BOLT (Chris Williams, Byron Howard). 96 minutes. Opens Friday (November 21). Rating: NNN
Bolt may be a lesser breed than, say, Kung Fu Panda or Wall-E, but this high-concept pooch has a few tricks of its own to delight parents and their pups.
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The titular canine (John Travolta) is the star of his own television series, but he doesn’t know it because he re sides in a studio-built Plato’s cave that keeps him believing he’s a superhero. Bolt suffers an existential crisis of sorts when a mishap lands him on the outside and he realizes that his eyes don’t actually shoot laser bolts.
When he’s not making cute pouty faces, Bolt is a rather flat character. However, the supporting cast of talking animals entertains, among them a dry-humoured cat, a geekishly funny hamster and pigeons from both New Yawk and the Hills who poke fun at their culture gap.
It’s also refreshing to see 3-D (at select theatres) that enhances the animation without compromising the narrative for gimmicky thrills.
