entertained. A lot of the movie is humor that kids will react to and the only humor in the movie that really made me laugh is the hamster (That makes his first on screen appearance in the film after it’s an hour old).
I’m not going to go on to say that I hated Bolt, it was a cute movie, but we’ve seen it all before. The story feels very familiar, that’s because most of the story lines are taken right from other animated movies. If you don’t believe me, I will point out a few.
1. The character Mittens’ story about being abandon made me reminisce about Jessie, the Yodeling Cowgirl, from Toy Story 2. Their abandoning stories seem kind of familiar.
2. Bolt believing he’s actually a super-dog, but in the end finds out that he has no super power but can do amazing things anyway. This felt like the story for Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. Buzz thought he was a Space Ranger, but in the end finds out he’s a toy, but that doesn’t mean he can’t due amazing things.
3. The scene where they are in the pound and Rhino rolls his ball into the kennels. All the dogs perk up their heads and start saying “Ball”, just like the seagulls in Finding Nemo but they said “Mine”.
With those points made you can start to see what I mean. The movie is not really as creative as it could have been and in some places the story just seemed to be lacking.
What really saved this movie are its characters, the three mains are great. I was a little mad about the hamster, being the character they advertised the most out of, just being in the movie when it was already an hour over.
Summing everything up, I will say that Rhino the hamster should have been brought in earlier, the opening was about 20 minutes and that could have been cut down to about 10 and the story could have used a little more polishing. Yet, in the end this is a great kids movie, which we see less and less of, and kids will love it.

B-