Blu-ray Review: Bolt

Let’s face it, when it comes to Disney movies these days, there’s Disney movies and there’s Disney-Pixar movies. While the latter is responsible for producing the standard in awesome animation movies, the former is storied, but not necessarily the best. So you can imagine that I lowered my expectations when a Blu-ray review copy of Bolt came in the mail.

But I shouldn’t have. Bolt is a great animated piece and arguably as good as some of Pixar’s “average” movies.

John Travolta-voiced Bolt is a pampered show business dog that has no idea where fantasy ends and reality begins. As the star of the series, Bolt has uber superpowers and teams up with his owner Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus) to stop criminals and no-do-gooders. Things get crazy for Bolt when he becomes separated from Penny and finds himself on a country-wide journey to find her. The only problem is that he doesn’t realize that the superpowers he has in the TV show aren’t real. Joining him for the ride is a cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino.

The movie is surprisingly charming and Travolta is solid as the lead. But Susie Essman and Mark Walton are equally integral to the show as Mittens and Rhino. I didn’t care for Cyrus as the voice of Penny and she just didn’t seem to fit in the movie well. The good news is that Penny doesn’t play a huge part in the film; it’s really all about Bolt.

This Disney film is yet another in the library of family-fun classics and is something both the kids and the adults will enjoy.

The Blu-ray release has a lot of offer as well. Take a look at the special features included:

* Super Rhino – BOLT breakout star Rhino, the hyperactive hamster, gets a chance to headline his very own adventure!

* “I Thought I Lost You” Music Video featuring the movie’s stars, Miley Cyrus and John Travolta, In Session with John Travolta and Miley Cyrus - A behind-the-scenes look at recording Bolt’s signature song “I Thought I Lost You.” You could probably tell that I’m not a fan of Miley Cyrus and these two features are nothing short of nausea-inducing

* A New Breed of Directors: A Filmmakers’ Journey - First-time directors Chris Williams and Byron Howard take fans along as they traverse the road from concept to completion.

* Act, Speak! The Voices of Bolt - Join the voice cast in session: John Travolta (Bolt), Miley Cyrus (Penny), Susie Essman (Mittens), James Lipton (Director) and Mark Walton (Rhino). This is a cool featurette and shows the typical look into how the cast was brought together and recorded.

* Creating The World of Bolt – Bolt’s painterly backgrounds have wowed audiences across the globe. The filmmakers explain how they fashioned the unique look of this CG movie. I especially liked this feature because it speaks to the art direction of the movie, which is noticeably awesome when watching.

Blu-ray Exclusives
* Bolt’s Be-Awesome Mission - In order to defeat the Green-Eyed Man, Bolt has to find his way through three challenging levels in an exciting interactive game. This one will keep the kids busy for a little while; it’s a moderately fun game to play through.

* Bolt Art Gallery – Animation enthusiasts can check out the film’s early creative concepts in the Bolt Art Gallery, which contains the building blocks of a big screen blockbuster, from storyboards to character mock-ups. Gallery sections include Visual Development, Character Development, Storyboard Art and Color Script Images.

* BD-Live including Movie Chat, Movie Mail, Movie Challenge and Movie Rewards