Movie Info:
Writers: Dan Fogelman, Chris Williams
Directors: Byron Howard, Chris Williams
Cast: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell, James Lipton, Greg Germann, Diedrich Bader, Nick Swardson
Rating: PG
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Release Info:
Theatrical Release: November 21, 2008
DVD Release Date: March 24, 2009
Online Availability: Amazon for $26.99
I hadn’t heard much about the movie Bolt prior to its release on Blu-ray and standard DVD. I guess that’s because I don’t watch the Disney Channel all that much. All I knew about this movie was that it was an animated film about a dog who thought he was a superhero, for real, and that Miley Cyrus voiced one of the characters for the movie. That’s the jist of what I knew, anyway.
I don’t like Miley Cyrus. I think she’s a poor excuse for an actress. Her singing leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t see the appeal in her stupid humor show, Hannah Montana. I can’t comprehend why my four year old nephew likes the show. So, needless to say, I didn’t know what part Miley had in this and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to finding out.
Come to find out, her part is pretty small. She was tolerable merely because she had so little screen time. The majority of the film focuses on John Travolta’s character, Bolt. He can easily carry this movie, and does so in a way that makes it wholly enjoyable. The story for Bolt is engaging, fun, family friendly, and has enough adult humor in it to make it worthwhile to watch for everyone in the family.
The best thing about Bolt is the visual quality. Since the movie has a fun story, the beautiful scenery just seems to compliment it. The animators went above and beyond to make Bolt stand out. Disney just keeps getting better when it comes to the style of animation they are developing. First Wall-E and now Bolt surpass my expectations for the quality I seek in an animated feature. Disney is slowly winning me over (me, a fan of old fashioned, hand drawn, animation) to their new style of animation, by seeking to make their movies as gorgeous as possible.
The Bolt (Three-Disc Edition w/ Standard DVD + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] Plot
The movie begins with a tiny puppy in a store. A girl, Penny (Miley Cyrus) takes the puppy to be her very own. Some years later, Penny is a teenager. Her scientist father calls her to tell her that he’s been kidnapped, but that’s okay. He’s genetically altered her dog, Bolt (John Travolta) to protect her.
Thus begins a high powered chase as Penny and Bolt attempt to evade the bad guys and save Penny’s dad from Dr. Calico (Malcolm McDowell). While they are unable to save Penny’s dad, the two escape and then Penny takes Bolt “home” where we discover it is actually a trailer, where Bolt lives alone. Bolt is the star of his very own television show. As a method actor, he is not allowed to know that the events of the television show aren’t real. He believes he has powers such as the super bark.
Penny wants to take Bolt home for the weekend, but her Agent (Greg Germann) and the Director (James Lipton) of the show won’t let her. Bolt must live alone in order to better play the role of super dog. Because of this he is absolutely fearless. The director also has to worry about the network pulling the show, so in order to boost ratings he films Penny being captured without Bolt getting a chance to save her. Thrown into his trailer with no idea what happened to Penny, Bolt is furious. Add in the fact that he’s being taunted by two of the cats who live in the studio, and he’s able to escape through the trailer’s open ceiling vent.
Bolt, on a quest to find Penny, ends up stuck in a box, shipped off to New York. Thinking this is all the diabolical plan of Dr. Calico, he is determined, more than ever, to use his powers to get back his girl, no matter the cost. Of course, living in the real world with no idea he’s not a superhero proves to be difficult for Bolt. He has no idea where to start on his quest to find Penny and he believes something has neutralized his powers.
It will be up to Bolt, a stray cat with a bad attitude named Mittens (Susie Essman), and a feisty hamster in a ball who is Bolt’s biggest fan, Rhino (Mark Walton) to find Penny and return Bolt to his home before he figures out the truth about his life, his powers and Penny.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing: 
Audio/Visual:
Bolt looks amazing. That’s what it all comes down to. I find it hard to remember seeing a better transfer. Even if I didn’t like the movie, which I did (for the most part), the scenery would have blown me away. The colors are high and the level of detail is astounding. I love how much care they took with the animation. Background scenes were painted before being transferred to a computer setting.
This adds an amazing sense of realism to the animated environment. Sporting an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and 1080p, Bolt has all of the bases covered. I didn’t notice a single problem. There were no compression errors, no problems with color bleeding, and no issues with blur. This is by far one of the nicest transfers I’ve seen recently and it certainly does Blu-ray proud.
The audio was handled with an English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio. This is what you would expect from a Disney track. The songs are robust and the dialogue is easy to understand. The sound effects offer some pop in a comical way and everything sounds as it should. There are no complaints to report. Again, this is one of the nicer presentations that I remember seeing as of lately.
Along with the amazing English track there is a Spanish track in Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles are available in both English and Spanish and the audio has been enabled for D-Box, assuming that you have the proper furniture to use this special feature.
Visual:
Audio:
Bonus Features:
In this three disc set there are plenty of Bolt special features to sink your teeth into. This three disc set includes one disc that serves as a DVD copy. A digital copy is also included, assuming that the DVD and Blu-ray copies aren’t enough. This is just the beginning though, because the Blu-ray disc offers plenty of shorts, extras, and featurettes to keep fans busy.
One thing that I was surprised to see was that there was no commentary available here. This could have been because children don’t often sit through commentaries and this is a movie for kids. However, it would have been nice to see one here. Instead, there are several featurettes that include the filmmakers, which should suffice as a replacement. The unfortunate thing is that many of these end up feeling incredibly self-serving. Still, they do offer some good moments.
One of my favorite bonuses is the “Super Rhino Short.” Anything with Rhino tends to be worth watching. In this short, Bolt and Penny have been captured by Dr. Calico and it’s up to Rhino to save them. Of course, on his own this would never be possible so Penny’s dad (from the show) has to genetically alter his DNA, which turns him into a Super Hamster! This is followed by two deleted scenes with optional introductions by the directors. You can play these together or separately depending on how you want to play them. The scenes are “Dog Fight in Vegas” and “River Sequence.” At some point they must have realized that they wouldn’t be using these scenes because both of them are offered in an original pencil art format.
“In Session: With John Travolta and Miley Cyrus” is all about the two leads of the movie (if you want to call Cyrus a lead — honestly, she’s not) recording the song, “I Thought I Lost You” together. Sadly, this featurette serves no purpose other than to do some back patting. This is followed up by the actual video for “I Thought I Lost You.”
The three main featurettes are “A New Breed of Directors: The Filmmakers Journey,” “Act, Speak! The Voices of Bolt,” and “Creating the World of Bolt.” In the first featurette, the two first time directors talk about what it was like to make their first movie. This was more interesting than I thought it would be because a lot of care was given in showing the computer animation and some of the techniques used to make the movie. It ended up being kind of interesting.
“Act, Speak!” is all about the voice actors in Bolt. The actors that are profiled include John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, James Lipton, and Mark Walton. There is a lot of back patting here, but Mark Walton makes this worth watching. Finally, in “Creating the World of Bolt” the animations are looked at, specifically what it took to make the scenery look as realistic as possible. The filmmakers sent out crew members to take pictures from New York to Los Angeles to get the right light and look for the various settings. One of the most interesting parts of this is when they discussed how they tried to make the television portion of Bolt‘s life look like a Michael Bay movie.
The Bolt Art Galleries can be played altogether or separately. The available galleries are “Character Design,” “Color Script,” “Storyboard Art” and “Visual Development.” There is a game, “Bolt’s Be-Awesome Mission” that has you in the role of Bolt with the job of saving the day. It’s a DVD game so there isn’t much to say. DVD games are usually not worth the time it takes to make them.
The Sneak Peeks Section has previews for Monsters Inc, Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure, Disney XD, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Platinum Edition, Princess and the Frog, Bedtime Stories, and Blu Ray Disc Information. There is also a preview on how to earn Disney Movie Rewards. Finally, there is a selection of BD Live Features though when this review was done the features were not yet available.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
If you can look past the few instances where Miley Cyrus’ voice can be heard, Bolt is as enjoyable for adults as it is for kids. This is a movie the whole family can enjoy together. For an animated feature, the visual quality is beautiful. It’s interesting to see how much work went into capturing the beauty that was used as a model to create a realistic backdrop for this film. Teeming with bonus features, if you can, it’s well worth it to pick this up in Blu-ray, as opposed to standard DVD. The quality of this disc makes the movie all the better. Bolt on Blu-ray is highly recommended.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Bolt, Standard DVD, Digital Copy, Blu-ray, Disney, animated, feature, Dog, Superhero
Written by Ashtyn Evans – Visit Website
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Ashtyn is in her early 30s. She is a mother, writer, college student, and music lover. Ashtyn has had a successful career as a writer since 2003. She turned to blogging in 2005. Ashtyn is getting a degree in Psychology. She has extensive knowledge in SEO and Social Media Development.
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