This Disney production has the feel very much and look of “The Incredibles” but omits adult jokes and small smart details (which animation audiences relish) in the general telling of the story.
In comparison to Disney/Pixar animations (Meet The Robinsons, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Cars) “Bolt” does not stand up to the razzle-dazzle and specificity of each of the mentioned movies. Bottom line, it does not stand out as an exciting story.
With “Wall-E”, we were awed by the beeps and toots of the robots, and in “Cars” we were amazed by the number of flashes that could go off in a crowd-filled race car stadium and that Porsche, but in “Bolt” we only had a superhero dog.
And to top it all off, his powers aren’t even real! There was no real purpose or focus on the story. Sure, it seems to portray that even when without superpowers, you can fight evil and do good and all that, but at the end of the movie, the message comes out as flat and uninteresting.
There are some potential tearjerker moments but not enough to tip the audience over to like the film. I applaud the animators and the amount of time spent sweating over the details of the film (spot the pigeons cocking their head, totally unreal!), but the end product didn’t work for me.
The only riveting part of the movie was the first five minutes. From then on, it was a long and stretched out ride to the bottom of the hill, peppered only by a few forced laughs far and in between.
