Monday, December 29, 2008

Movie review: Bolt

I'd only seen one commercial for this movie but a whole bunch of posters. None of it was really selling me on the movie. But Yummy saw "Bolt" with a friend and recommended it. So when we met up with some friends over my Dougmas vacation and we wanted to see something we went to see "Bolt - 3D". I didn't know it was 3D when we bought the tickets so that was an extra bonus.

"Bolt" is the story of a dog with a TV show only he doesn't know he has a show. All the cameras and equipment are hidden. So each week when the little girl who owns him gets in trouble he thinks she's really in trouble. When he uses his super powers the special effects are already placed so he thinks he really has powers. But in an effort to up the ratings Bolt fails to save the girl by the end of the episode. He thinks she's still in trouble. So he escapes from his trailer and goes off to save her.

He heads out without his powers where he must cross the country (why he's in a trailer in New York while the filming is in California is never properly explained) with a feral cat and a fan boy hamster.

It's a pretty good movie. Yummy sat next to me all hunkered down and giggling madly through most of it. She loved how the pigeons move like real pigeons and the completely daft fan boy hamster.


There is something about the movie that bothers me. You probably know that a couple of years ago Disney paid Pixar to take control of their animation division. The trailers for "Up!" show the Pixar name which indicates to me that Pixar will remain it's own name within the Disney company. "Bolt" has a Pixar short before the main movie. But "Bolt" is NOT a Pixar movie. John Lasseter is the head of Pixar and was the Executive Producer for "Bolt" which explains why "Bolt" is a good movie even though Disney made it. John Ratzenberger didn't do any voices even though he's been something in every Pixar movie so far. But the posters for "Bolt" don't advertise the names of the actors doing the voices which is another Pixar trait.

None of this really matters, of course. I should be happy just because the movie was good. But I'd like to know more about Pixar's role within Disney. Because Pixar only makes good movies. I only saw "Cars" because it was a Pixar movie and I had faith that they would make the movie good despite the lame trailers. If "Bolt" had a similar mark I would have seen it sooner. Should I start having faith in both the Pixar/Disney and plain Disney movies?

2 comments:

GreenCanary said...

RING RING!
"Who's there?"
"Destiny."
"I've been waiting for your call..."

*giggling maniacally*

Mike Rhode said...

Nah. Well maybe. Lasseter is overseeing all of Disney animation now, but I don't think that will guarantee Pixar-level quality. They did one movie a year after all. BTW, Disney took over Pixar - they were in a dispute over Toy Story 3 and Disney was going to make it without them, so Pixar agreed to be acquired rather than have that happen.