Review: Bolt

The script is studded with satirical swipes at the ratings-obsessed TV executives as well as self-deprecatory allusions to the Hollywood movies and topnotch cartoon flicks like Finding Nemo reviews Rashid Irani.

Bolt
Voices of: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus
Director: Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Rating: ****

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Here’s a joyous combination of sight, sound and story. The all-computer-generated cartoon from the new Walt Disney Animation Studios is a zingy entertainer all right. Catering to the kiddies as well as the child that lurks in the heart of every viewer, aged 18 to 80, Bolt leaves you in a perky, wag-the-tail mood.

On board the technical crew there’s John Lasseter, the pioneer animator of the Toy Story films. The riotous romp revolves around a canine crusader (voiced by Travolta) who’s fooled into believing he possesses superpowers.

Taking a cue perhaps from Peter Weir’s provocative The Truman Show, the pet pooch gradually comes to realise that he’s just a star of a hugely popular television show. Nothing less, nothing more. Willy-nilly the bow-wow hero must take off on a cross-country trip through the US, accompanied by an abandoned cat (Susie Essman, hilarious) and a rotund rodent (Mark Walton, in a virtuoso vocal performance). Strewn with gags, this feel-good fable marks the debut of directors Williams and Howard.

The script is studded with satirical swipes at the ratings-obsessed TV executives as well as self-deprecatory allusions to the Hollywood movies and topnotch cartoon flicks like Finding Nemo.

A trio of delightful pigeons even gets to pitch a storyline about aliens (what else?) to a bemused producer. Pure bliss from start to finish, Bolt is recommended family viewing.