Wow, the poll results are 50/50 
Wonder if people waited until they saw the film or what?
Oh no! Credit singing is the worst! 
If I see it, I’ll be sure to run out in time.
i have a quick q:
was “American Dog” going to have the same storyline as Bolt, or somethin completely different? (sorry, new 2 this thread)
I think that it started out as American Dog and then the story was tweaked a little bit after Chris Sanders left…(but the rest of you can correct me on this if I’m wrong)
Just saw Bolt today, It wasn’t bad, but my main complaint is how obvious and predictable the plot is, I knew [spoil]That other bolt would appear when penny and bolt were racing towards each other, and I knew mittens was going to be adopted as soon as I heard her story.[/spoil]
A great kids movie, but It doesn’t hold a candle to WALL-E. Looks like WALL-E will hopefully get the oscar this year…
Well duh, is was no WALL-E, that was expected. 
I saw it today, and frankly, I found it hysterical and adorable. [spoil]I agree, though, when I heard Mittens story, I was thinking “Oh no, not THIS again! If I had a quarter for every movie that played this.” but that was pretty minor. I loved Mitten’s voice, it made her a great character. The hamster was extremely funny too! He made the movie.[/spoil]
And by the way, since I kinda started on a superhero phase, I always kept thinking of Krypto the super-hound (I think that’s his name) and Isis, Catwoman’s cat, throughout the movie.
And I am also glad Disney didn’t stoop so low and have Mittens and Bolt have romantic tension. I’m sure if Dreamworks or Varg-whatever was doing this, they would. It seems for a lot of studios these days, species isn’t an opstical.
Anybody remember this guy?
Though the ignorance was not there, the concept of Thunderbolt from 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure and Bolt from the movie under the same name bears too much of a resemblance to ignore.
I haven’t watched the film yet (because it’s not premiered in Singapore yet) but I don’t think I’d be watching this anytime soon.
As you guys said, this is no WALL-E.
Although I haven’t watched the Dalmations sequel, I knew about the character, and could not help noticing the uncanny resemblance too! Good eye, wboon!
Oh, and it is already out in Sing. I checked the cinema listings and it’s playing at Eng Wah Suntec in Digital 3-D. The posters around the theatres I’ve visited in my short stay before I leave for my trip say it opens “on December 4th”. And I won’t be back till one week later!
Drat! 
Saw yesterday in 3D. I’m pleased with the movie on the whole. While it’s cursed by coming out the same year as Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda (both of which I found better on the whole), it does hold its own, and without a doubt in my mind, this is just light years ahead of prior Disney solo CG efforts (Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little).
I was very impressed with the 3D however. The circular-polarization method really does make for the best 3D experience I’ve ever had, The UP trailer in 3D was also a nice bonus. Perhaps the fact that this was created with 3D in mind from the outset helped, but it really was impressive. The sound-mix was nothing special, which is unfortunate, given the opportunity they had here.
While I would be curious to see Chris Sanders’ “American Dog,” I have enough faith in John L. to suspect he made the right call as far as which movie made it to wide release. Let’s just hope it can bounce back from a disappointing opening weekend.
7/10
re: Thunderbolt-I actually thought of the same thing, but the key difference is that Bolt is unaware it’s a show until the second act, and Thunder knows it from the start.
WBoon: I thought so, too!
I’ve seen the 101 Dalmations II movie, and it’s not only the name with the big resemblence. In 101 Dalmations II, Thunderbolt’s character is a super dog, and Patch, one of the dalmations, is like Rhino, a big fan that believes the dog’s powers are real.
Big similarity, huh? But nonetheless, I’m still gonna see Bolt because I’ve got a positive feeling about it.
haha yes! thank god! i was a little worried also…
OOOOOOHHHHHH WOW…
I think u just got it for me WBoon! During the movie, there was this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I’d heard this type of story somewhere before! I dismissed it as “typical Disney” but i think u found it! thanx! Also, it sort of reminded me of Krypto the superdog, as Rac_Rules stated. My brother used to watch that show, and I kinda got into it…
thanks!
I just got back from it, and all I can say is ‘WOW.’ I really enjoyed the film. It’s right up there with Pixar’s movies, in my opinion. 
It was rated 5 stars by plugged in online…which is a popular Christian rating service…not even Narnia could get 5 stars. This was the first 5 star thing i’ve seen from Plugged in Online.
I really want to see it soon…
I noticed a few Pixar related things.
After smashing his head trying to break out the metal cage, he says “Syndrome”, I think. Also, I barely noticed a musical part from the “Spaceship Landing” song in WALL-E. Most likely a coincidence. Also, he said something about Nemo.
It was good; not Pixar, but Disney is really improving!
-EIA-
oh ha! yeah the part where [spoil]the pigeons are trying to get him to have aliens in his show, and one says that they have to take it slow, or they’ll lose Nemo like last time. I was crackin up![/spoil]
Yeah it was really good !
I saw it last week in 3-D and I was amazed! I went early to see the Up and Caroline trailers. both were amazing. The movie was stunning. Rhino (the hamster) stole the show. It is definitely DVD worthy. Disney is getting better. Most likely because of John Lasseter though. I think it’s my second favorite movie of the year. (Beat Dark Knight)
My sister and I saw Bolt a couple of weeks back, and, to be completely honest, the film’s plot-line was about what I thought it would be. Truth be told, I ruined a healthy portion of the production for myself by attending a sneak peek of the movie during this year’s annual Comic-Con celebration. The most impressive/action-packed, emotional, and hysterical parts were shown to an audience during that event; the directors of Bolt (who were present at that time) basically handed up the ending.
That said, I was able to predict many of the supposedly “surprise” catch phrases and sequences throughout the film while watching it. Perhaps I’ve simply seen too many movies, but I do wish that Bolt could have shelled out more humor and less predictable moments.
Quality-wise, the animation is gorgeous, the special effects impeccable, and the set and character designs pure eye candy. There’s definitely nothing wrong with the CG side of things. It was the basic direction that I found to have some flaws. Idealistically, this film should have exceeded my expectations, and it did have me raise my eyebrows in surprise occasionally, but, other than that, I think that Disney Studios could have done better. (I’m guessing that the addition of so many executives, directors, and screen writers involved in the project decreased the quality of Bolt’s plot-line.)
Now for the cheery comments:
Not only did the animation impress me, but the final design for Bolt really made me care for the character that much more. I know that looks aren’t everything, but I really do love how they pulled off his profile. It’s simple and easy on the eyes – not too much to look at, but adorable all the same.
My favorite character, by far, is Mittens. She didn’t appeal to me that much in the trailers until I got to know her better in the actual film. I do like her personality; it overshadows her “oh-so-original” cognomen anyways. As for her backstory: I saw it coming. (My dad pointed out that it reminded him of Jessie’s situation in Toy Story 2.) As was previously mentioned by Rac_Rules, however, it was a fairly minor addition to the film, and didn’t take away from the story too much.
Rhino, on the other hand, was a character that I just couldn’t stand. All right, he was no where near as annoying as that agent guy, and he did have his funny moments, but I didn’t really laugh that much when he came on the screen.
Last, but not least, I absolutely adored that entire sequence where Mittens was showing Bolt “the ropes” [spoil]of behaving like a real dog[/spoil]. That was just charming. I loved the music that accompanied it, too.
[spoil]The traditionally-animated sequences at the end of the film was a lovely bonus, as well. Simply darling.[/spoil]
As for the humorous moments, there were only two times when I literally burst out laughing, that being these:
[spoil]The first time was when Bolt was giving various trailer park tenants the puppy eyes and receives sympathy in return, where-as when Mittens tries it out, all she gets is an angry, “Get out of here, stupid cat!” from an individual. My sister and I were laughing so hard, man…
And the second instance was when Rhino looks over the expanse of Hollywood and says, “There it is: The most terrifying place on earth.” It’s funny 'cause it’s true! [/spoil]
In a nutshell, I would give Bolt six out of ten stars (6/10) for effort. It was entertaining, but I think that it could have been better.
That was the first thing I thought of when I heard the new title for American Dog.
– Mitch
Well, I’m relieved the reviews have been positive so far (I thought it would be panned as bad as BHChihuahua).
I’m really hoping to catch it in 3-D at Singapore theatres before it ends its run (it premiered last Thursday when I was overseas, and I’m leaving again for Penang next week).
So far its box-office performance is quite satisfying, although it had a tough time going up against bigger ‘fishes’. It didn’t stand a chance against the teenage girl crowd swamping the literary blockbuster film adaptation Twilight and the James Bond action-adventure Quantum of Solace, bowing at #3 in its first weekend. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you’re a bigger Twilight fan) it trumped the vampire pic in its second weekend, but still lost out to another uninspiring Christmas “comedy”, Four Christmases. It then slid back to third place again beneath 4C and Tw.
In Singapore, it was the opposite, edging out over the Vince Vaughn comedy and its Dreamworks competitor Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa.
Ooh…this is gonna be goood… 
Bolt actually surpassed my expectations. Now, it was no masterpiece, but I’m satisfied enough with it being better than Meet the Robinsons and Chicken Little and most of its competitors (Dreamworks, Sony, Blue Sky, etc.). The look of the film (art-wise) was fairly average, IMO–especially in comparison to the concept artwork for American Dog. I suppose I’m disappointed at how average it is, you know? It’s a solid film but still somewhat forgettable.
At least Disney’s headed in the right direction!