Bolt - LaughingPlace.com Movie Guide

Bolt
Walt Disney Animation Studios
November 21, 2008

See Bolt at the El Capitan Theatre with a Live Holiday Stage Show
Nov. 21, 2008-Jan. 4, 2009

Daily showtimes are 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:55 p.m. All showtimes in Disney 3-D. View Official Announcement

Cast and Filmmaker Summary

Additional Details

• Previously titled "American Dog"
• Will Be Available in Disney Digital 3-D (TM)
• “Along with the humor, you have to have heart.Walt Disney always said, ‘For every laugh, there should be a tear.’ I believe in that. The heart in ‘Bolt’ comes from the emotional journey and the change that happens along the way.”
  ~ John Lasseter, Executive Producer

Plot Synopsis

For super-dog Bolt (voiced by John Travolta), every day is filled with adventure, danger and intrigue -- at least until the cameras stop rolling. When the canine star of a hit TV show is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he begins his biggest adventure yet -- a cross-country journey through the real world. Armed only with the delusions that all his amazing feats and powers are real, and with the help of two unlikely traveling companions -- a jaded, abandoned housecat named Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman), and TV-obsessed hamster in a plastic ball named Rhino -- Bolt discovers he doesn't need superpowers to be a hero. Miley Cyrus ("Hannah Montana") brings her vocal talents to the role of Penny, Bolt's human co-star on the television series.

Related LaughingPlace.com Articles

• Rhett Wickham reviews The Art of Bolt
• Jim on Film: Bolt: The Beginning of the Beginning

News Stories

• Bolt News Stories

Reviews

• AO Scott, positive review, (The New York Times)
  "“Bolt,” in other words, is a real movie — not a great one, perhaps, but a more organic and thought-out piece of work than the usual animated hodgepodge that lures antsy children and their dutiful parents into the multiplexes. "
• Bill Zwecker, positive review, (Chicago Sun-Times)
  "It's not among the most original Disney animated films, yet ''Bolt'' is one of those movies that in the end does what it's supposed to do. It's charming, nicely paced, often quite funny and features well-chosen voice talent."
• Dan Kois, mixed review, (Washington Post)
  "The result is a family film with an identity crisis: "The Incredible Journey" meets "Entourage" meets "The Truman Show." The movie's lovingly animated exploding helicopters -- shown, with Michael Bay elan, blowing up from three angles -- might terrify the younger children most likely to melt at the scenes of Penny hugging her warm puppy."
• Kenneth Turan, positive review, (Los Angeles Times)
  "Because "Bolt" understands how to be funny -- keep an eye out for some screenwriting pigeons -- these pint-sized life lessons go down really easily, the way they did during the golden age of Disney. It's nice to have a whiff of Walt with us again."
• Lou Lumenick, mixed review, (New York Post)
  ""Bolt" will make a mint, but I couldn't help agreeing with Mittens when she complains, "This is becoming tiresome. I feel a yawn coming on.""
• Michael Rechtshaffen, positive review, (The Hollywood Reporter)
  "It might not be best in show, but Disney's latest dog picture is still fetching"
• Richard Corliss, positive review, (Time Magazine)
  "But from the moment Bolt sticks his head out the window of a speeding truck and feels the breeze of freedom and free will, the picture snaps to life and instantly acquires heart (Lasseter's favorite movie organ)."
• Roger Moore, positive review, (Orlando Sentinel)
  "It's about a girl who loves her dog and the dog who loves her back. And that heart makes Bolt the best Disney cartoon to not have the Pixar name on it since Lilo & Stitch."
• Ruthe Stein, positive review, (San Francisco Chronicle)
  "Disney didn't drop a lot of money on celebrities to voice these parts. Travolta and Cyrus, as Penny, are the only star names. Smart thinking. It's doubtful that audiences go to animated features to hear movie stars talk. They go because a film sounds like fun and something their kids and maybe they themselves might enjoy. "Bolt" is all that and more."
• Todd McCarthy, mixed review, (Variety)
  ""Bolt" is an OK Disney animated entry enhanced by nifty 3-D projection. "
• Tom Maurstad, mixed review, (Dallas Morning News)
  "The directors and screenwriters hit all their marks and push all the right buttons, but the story never really takes off, and the characters never really spark to life. Although the cast is full of brand-name celebrities, it's telling that the best voice performance, by far, is delivered by Mr. Walton as Rhino. If you've never heard of him, that's because his day job is as a Disney animator. And while names such as John Travolta and Miley Cyrus deliver marquee appeal, they don't really deliver memorable voices to cartoon characters."
• Wesley Morris, positive review, (Boston Globe)
  "It's part of the movie's resounding suggestion that the Hollywood entertainment factory can be an exploitative kind of Oz and that animals, even chatty Disney ones, are happiest when they're chasing sticks."

Box Office Performance

• Week 1: 11/21 - 11/23: $26,223,128, Cumulative: $26,223,128 , #3

Other Links

• Internet Movie Database Site