Super Woofer

Superheroism is rapidly becoming the most overused movie theme of all time. After the massive success of Spider-man, a year hasn’t passed when there isn’t at least one movie that birthed, expanded, deconstructed superheroes’ lives. These movies make it look like people can’t be bothered to see anything involving normal characters anymore: everyone has to be a superhuman or even a super-animal. I don’t know if recent moviegoers do indeed feel that way, and that’s certainly a topic worthy of further discussion.

Bolt, fully animated in 3d, is Disney’s foray into the super-something niche. The titular dog, along with his owner Penny, stars in an action TV series that shows him doing preternatural stunts (he could run faster than any moving vehicles, knock humans unconscious with his paw, and wreak havoc by barking). The studio arranges the show in such a way that Bolt believes what happens in TV is real.  So one day, when Penny leaves him for personal reasons, he mistakes this for her being kidnapped. He goes out to find her, inadvertently stumbling into a delivery truck and getting shut inside a box, which then ships from Hollywood to Manhattan.

Being taken very far hasn’t, however, dissuaded him from searching for Penny. Believing what has happened to him as merely another adventure (that he gets on TV), he wanders around, asking for directions and coercing various other animals to take him back. This leads him to Mittens, a female back-alley cat, and Rhino, a hamster constantly inside a transparent ball. In their travels, Bolt becomes increasingly frustrated with one thing: his superpowers don’t work.

For those of you who’ve been reading my recent updates and cringing from their orneriness, the good news is that I don’t have many bad things to say about Bolt. While it will not set a new standard for CG movies and while it is not free of the problems prevalent in Disney movies (such as the propensity for loquacious sidekicks and sentimental endings), Bolt is, most of the time, a pleasant watch. Visualize the typical Sunday scene of an entire family on a sofa, grinning ear-to-ear in front of a TV. They’re probably watching Bolt, and that’s why they’re happy, but don’t expect the kids to stay happy for long when their parents start inculcating them with its moral lessons. And also when their parents tell them that Miley Cyrus (voice of Penny) is whatever TMZ.com is making her out to be.

Come and think of it, I have always wondered why there are many who find Miley irritating. I don’t know about her besides her being the daughter of the man responsible for achy-breaky destruction of the airwaves back in the 90s, and if you show me her picture (with a smile that is said to arouse feelings of repulsion) I will just forget what she looks like after a minute. I don’t have an eidetic memory for blondes. Like how I am to the color of her hair, I found her performance in Bolt forgettable, mainly due to Penny’s brief appearances.

The real stars of the show are John Travolta and Susie Essman. By any lesser casts, Bolt would be reduced to a boring and predictable movie with occasional hints to greatness, but thanks to Travolta (voice of Bolt) and Essman (voice of Mittens), it reaches. Bolt is believable as a naïve, clueless dog who honest-to-God believes in his superpowers; Mittens is convincing as a bitter, pessimistic cat. Mark Walton is also great as Rhino, even if I’m annoyed at Rhino’s sugar-overdose buoyancy. Their interplays throughout the movie are a funny and often a joy to watch – one of its best scenes is when Mittens proves an incredulous Bolt that Bolt is not the superdog that he thinks he is.

I got the impression that the movie is saying that one doesn’t need to be superpowered to do the right thing. Maybe that’s a message that should resonate with its viewers, but I wonder if it also means to remind movie studios that a compelling story does not always require super characters.

Something to think about.