Bolt

I most agree with queen_of_painting, and then some more. :slight_smile: Bolt blew out of all expectations. It was nothing compared to Meet The Robinsons’ passive pace, or Chicken Little’s cheesy nature. It kinda reminded me of another Disney’s better production, The Fox And The Hound, which coursed throughout the hour and a half calmly but had a good, comfortable, non-threatening feel to it. That was how I felt after the dramatic beginning came to a stop. The start of the feature was brilliantly done - I thought I was watching The Dark Knight. :laughing:

Oh, and the Super Bark was all I was waiting for. One paw placed up front, the other tugged behind, and ‘woof!’ A surge of tremor surge through the floor and a grey wave of smoke washes the villains away. Beautiful. :smiley:

I really love the way they played out the relationship of Penny and Bolt. Add that with Miley’s self-made song, it would have been one of the most heartwarming pictures I have seen in the 21st century.

The diamond of the placid pool was actually the ending. The ‘death scene’ was portrayed quite well, much better than WALL•E’s short memory loss, I am afraid to say. Sorry, WALL•E fans. ^_^"

For that brief moment of half a minute, I was fearful for the young child’s life. They made it so surreal that it made me believe Penny had her final breath drawn, and being human, it was naturally easier to relate when compared to a metallic robot we are to imagine the existence of its feelings on.

And then, they had to over-advertise their surpassing animation partner. I really like the interactions made between Mittens and Bolt, too, but it bore too much resemblance to another touching film we know and love, gentlemen. That which I am referring to is Toy Story 2’s Jessie and Woody’s romantic pairing. Disney would had done a great job copying that, I felt something when I watched that, but they did not really stress the emotions enough to give me a reason to watch the couple. Thus, the whole scene turns into a fiasco, causing its downfall.

However, if the creators of Bolt and WALL•E had worked together, or at least, combined the two key elements which led to each’s good points, both movies would have been great,with the latter being the perfect film. EVE’s body movements would had been more convincing than Bolt’s compelling loyalty as he laid by the side of not his master, not his ‘person,’ but his friend. Bolt (the film)'s lines would had made more sense, giving the audience a more relatable reason as to why they are there, and not just the lines, the side characters would had been less annoying. I had no idea why the pigeons were put there. They entertained my funny bone for a moment, but that was it.

Basically, John Travolta picked the wrong film to voice in when he wanted to be cast in a Disney classic. Ironic - I had wanted to say something contrary to this before. :laughing: But, I gratefully appreciate his contribution, because the song composition, the final scene, and the action sequences at the start were all excellently done, and I would not want them any other manner. :slight_smile:

Good job, Disney, not bad at all.

This part of Bolt had me fighting back tears. I suppose what made me truly sad were all the real-life stories of heroic dogs risking their lives to save their human companions in house fires, only for the dog to later die of smoke inhalation or something similar. Very sad indeed.

Something just occurred to me. I was reading through Miley Cyrus’ I Thought I Lost You and I was reminded of Bolt’s one significant plot line it is essential to be mentioned under a spotlight.

I would admit that the whole story was still kinda a blur to me just a minute before it snapped right back to me. I would have never realized it if I had never did a Google search on the lyrics due to my ineptness in picking up words spoken - or sung - at a rapid pace.

So, I came across this line when I finally understood what the awesome pair was singing about:
I thought I lost you when you ran away to try to find me.

And it came to me that both were ‘running away’ in some sense to find their love. Master to pet love, but nonetheless, love it was.

It is a love story. A very compelling love story with a hidden message I never got myself to look at it before because it was not the usual kind of romance one would find on the silver screen. Both were desperately in search of the being they loved so much but when hope finally shined through that dark corner, disappointment struck them. [spoil]Penny discovers that the dog returned was not Bolt, and Bolt discovers that Mittens might have actually been a honest victim just for that time when he saw his ‘person’ showing all that compassion to the new pet. It was a great scene and it intensified the moment when they were finally in each other’s arms and paws, only to face the possibility of death.[/spoil]

A really great movie that deserves to be rewatched one more time. I take back every negative points that I had presented in my previous post of this thread. I was going to give it a rather low score of 6.5/10 for its stereotypical story before, but now, I am going to give it a…

7.8/10
Finally, Disney has brought back the traditional manner of heartwarming story-telling they had used in the good old nineties. :cry:

Edit:
Oh, yes! Bolt received an 85% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes! I knew I was right about its greatness! :laughing:

haha couldn’t’ve said it better myself dragon! caps off to you!
However, I must disagree on one point, in Toy Story 2, Jesse and Woody were just friends. Remember Jesse and Buzz at the end? I don’t think Mittens and Bolt were ever meant to be together. Just sort of an awkward friendship I guess.

Yes, but that’s the thing, I felt it wasn’t needed; that awkward friendship. They either state the friendship clearly, so that the audience realize, “Oh, they are just ordinary friends,” or insert a certain declaration in some form so that we would have the same, “Awwwe…” as we did when we watched WALL-E. :laughing:

But yeah, there was no need for a tug-of-war there, leaving us unsatisfied. To explain further, this could be compared to leaving a McDonalds diner with a Big Mac without the patties, or leaving the onions without the cheese and top bun.

All I am saying is that they intrigued me with the emotions exchanged between Mittens and Bolt, for a while, but did not go to the limits of really capturing my heart, leaving me hanging by the cheesy, rather stereotypical relationship - or awkward friendship - instead.

This is understandable, though, as they had to rush (18 months to make a 3-D film? You are creating humor.), and they probably had a limited length to fulfill, not going up to more than 96 mins as a Disney film.

And yes, I know that Jessie and Woody are just friends, but it is interesting seeing them as a couple that way. :slight_smile:

hmmm… interesting point. didn’t really think of it that way, but when you talk about it like that, it seems true!
I’m glad you have so much to say on the subject!

You and me both. I am, however, a bit dissapointed to find out that they had a different girl lined up to voice Penny, and replaced her at last -minute- with Miley Cyrus. All because she’s what’s “in” with the preteen crowd. That just…really kinda rubbed me the wrong way. :angry: Anyway she was okay, just, not the best choice for the role, IMHO.

That fact aside, I thought the movie was adorable. MUCH better than Chicken Little, but definitely not better than anything Pixar put out. xD And yes, there were a few moments that made me tear up (Mittens’ life prior to being a stray, and the fire scene, mainly.)

there was gonna be another girl? ooh now i’m mad… :angry:
still, i can see why they subbed her w/ miley, to attract to more people. i just feel sorry for the other girl…

On second view, I agree that Miley wasn’t too big a distraction, though that may be because she didn’t have too many lines. I’m still quite impressed with John Travolta, and even more so Susie Essman. James Lipton’s “Producer” character was still more entertaining for me than Rhino on the whole. and I’m really digging the Jenny Lewis song (Barking at the Moon). I’ll go ahead and say it’s a better movie the second time around

I went to watch Bolt in Digital 3-D with my sis at Suntec City (a huge shopping mall and conventions centre in the heart of Singapore) on Monday. Here’s my experience and review of it:

After purchasing the tickets, they gave a slip that we were to hand the usher so that we can get our glasses. Apparently, we can’t take them back home like in the U.S., but must return it after the film. They look like ordinary shades (without the cheesy blue and red lenses) with non-adjustable arms.

There were a lot of kids and families in the theatre. They were generally quite a responsive crowd, oohing, aaahing, and laughing at the appropriate parts. During the part where [spoil]Bolt flips the car at the beginning[/spoil], a boy remarked “That’s Hollywood, lah.” He said the same comment again [spoil]when the drink cup toppled from the helicopter shockwave impact.[/spoil] :slight_smile: Another kid from that same family kept kicking my chair annoyingly, especially during the poignant bits. :imp:

They showed the PSA to return the glasses after the movie, then the Caroline trailer, then the Miley Cyrus Concert Tour. Then the Up trailer. And like everyone else on the forum has been saying, it looks gorgeous! A couple of tykes gasped when the balloons rose from the roof, and there were a couple of snickers when Carl refused to let Russell in.

Anyway, on to the main attraction…Bolt! I loved the new Walt Disney Animation Studios ident, it was a fitting tribute to Mickey’s first screen debut and by extension, Walt Disney’s!

It met my expectations… it has enough charm, laughs, and pathos to be one of Disney’s modern classics. Disney has now convinced me they have returned to form after the excellent Meet the Robinsons. The script is brilliant, the characters engaging, the animation breathtaking… this is Disney at its best!

All the characters go through a development arc throughout the tale… [spoil]Bolt learns about his fabricated reality, and the true meaning of what it means to be a hero, Mittens learns to forgive her sad past and love again, and Rhino learns to get out of his comfort zone and explore the world outside (though he’s always wanted to do that from the beginning, Bolt served merely as the catalyst).[/spoil]

John Travolta and Miley Cyrus turn in decent performances, and Mark Walton from the mediorce Chicken Little voices his character Rhino with such enthusiasm that you believe he is really that fanatical about his idol! But the true scene-stealer is Susie Essman’s (from Curb Your Enthusiasm, coincidentally from the same show Jeff Garlin starred in, who voiced the Captain in Wall-E) portrayal of Mittens, the pessimistic and enigmatic alley cat. [spoil]She teaches Bolt how to be a dog for the first time in one of the sweetest montages in the movie. However, her sarcastic and cynical remarks only hide her shattered past as an abandoned housepet, and Bolt’s loyalty to Penny will show her how to trust and believe in someone again.[/spoil]

The music soundtrack is exhilarating and poignant too. My favourites are Scooter Chase (adrenaline-pumped, and reminiscent of Minivan Chase in Mr Powell’s earlier outing in Mr and Mrs Smith), and Rescuing Penny (rousing, soul-strirring hero music). Barking at the Moon was beautiful stuff, and it’s great to know it’s being submitted for Best Song consideration at the Annies. The end credits are as pretty as Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda’s (a trend that seems to be going for animated films lately), and the Miley and Travolta number “I Thought I Lost You” is fitting to the theme of being lost and found again.

All in all, this is one of the year’s best animated flicks. It’s hilarious, heartwarming, and may make you want to hug your pet , or if you don’t have one, go out and find one (and it also teaches the young 'uns the importance of keeping a pet for life, or adopting one from the local shelter). I think it edges out a bit over KFP, but just misses Wall-E for its formulaic plot. It’s like they took Toy Story’s delusional Buzz, Toy Story 2’s cynical Jessie, and mashed it with the Truman Show, Underdog, the Matrix and Homeward Bound. But if Wall-E was more like Ratatouille for its high-concept and amazing storytelling, Bolt is more like Cars for being a non-stop thrill ride and witty dialogue. Bolt more than makes up for its shortcomings in its endearing characters, magnificent scenery (reminding me of Lasseter’s Cars in a road-trip kinda way), hilarious and simultaneously introspective lines, and gorgeous hand-painting style.

And you don’t need to me to tell you it looks jaw-dropping in 3-D, especially during the opening freeway chase sequence. All in all, Bolt can be summed up in the manic hamster Rhino’s own words:

“It’s Fully Awesome!”

:smiley:

Actually, if you listen to the WALL-E commentary I’ve just posted up on YouTube, you would learn that WALL-E does have a certain mesh up of its own, too; just done so very effectively at that.

As for the 3-D sequences, I was rather thrilled at the beginning (I mean, c’mon, the disc flying to our face is over the top CGI freaking awesomness), but later on, there weren’t much 3-D used in there, and it make me feel that it was definitely not put to the full extent.

After rewatching WALL-E again with the whole commentary completed, I guess I could say that Bolt is definitely a level below WALL-E, though WALL-E is not as perfect as it seems as well, as you would learn from my commentary, but I digress… :wink:

Fair nuff, Dragon. I’ll be sure to check out your commentary. :wink:

Anyway, here’s some observations about Bolt (after much pontificating):

How did Bolt tie the knot in the leash around Mittens? I know it’s a cartoon thing, but it’s interesting how he accomplished this without opposable thumbs.

Noticed how [spoil]Rhino shouting into the air vent in the motor home was foreshadowing for Bolt’s rescue of Penny at the end with his ‘superbark’[/spoil]?

There were some Pixar references I didn’t get. As someone else mentioned, [spoil]Bolt mutters “Syndrome” before fainting in the vet van. Why?
And one of the L.A. pidgeons mentioned “That’s why we lost Nemo” when pitching the alien script with Bolt. A possible Finding Nemo reference?[/spoil]

I think I got some more questions/observations, but these are the ones I could remember for now.

To me, it almost sounds more like [spoil]soon[/spoil], which I suppose works after [spoil]“I’ll get us out of here (soon)”[/spoil]

I saw Bolt. Well, it’s no Pixar film, but I personally enjoyed it more than Meet the Robinsons. I liked the pigeons, they were really funny, but maybe they should have kept with the same pigeons all the way through rather than introducing new ones. But I guess they were used to represent the different states of the US. Overall an ok movie, and worth a rental on DVD for a second viewing.

My criticisms would be:

  • Miley Cyrus’ voice annoyed me a bit. I couldn’t look past her as an actress.
  • I don’t think the characters were fleshed out enough. I really didn’t feel a connection with any of them.
  • Some choices of “camera angles” confused me. They used the first person POV too many times when another angle would have been more appropriate and given more information to the viewer. Also, some shots were very quick before moving onto the next shot or scene. It felt a bit rushed.
  • There should have been more of a difference between the new Bolt and the old Bolt, so the audience could see there was a difference.

But other than that it was ok. I suppose I just expected more because I thought John Lasseter was going to change things at Disney. The end credits were cute. The thing these days, ever since Ratatouille, seems to be about having 2D credits on 3D animated films. I would have liked to have seen what this movie would originally have been like had it still been directed by Chris Sanders, but maybe it didn’t fit with the image Disney wanted to portray. Guess we’ll never know…

Oh, and they didn’t even play the Up trailer! They played Monsters vs. Aliens instead. Boo!

Interesting review, Rachel. I’d just like to respond to each of your criticisms, if you don’t mind (SPOILERS AHEAD!):

  • I kind of agree with the first one. She sounds weird outside her “Montana” element, but she kind of conveyed the appropriate emotions in her voice (especially in the the touching climax).

  • Really? Though not as rich as most of Pixar’s efforts, I felt each character goes through their respective development arc. Bolt learns how to be a normal dog and “lighten up”, Mittens learns to trust humans again and ultimately gains redemption and a friend in Bolt, and Rhino gets to go on the adventure he has always yearned for.

  • I wasn’t really paying attention to camera angles, but I thought they were appropriate for each scene. I do agree that they should have gone for more wide-angle shots, and ‘lingered’ on the more picturesque scene-setting shots. It felt like a Bourne movie, when I would have preferred something more along the lines of Cars (not only because it was a similar road trip movie, but we get to admire the beautiful scenery views as well).

  • I disagree with this point.

Old Bolt - deluded about his superpowers, distrusting of anyone but Penny and prejudiced against cats (probably because they were always allied with the Green-Eyed Man), narrow world view (ignorant about anything beyond his sheltered studio existence), and basically too highly-strung.

New Bolt - enlightened about his lack of any superpowers, trusts other humans (in the trailer park scene), becomes best friends with his former enemy, learns to be a ‘real’ dog and rediscovers the joy of a life without danger and peril.

One important visual signifier of his change in his attitude was the fading of his paint-on bolt on his side over time.

The same could be said for the other characters, including Penny and her mum (who learned to stand up to their manipulative agent).

I noticed the common 2-D aesthetics in the credits too, I just saw Madagascar 2, and they had a similar style (albeit in a more cut-out paper figurines look). Maybe a reference to their 2-D hand-drawn origins?

I would have also liked to see Chris Sanders more ‘adult version’, as that would have really pushed the boundaries of the genre and would probably more refreshing. As me and other people here have mentioned, the plot is familiar, the characters inspired by Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie the Cowgirl, and the Animaniac’s Goodfeathers. But as a safe bet, it turned out better than I expected, and it stands equal in quality to Meet the Robinsons in my eyes.

Laugh out loud! :laughing: Man, that just bites. Did you have fun watching a giant girl ‘car-skate’ and hearing Seth Rogen’s voice again? :wink:

Okay, sorry, sorry! Did you watch it in 3-D? (I’m guessing you didn’t from your earlier post, but I may be wrong) I suppose from your post date you must have catched it on Cheap-*ss Tuesday, heheh. Don’t fret though, they’d probably show the Up trailer for upcoming Coraline (another 3-D animated film) or G-Force (an upcoming Disney live-action in 3-D), so if you’re gonna watch those (or Monsters vs. Alien, though judging from your response, I seriously doubt it :stuck_out_tongue:), you may be luckier! :wink:

Interesting to hear your opinion on the film! :sunglasses:

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

  • Well, I thought Miley’s voice acting was a bit meh, but that’s just my opinion.

  • Yeah, I suppose I can see now (thanks to you) that each character does change, but I still didn’t feel any connection with them. Maybe if I did, I woud be able to appreciate the changes in them more. I’m not sure if it’s failure on Disney’s part or just different tastes.

  • I don’t really pay attention to camera angles either, except in this case when I felt like I wanted to crane my neck to get a better view of what was happening. I shouldn’t have to do that. Of course me doing that wouldn’t have made a difference, I just felt like I wasn’t seeing what I wanted. Had the camera angles done their job, I probably wouldn’t have noticed them. Like the old saying goes “do your job right, and no-one will notice” - or did I just make that phrase up? :slight_smile:

  • I need to clarify with my “new Bolt, old Bolt” comment. What I meant by that was there was not much of a difference (physical or otherwise) between the original Bolt (the one Penny picked out when he was a puppy), and the dog that the agent picked out to replace the original Bolt so the TV series could go on. If the audience can’t see (or feel there is) a difference, you wonder what Penny is going on about. Maybe there should have been a mark on the new Bolt and Penny could have said “that’s not Bolt because ______” or the new Bolt could have been out of control, or something to show the difference more, and that they weren’t the same dog.

But I didn’t get the feeling that this movie was a classic, like Disney made in the past. Yeah, it was a passable effort, but I don’t think it will stand the test of time. I’ve only seen it once so my comments can only carry so much weight, but when is Disney going to go back to making classic movies, like when I was a youngin’? And as I said before, I don’t think John Lasseter being the EP on Bolt really helped at all.

Thanks for addressing my comments, thedriveintheatre. =)

SPOILERS EVERYONE! You might want to close your eyes and duck.

It’s not just you. :wink:

Maybe it’s a bit both. I agree Disney could have added more interesting backstories to Bolt and Rhino, but I thought Mittens was pretty convincing. I thought it was a nice touch to have the big revelation told through her accidental giveaway in a moment of anger, instead of having that ‘hazy’ flashback sequence (like in Toy Story 2 or Cars). The latter would have been too cliched for me. But yeah, some people write fandoms and draw fanpics about the last character I would care for in other movies, so I guess different character personality traits appeal to different people. :slight_smile:

Funny, I think I actually heard someone use that quote before. The best animation (or any piece of art) are the most subtle, just beneath the subconscious. It’s the little things that count, the “devil in the details” (a popular animation maxim). The cinematography was not that subtle, I had to agree.

As for the “new Bolt, old Bolt”, I also kinda wondered how Penny ‘knew’ when she was first presented with it by the slimy manager. Guess she lived with Bolt so long that she could just ‘tell’ an imposter apart. Maybe the scene where he backed away whimpering from the fire just before the climax was their way of telling us the difference? Although I kinda felt it was a lame and sorry way to portray the non-original Bolt as a coward.

Malcolm Gladwell would say that snap judgements tend to be the most accurate, though sometimes I’d disagree. But yeah, it probably won’t be remembered as a true classic, again because of the very formulaic plot. We need those old tales of grand adventure on as large a scale as possible, with captivating characters, swashbuckling action, heart-melting romance, and knee-slapping comedy! (I’m serious, I’m not being sarcastic) I did a lengthy rant in “The Curse of the Bringbackness” thread.

I wonder though, how it would turn out if Mr Lasster was not on the set. Maybe a lot more fart jokes would be in there, heh. :wink:

SPOILERIFIC

But even to leave it that late for us to notice the difference between the new and old Bolt, I don’t agree with that. They didn’t need to knock us over the head with showing us that the new Bolt was different, but something for the audience to identify with would have been nice. It’s probably because I didn’t feel for Bolt in the first place that I wondered why Penny didn’t just go with the new Bolt. Maybe it’s because I’m not a big fan of either John Travolta or dogs (I’m more of a cat person), but then again I didn’t feel close to Mittens either.

The most obvious example I can think of when a different, wide, distant camera angle would have been a better choice is when it’s the first person view of Rhino when he is in the ball, towards the end of the movie, when they are on the movie lot and he tries to go up to one of the actors in costume, it’s left as a first person angle all that time, and that annoyed me.

Fart jokes? Even if Lasseter wasn’t on set, that would be more Dreamworks’ style (check out the opening seconds of the Monsters vs. Aliens trailer and you’ll see what I mean). I would have liked Lasseter to have intervened and had less of that slimey manager schtick. It seems to me as only adults would get that, and that character doesn’t really translate too well overseas, away from Hollywood. I suppose Lasseter doesn’t have as much control over other Disney movies as I thought he did, or he doesn’t have as much skill in creating a classic movie. (Sorry JL, I still love ya!)

I think I will have to give this a second viewing, though.

Yes, we did see it on tight-ass Tuesday. I still can’t believe they don’t have that in Singapore, or even the US. Maybe it would make people go to the cinema more - it sure is busy whenever I’ve been on a Tuesday. No, I didn’t see it in 3D. And seeing how I’ve judged the film as “ok”, I’m glad I didn’t make the trek down to the one that does have that capability. The other cinemas really need to get with the program…

I agree, I would love for Disney to try to make more classic films, rather than focusing on the now. I don’t want princess films, but like you said, grandiose stories set in a different world would be good - rather than Milo and Otis 2, I mean Bolt. :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, all the four major cinema chains (Cathay, Eng Wah and Shaw) on this island have student concessions at 6 Singapore Dollars on weekdays before 6 pm (with the exception of Golden Village, which charges at $6.50), and that is way better than Sydney rates (which are around $9 in the city). Singaporeans are pretty avid movie-goers, their movie promotional material is quite prominent, with huge posters running down shopping mall walls, bus stops, double-decker buses, train station columns, TV screens in trains and buses, entertainment magazines, etc. Every movie premiere is an “event” in this small country-state. Sydney film promotion is limited to just bus sides and stops, so I wished they had more promotional avenues (partly cos’ I love admiring film promos, and also because Pixar and other studios could always do with more publicity). But I digress, that’s a little off-topic…

Well, I hope more cinemas take up this 3-D feature, cos’ plenty films (Caroline, MonstersVsAliens, Ice Age 3) will be shown in that format. I agree that format shouldn’t be integral to a film’s quality, but it does add a bit to the overall ‘experience’. Anyway, are you going to see Up in Digital 3-D, or will conventional film do?

Laugh out loud! :smiley: I heard of M&O. Should find a copy and watch it, looks adorable!

Heh. I guess I’m the only one around here who didn’t find Bolt extremely appealing… or enticing. I did give it a second go-round, but I still wasn’t too crazy about it. Despite the beginning of the film (that whole action sequence) being off the heat, and the insertion of the occasional touching moment and hilarious bit, I just can’t seem to like it that much.

Now that’s an interesting point…

– Mitch