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Bolt - Movie Review - Disney scores one without Pixar

Category: , , By Manu
When it comes to 3D nothing beats Pixar, or so I thought. When I saw the promo of Bolt I was not that impressed, and hence deferred watching the movie till now. But since it was Disney's first try at 3D animation without the help of Pixar I was interested to see what they come up with, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed. Bolt won me over right from the opening scene.

Plot: Bolt, an American White Shepherd, has lived his whole life on the set of his action TV show, where he believes he has superpowers and he has to protect his co-star Penny from the villains. When separated from the studio, thus Penny, by accident, he meets a female alley cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino. The threesome starts a cross-country journey to find Penny. Along the way, Bolt learns that he doesn't have superpowers but realises one doesn't need superpowers to be a hero.

Before we start a little history(I promise its not boring :D) (Courtesy:411mania)

Everyone knows that for the longest time, Disney “presented” such Pixar classics as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. That all changed at the onset of 2006 when Disney announced that it was buying the 3D animation powerhouse, doing so in May of the same year to the tune of 7.4 billion dollars. This entire hullabaloo was a result of behind-the-scenes disagreements between upper management at both companies over distribution plans, most famously for the film Toy Story 2 which was originally slated for direct-to-DVD release by Disney, which therefore according to the megalomaniacal mouse did not count towards a three-picture deal between themselves and Pixar even when the decision to go ahead with a full theatrical release was made. After further cat-fighting and bloody noses over issues like these and other creative control concerns, Mickey and company decided to throw a bunch of money at Pixar stockholders and go on with the newly-acquired studio under their umbrella, marching on in the hyphenated form of “Disney-Pixar.” Many Pixar purists probably still decry this merger and even casual fans may smell something a little stank in the air when considering the business venture but the new “Disney-Pixar” did manage to create one of the best 3D computer-animated films ever, which arrived last year with the introduction of a lonely little robot named Wall-E, so it can’t be all bad. Disney, however, does not seem to be content to simply sit back and let their 2006 acquisition pump out the hits for them.

Review: First of all, I saw this movie with mediocre expectations and ended up totally in love with it. We've seen attempts at a "dog movie" for a couple of years now(Air Buddies) and finally one got it absolutely right. Bolt is undoubtedly the Dog movie for this generation( ok .. ok .. This decade). Its been quite sometime since I have seen an absolute feel good animation movie since adorable Wall-E. I have to say Madagascar:Escape to Africa was kind of a letdown.

The movie starts out with the cutest animated puppies I've ever seen playing with a carrot puppet, chasing his tail and doing all kinds of normal doggie stuff. (Can it get any cuter than this?) A small girl, called Penny(Miley Cyrus) comes in and chooses him and says he is her good doggie and plays with him. Now we cut into an intense action scene, which lasted a bit too long in my opinion, but thoroughly enjoyable. It made me wonder about the possibility of such a film, which was instantly snubbed by my brain. But if a such a movie comes out I'll be sure to watch it.

The animation is really good and the level of realism just blew me away(I'm scared to use the word flawless lest some animation expert jump on me). The heartwarming story has a simple enough plot for the kids to understand, but doesn't seem too simple enough to insult the so-called developed adult brain. The movie taps into that part of our mind that wishes the dog sleeping at our foot were as loyal, brave, noble and unrelenting as we think him to be.

My Verdict: I'm not much of a dog person, but still I loved the film. The film got an engagingly dynamic cast and some incredible voice acting. The alley-cat Mittens and the hamster Rhino absolutely rocked the party. There were many points where I actually laughed out loud. I dare say the perfect family entertainment for the holiday season. The movie will be taken to heart by kids as well as adults and that is an achievement in itself. The wit of their lines was sharp and laugh inducing. Go see this movie. Even if you don’t have a kid to make it look like you have to.



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