Movie Review Bolt

By Lisa Schwarzbaum (EW.com)

The antics of a dog who confuses his day job as the canine superhero in a TV action series with his real-life skills is plenty high-concept. But in Bolt - a blithe, digitally animated (and in select theaters 3-D) doggy comedy as zippy as its name- the fanciful premise only paws the surface of what's going on as we sit in the dark wearing plastic 3-D glasses.

The basic story bears the distinctive DNA of the Disney family of dramas. Bolt's a spunky white shepherd voiced by - look who's talking! - John Travolta. He lives 24/7 on a Hollywood soundstage that he thinks is the whole wide world - his own canine Truman Show - until he's accidentally separated from his person and TV costar, Penny (Miley Cyrus), and shipped in a cargo crate to New York City. Of course, imaginary superpowers don't count for much in such a sleepless city of caffeinated, mortal go-getters. But never mind. The dog sticks to his belief in his canine invincibility - and in the constancy of his person, wherever she is. (Penny's got a smarmy agent, voiced by Greg Germann, who's just so annoyingly...agenty as he urges her to forget about her missing costar.) Bolt remains loyal even when hassled by Mittens, a skinny, wiseacre New York alley cat who couldn't have found a more perfect mouthpiece than the one supplied by Susie Essman, the sharp-tongued comedian who berated Larry David so bawdily on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Naturally, Essman plays PG-feisty rather than foulmouthed here. But she projects just the right hiss of mischief. When Bolt believes that Styrofoam packing material is his kryptonite - a mystery element that weakens him - Mittens cleverly endorses the lie.

read full recap