Movie review - Bolt
The last number of years* haven't been kind to Disney. They haven't had a real hit animated film in a very long time.
* That number would be 14. It's been that long since The Lion King came out. But since I hated The Lion King, I'd put the number at 16 (Aladdin).
Of course, the reason for that is because they haven't had a real good animated film in a long time.
The move to CG didn't help any, as Chicken Little was one of the worst films I'd ever wasted my time seeing, and Meet the Robinsons was only marginally better.
However, those two films weren't made under the Pixar regime. Robinson's was released when Pixar was in charge, but it was too far along in production (and too close to its release date) to completely gut and re-work the whole film.
Bolt originally started off as American Dog. Designed and directed originally by Chris Sanders, the film had a very promising look to it (Sanders is a very highly regarded designer in animation), and people were hopeful it would turn out well. However, not too long after Pixar came in, Sanders was pulled off the project, and the whole film was gutted and basically started over. The reason? Well, depending on who you ask, either it was John Lasseter's ego, or Sanders' inability to pull the film together. Rumor-mongers tend to "blame" Lasseter. People who've actually worked on the film though, say that despite Sanders' excellent designs, the film just wasn't working. Once Pixar came in and reworked it, the film reportedly became much, much better. (I have to take them at their word, since I haven't seen anything except a short snippet from Sanders' version.) I suppose a good artist does not necessarily make a good director. Something similar recently happened when animator Glen Keane "stepped down" as director from the upcoming Rapunzel. Reportedly, despite Glen's considerable talent as an animator, the film was floundering.
Now, some people in the animation community are all up-in-arms about directors being replaced on films, and their visions being reworked (or discarded). Certainly, I can see that point-of-view. But consider this: how many times have you walked out of a movie theater and thought to yourself, "How one earth did that film ever get made? Why didn't anyone have the guts to stand up during its production and say, 'Hey! This movie stinks. We need to fix it!'?" This is something that Pixar does as a matter of course. They did this with Toy Story 2, for example. It wasn't working. They stopped production, changed the story, and made it work. They did this with Ratatouille as well. They are willing to take the steps necessary to make a film good. It's why Pixar hasn't had a dud yet (although I don't really think A Bug's Life was very good, but it still made money).
So that brings us to Bolt, which we had a screening of on Friday at work (we have a small 125 seat theater on campus). I went in not expecting much, since I wasn't impressed with Disney's last two efforts, but I had heard some good things about Bolt - and more importantly - I hadn't heard any bad things about it. In a college full of animation geeks, if there's a bad film out there, you hear about it right away.
I was very pleasantly surprised. The film was a lot of fun. Was it an industry-changing, earth-shattering masterpiece? Nope. Was it a deep, thought-provoking, brilliant story? Nope. It was just a good, solid, fun, animated film. The story was pretty straightforward, but the characters were likable and well-written, the jokes were funny (and didn't rely on farts or butts, thankfully), and the animation was exceptional. This is a definite step in the right direction (pun not intended) for Disney. Now, all that said, this had "Pixar" written all over it. There were a number of elements in the film that "felt" like they'd come from Pixar films. I don't consider this a bad thing, since Disney needs all the help it can get to stand on its own feet again. Hopefully someday though, they'll find their own unique voice as an animation studio again.
Speaking of voices... Miley Cyrus (who plays the little girl in the film) is really quite terrible. Any actress could have slept-walked through that dialog equally or better than she did. The sole reason she was there was for name recognition - to try and draw some of her tween "Hanna Montana" fans into the film. Fortunately, they used her for a minor character, and it didn't really impact the film. (Reportedly, she just re-dubbed the character's lines, which had been played by some other actress initially.) But they need to be careful - Disney has a history of casting actors for their names, not for their abilities. Pixar tends to be much better at casting. John Travolta on the other hand, surprised me as Bolt. He did an excellent job with the character, and only once or twice during the film was I "aware" of the voice behind the character. The scene-stealer, however, is Rhino the hamster. Voiced by story artist Mark Walton, Rhino is the ultimate fan-boy who he gets pulled along on a real-life adventure with his hero, Bolt. It would be like a Trekkie (sorry... "Trekker" ) hitching a ride cross-country with William Shatner, or a Star Wars geek going on a road trip with Mark Hamill. (Incidentally, Carrie Fisher now looks more like Jabba the Hutt than even Jabba the Hutt did.) Not only is Rhino a funny character, but the animation on him is brilliant. Most of the time he's inside his hamster ball, so they have to animate him running around inside that, controlling it to make it go where he wants. How crazy-hard must that have been?
Bolt and Rhino... ready for action!
The story drifted in and out of predictability, veering into cliché territory at times, but the important thing to note is, the ride was still fun. The characters were likable, the jokes were funny, and they managed to change the formula up just enough so that even though you can predict how things are going to turn out, you may not be able to predict the path they're going to take to get there.
Overall I really enjoyed the film. More to the point - the animation students I was watching it with really seemed to enjoy the film too, and they're tough critics. If you're looking for an entertaining, just good-clean-fun film to go see over the holidays, I'd highly recommend Bolt. I'd rate it just above "Kung Fu Panda". (Bolt is also Certified Fresh™ at Rotten Tomatoes. Hopefully it will start picking up some business at the box office.)
8.5/10
(Incidentally, I saw it in 2-D. Maybe over the holidays I'll try and catch it in 3-D as well.)
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