'BOLT' - MiceChat reviews

[sir clinksalot]

I thought the animation was great, the characters were great. I laughed, etc.

But it just felt like it was a "Disney has a formula, they are sticking to it" type of thing.

I actually felt Meet the Robinsons was MUCH better than Bolt. That movie had me in tears when we saw it, and everytime I've seen it since.

[ALIASd]

Originally Posted by sir clinksalot

I actually felt Meet the Robinsons was MUCH better than Bolt. That movie had me in tears when we saw it, and everytime I've seen it since.

Just curious, but could it be that the fatherhood and family elements are a bigger pull for you with MTR?

[Angie_Duke]

Originally Posted by sir clinksalot

I actually felt Meet the Robinsons was MUCH better than Bolt. That movie had me in tears when we saw it, and everytime I've seen it since.

Wow, I just watched it last night and had the opposite reaction. I thought it was terrible!

Badly chosen voice for the villain (who was neither scary or funny), jokes and gags that try way too hard to be funny, and usually happen so fast there's no time to register them in your brain. Everyone talks really fast and somehow you don't feel anything got done. The first 5 and last 5 minutes were the best, but the rest of the movie was just bleh. I felt cheated when watching it because nothing was as good as I had hoped it to be (and I didn't have high hopes to begin with). This has to be one of my least favorite of the Disney animated features. The forced sentiment didn't work for me either (in Bolt it was there but it wasn't forced constantly)

And yes Disney has had a formula for some time now but unfortunately when it's broken people get upset most of the time.

[flynnibus]

We saw it in 3-D with with 9yr olds.

First... the 3-D is great... a great balance of added value without being distracting. I hope Disney continues with it. It's certainly a method to attract people to the theatre vs waiting for the DVD

Second... the movie was OK. The kids have said it was great, but haven't mentioned it since. I thought it was enjoyable, but did not set any great hooks into me. The rhino character was such a copy of a previous character that I can't quite put my finger on that it was distracting for me. The cat was a great co-star, and the story was pretty good. It did drag though at one point right before they split up. For like 5 minutes there seemed like forever.

It didn't come off as a copy of the story of the dalmations movie thunderbolt like original teasers on the story made it sound like it would have been. That was refreshing to see those two stories distanced a bit.

Overall... I think it will fade to obscurity. Maybe it goes down as a milestone in the timeline of the studio, but I don't see the kids clasping for it in the future.

[dland_lover]

I'm upset at my local theater- Bolt is only playing with limited showings, in two of the small theaters (one 2D the other 3D), while other movies *cough*twilight*cough* get the big theaters.

[sir clinksalot]

Well when Twilight has done twice the business as Bolt, you can see the point.

As of today Twilight has made $100 million, Bolt $50 million.

[animagusurreal]

Here's my review for a local paper, the Santa Maria Sun:

Santa Maria Sun | Film


Excerpt:

Brent: Even though they’re computer-animated with photorealistic fur, the animal characters have a classic, rounded-off Disney look, particularly Bolt himself. If you put him next to the dogs from 101 Dalmatians or Lady and the Tramp, you’d see a certain studio “family resemblance,” which helps to get the sympathies of someone who grew up on Disney movies like me.
Roberta: Yes, I see that. They’re all sooooo, sooooo adorable. I wuv them. When Bolt was begging for food, he was so cute—I wanted to give him some of my popcorn. I came out of the theater wanting a cute little Bolt dog of my own to play with. Or at least a Bolt stuffed toy, if they come out with one.
Brent: They’d be crazy not to. Bolt’s greatest superpower is cuteness: He should sell mountains of plush.
Roberta: Why, in a Disney film, weren’t there any little catchy little songs at all? You know how you come out of the theater singing, “Super-Cali-Fragilistic-Expi-Ali-Docious”?
Brent: Yeah, the most memorable Disney songs of the 2000s have come from the satirical Enchanted. Bolt did have one Pixar-esque emotional song montage. The song, “Barking at the Moon,” sung by Jenny Lewis, worked well enough for that sequence.
Roberta: “Pixar-esque?” Wasn’t Bolt made by Disney-Pixar?
Brent: No, it wasn’t made by Pixar, the studio that created films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E, which was purchased by Disney in 2006. It’s from Walt Disney Animation Studios, who brought you Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. Bolt has much more solid storytelling than either of those films, but still doesn’t quite belong next to Disney classics like Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. While the film doesn’t have Pixar’s Oscar ambitions, it does show the influence of the Pixar honchos like John Lasseter, who served as executive producer on this film.

[RonNYC]

Originally Posted by sir clinksalot

It was enjoyable enough. I don't know why, but I had a really hard time getting into it. It was fun, funny, had emotion, etc. I don't know if I was expecting more or what, but I found myself actually bored in a few spots and looking at my watch.

Saw "Bolt" tonight in 3-D and had a great time overall. Like you though, it took me awhile to get into it. That happened when Bolt began looking for Penny and it became a road movie. The first half hour was flashy and dull. Didn't crack a smile or a laugh until the pigeons showed up, from then on the story was well told and really quite funny. Just the sight of Rhino in his plastic ball made me laugh, the character itself was so full of fanboy weirdness that I couldn't stop laughing at him, and with him.

Would I see it again? Sure. Is it a classic? Nope. Is Disney Feature Animation at the top of its game again? Not yet. Did they make a good movie? Yep.

I think my problem with it is that it's not in a Disney house style. Nothing about the look of the film says "Disney" to me. Don't get me wrong, the animation and look of the film was wonderful but it could have come out of any studios animation division.

[Wally]

Just finished seeing it. Chicken Little was where Disney Animation hit rock bottom, having been sliding for a long time. Meet the Robinsons was 'okay', a sign that things were improving.

With Bolt I think Disney is getting their animation game back. It's not a great movie, but it is a good one. I laughed several times, and it's the first Disney movie in ages that I have not fought the urge the strangle any of the sidekick character, I actually liked Mittens and Rhino. The 3D was great, and in no way felt like a gimmick. It is the first Disney animated movie in a long time that I can positively recommend.

[Baloo]

Well BOLT went from third place to second place beating out twilight for the weekend. Total so far is at about 67,000,000 not too bad. Twilight should loose some more steam during the week and with the Christmas Holidays coming Bolt should hold on. Next week bring doesn't seem like anything big is coming out then the week after "The day the earth stood still".

[Coheteboy]

My review:

Walt Disney Animation Studios proves to its audiences that it IS capable of bringing home a solid, entertaining picture with a lot of heart once again. After the boring 'Brother Bear', unsalvagable 'Home on the Range', the moronic 'Chicken Little', and decent but forgettable 'Meet the Robinsons', 'BOLT' entertains and delivers both in story and visually. It may be a story that is a tad predictable and familiar (has an echo of Toy Story 1 & 2 and an episode of Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers in it), but it's still extremely well done.

So why am I not rating this as high as say, a Pixar movie? To put it simply, it's good entertainment but doesn't hold the emotional weight of a Finding Nemo nor will it wow you like The Incredibles or Wall-E.

Some scenes seemed slow and there are characters that are perhaps too 1-dimensional (The Agent, Mindy from the Network) to raise this movie up further... often, it feels more cartoon than animated classic. But even so, it's still a step in the right direction for Disney.

There are some great new characters and a wonderful action sequence in the opening act that make BOLT definitely worth checking out. It's not something I'm dying to watch again in the theaters but it'll be a for-sure addition to the DVD library.

p.s. Pigeons and Waffle World are what I liked most.

[OldSchoolMickey]

We saw the 3-D version in DTD on T-Day.

It was enjoyable, but I thought that Bolt and the girl resembled the girl and dog from the Disney Channel's Tigger and Pooh Friend's show a little too closely.

I wish the movie the best of luck!

[brand42]

I saw it in 3-D today at Universal Citywalk.

While it isn't a superbark earth shattering film, it does indeed have a lot of heart. I would even rank it above some Pixar films like Cars and I'd love to have a Waffle World map of the US now.

[dland_lover]

I went to see it (again) tonight, at my local theater, and it was SOLD OUT!

While I was disheartened to find out tonight would not be my third time seeing it, I felt/feel great knowing that its picking up an audience, as word-of-mouth gets out.

And I have to see Tokyo Mater! Ahh- the suspense is killing me!!

[Aladdin]

2nd time I saw Bolt, was at the El Capitan Theater. Tokoyo Mater is really nicely done, and works good in 3D.