48. Bolt (2008)

With John Lasseter’s increased involvement, Bolt continued Meet the Robinson’s attempts to revitalise the struggling Disney formula, further improving on the computer animation quality and storytelling techniques. However, while Lasseter’s involvement is not inherently a bad thing, I’m not sure it does that many favours for Bolt, which ultimately ends up feeling a lot more like somebody trying to remake a Pixar movie than it does its own, unique film.

The computer animation here is much, much better than anything we’ve seen from Disney before, in fact, it’s such a jump from the previous year’s Meet the Robinsons alone that it’s kind of astounding. The quality and attention to detail, particularly in the background and the textures and the character designs are all very nice and finally start to feel like Disney’s 2D animation has been transferred into the third dimension, unlike something like Chicken Little or Dinosaur, which just felt like ugly or unappealing computer models which didn’t look like Disney characters at all. The Disney animators still haven’t fully perfected their style of a computer animated movie – as, amongst other things, the visual style of Bolt owes a little too much to Pixar – but it’s definitely a big step up from their initial attempts and you can see they’re very close to developing an approach that totally works for them.

‘You are a DOG! 

You are a child’s PLAYTHING!’ 

The film has a basic, but interesting concept, following the eponymous Bolt, a dog who plays the role of a superhero on a TV show, but thinks it’s all real, who has to get home to Hollywood to “rescue” his owner, Penny, after he is accidentally shipped to New York. This is not a bad idea, but it has been done better, before, particularly in Toy Story, showing yet another debt to Pixar; this isn’t that noticeable at first, but honestly, the longer the movie goes on, the more and more it feels like you’re just watching Toy Story with animals. I don’t know what it is but I just can’t get into Bolt; it’s a decent idea, the pacing is good, it has an emotional core and it hits all the appropriate story points, but it just never really feels like it gets off the ground for me, even though it seems to do everything it should. Maybe that’s the problem, that it’s too predictable, too by-the-book, too generic, it does things exactly how you would expect this kind of story to do them and never surprises you; the film doesn’t do anything wrong, per se, but it does so little with its initially strong concept that it leaves you feeling disappointed. Honestly, as deliberately cheesy and over-the-top as it is, I think I would have rather seen the film follow the plot of Bolt’s TV show, with the story of a teenager and her super dog fighting an evil terrorist organisation, than this rather simplistic road trip story; there, they could have parodied the nature of such shows like Johnny Quest, alongside typical superhero and action movie tropes, whilst having fun with seeing just how over-the-top and silly they could make things, but still maintaining an emotional connection between Penny and Bolt. As it is, Bolt just has nothing to sink its teeth into.

But first, let me take a selfie

The characters are also generic and distinctly Pixar in their designs and personalities – Bolt himself is pretty boring; as the arrogant, oblivious blowhard who thinks he’s a superhero but is really just a normal guy, he’s a lot like Buzz Lightyear, except with much less personality. There’s nothing unlikeable about him, but the writers do so little with this idea that he ends up left to do very little himself; even when he discovers he’s just an actor and doesn’t have super powers, in comparison to Buzz’s mental and emotional breakdown, Bolt just kind of shrugs and says ‘eh whatever’, which sums up his character pretty effectively. Penny is a sweet, friendly girl, but not much else, though she does fall out of focus early on, only occasionally being seen to be sad that Bolt is missing; in these respects she’s a lot like Andy, the benevolent owner that Woody/Bolt is so desperate to get back to, but they start to worry if they truly care about them at all, only to be rewarded for their faith in the end when they are welcomed back with open arms. She’s a plot device, something for Bolt to get back to, nothing more. 

Mittens the cat is a typical snarky sidekick – cynical, sarcastic, cunning, she plays the straight man to the other two main characters and calls them out on their wacky behaviour. Her role is a necessary one for the kind of jokes the movies wants to tell and some of her interactions with the other characters do have good, humorous set-ups, but somehow the joke never really works its way all the way through, at least for me anyway. This aspect of her character resembles Woody in the first Toy Story, where he plays the sarcastic, neurotic straight man to Buzz, while her softer side resembles Jessie from Toy Story 2, as we learn she was once a housecat, but was abandoned by her human owners and has since come to believe that any love a human shows for its pet is superficial and temporary, just as Jessie believes that all children will ultimately forget about their toys, like her owner Emily did with her. Again, not a bad idea for a character, but clearly not a very original one either. Rhino the hamster is the goofy comic relief; he’s an eccentric, obsessive fan of Bolt who wants to be a hero too and is constantly hamming it up in his attempts to do so. He’s a bit more annoying than funny, but not excessively so and he does get a couple of funny lines; he’s a good representative for the film’s sense of humour as a whole – you can see what the writers are going for and technically it should work, but somehow, you rarely find yourself laughing. Similarly, there’s nothing wrong with these characters, but there’s nothing all that right about them either; I didn’t dislike them, but never found myself really caring about them, they are just another part of the film which is objectively done well, but never really excels beyond doing what it’s supposed to do.

‘You are a sad, strange little cat and you have my pity’

Bolt is a perfectly decent movie and at times quite a fun one, with some exciting action sequences, but ultimately it feels lacking in identity. It borrows too liberally from Pixar movies, particularly Toy Story and seems to exist solely to tick off a bunch of boxes in respect to its narrative and characterisation, rather than to tell a story it seemed especially interested in telling. It’s okay and mostly a step in the right direction compared to some of Disney’s last few films, being technically better made and much better animated than Meet the Robinsons – if not quite as creative – but Bolt is, ironically enough, missing the spark necessary to take it any further than just being okay.


5.5/10

Next Week: The Princess and the Frog!

Email: joetalksaboutstuff@gmail.com

Twitter: @JSChilds

47. Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Despite the appalling failure of Chicken Little, Disney stuck to their plan to develop only computer animated films, continuing in 2007 with Meet the Robinsons. Though Disney had not yet mastered computer animation and was still unsure of how to reconcile their old style with the attitudes of the new millennium, the film does benefit from the fact that John Lasseter had recently become chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, bringing with him his experience in computer animated films and a sense of creativity that Disney desperately needed. Consequently, Meet the Robinsons is a shaky movie of ups and downs, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to dislike it.

The computer animation is a definite step-up from Chicken Little, but of course, that’s not really saying much. The character designs are more in line with Disney’s style, much rounder and softer than the jagged, awkward ones of Chicken Little and the textures and backgrounds in particular are much more detailed. Initially, the animation still feels stilted and lifeless in comparison to Disney’s traditionally animated movies, but once the movie makes the move to the future, things get a lot crazier and, as a result, the animation is allowed to be a lot more exaggerated and energised. The overall design of the future has a kind of 50’s, retro-futuristic look to it that is really cool and suits the film’s tone well; as I said, the animation of the characters is better here, particularly non-human characters such as Carl, the robot, who are allowed to move in very imaginative ways. This creates a distinct difference between the past and future settings, which actually serves the film quite well in the long run, as the rather drab and weakly animated opening gives way to a much better animated second and third act, similar to the shift to anamorphic widescreen and brighter colours that appears in Brother Bear. The film is still lacking in the quality of Disney’s 2D animation, but it does manage to recreate some of its joy and charm. 

Froggy Valli and the Four Seasons

Similarly, the film opens with a weak plot, a simple story about a misunderstood orphan who simply wants a family and decides to seek out his long-lost mother; the dialogue is incredibly weak and sappy and any attempts at humour are equally poor, resulting in a very boring first act. However, the story, like the animation, gets a lot better once the main characters travel to the future, due to the fact that things just kind of take a back-seat to the Robinson family and all the jokes one can squeeze out of them. The second act is basically just a lot of goofing around, with the third act bringing back the plot as our hero, Lewis, has to defeat the villain, fix the timeline and save his newfound family; it never returns to the dullness of the first act, however and when things do become emotional again, they no longer feel too sappy. Despite these emotional moments, the film is essentially a comedy and a very wacky one at that; it’s constantly throwing all different kinds of jokes at you, from visual gags, to physical humour, to adult jokes, to character based stuff, to weirdly specific references and while admittedly, many of them miss the mark, some of them really are funny and even the misses never flop too bad. Though not as funny as it wants to be, you have to admire the film’s almost constant efforts to get you to laugh, as they feel honest, rather than the cynical, phoned-in attempts at humour scattered throughout Chicken Little and Home on the Range. 

Robinson P.I.

The characters are mostly shallow, one-note personalities, but intentionally so, for the sake of comedy, so you can cut the film some slack for not really having a very well developed cast. Lewis is a fairly typical Disney kid hero, he lost his family and feels like an outcast, searching for a place to belong, he has great ideas, but they are considered unconventional and ignored by others, he is a nice, ordinary guy who is capable of greater things than he expected yada yada it’s the same old stuff. He can be a bit bratty at times, but isn’t too bad and despite being a bit of a cliché, you do feel for him when it counts. Wilbur is cocky, mischievous and reckless, but isn’t quite as fun as he should be, he’s just a little too obnoxious and doesn’t always gel well with the rest of the cast; still, he never gets too irritating or anything and he definitely takes a step back in the second act to let the rest of his family shine. Bowler Hat Guy is a comically pathetic villain, but he works a lot better than recent examples such as Alameda Slim from Home on the Range. He has foundations in characters like Captain Hook, constantly scheming from the shadows and thinking highly of himself, but being outwitted by the heroes without even any visible effort, but I personally find him more enjoyable. Though he can at times be a little too much, I do think he’s pretty funny; he has a great design which looks like Dick Dastardly on meth and his movements are so gangly and awkward that it makes for some good visual humour. He actually has a back story too and while it is a simple one, it’s nice to see the actual reason a villain does what he does, rather than just because he’s evil and to have him redeemed in the end; his motivations and back story tie in well with the film’s message and central themes as well, strengthening his antagonistic role and relationship with the hero. 

Sick Dastardly and Hattley 

Doris is a good villainous sidekick and one of the type we don’t see very often from Disney: the much more competent partner who has no choice but to put up with their bumbling “leader”.Though she never talks and doesn’t have any facial expressions, the animators still manage to project a lot of personality through Doris, allowing for some impressive silent, physical humour and good interactions with Bowler Hat Guy; they make a good team. Carl is anxious, neurotic and a little sarcastic, kind of like a slightly more positive C-3PO; he doesn’t do that much and is a bit too loud, but is mostly a lot of fun when he’s on screen. As for the rest of the titular Robinsons, there’s a few too many for me to really go into them all in detail, so I’ll just say that they all have very distinct designs and personalities, with their own little quirks and comic attributes; they are shallow as individuals, but work well as a group of wacky, fun characters to bounce different jokes off of and the film’s energy jumps 100% when they’re around. Overall, not an especially interesting cast, but an enjoyable one.

Subtlety

Meet the Robinsons is hardly a great film and it stumbles a lot along the way, particularly in its tedious opening act, but it is much more likeable than the last couple of cynical, effortless pieces of drivel Disney had put out at the time. Unlike the soulless Home on the Range and the mean-spirited Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons is positive, optimistic and eccentric, throwing out a lot of jokes that are overly wacky, but with some real gems hidden in there, alongside a moral that can at times be a bit too obvious and sentimental, but ultimately feels earned and even a little touching; even through all the weaker parts, I truly feel that the film believes in its own message - “Keep Moving Forward”. It’s nothing all that special, but overall I find it very sweet, good-natured and thankfully, entertaining. 


5.5/10

Next Week: Bolt!

Email: joetalksaboutstuff@gmail.com

Twitter: @JSChilds