Review: Bold 3-D (3/5)

Bolt 3-D
(Bryan Howard, Chris Williams):
Voices: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton,
Malcolm McDowell
Running time: 103 minutes (G)

The new Pixar cartoon is cute alright, though unconventionally conventional. The out-of-orbit pizzazz of Wall-e has crashed to earth for a recognisable dog-out-of-water road adventure, collared, of course, with Pixar’s knowing meta mash.
Bolt, the star of a TV espionage show, goes missing and just like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, he must learn that his entire world is a fake. He thinks he’s a real superhero, but superpowers are worked by hidden stunt men. He turns tail when he is shipped by accident to New York but thinks it’s part of the show. Does Penny (Miley Cyrus), his TV-show owner, really love him? Or is she fake too? Bolt has to find her and find his true self. The characters are winsome: Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) makes something cuddly and sympathetic out of a hapless heroism; while scrawny alley cat Mittens (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Susie Essman) is a sarcastic Bronx yenta. (Tied together, travelling across America, their human ancestors are It Happened One Night’s Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert). The spotlight shines, however, for Rhino (Mark Walton), a hamster with a stoner, fanboy complex. His the incarnation of Jonah Hill’s bozo enthusiasm but much funnier (he gets the belly laughs). If you happen to see Bolt in 3-D, and you happen to be a child, I’m sure it will add an extra layer of fun. For this viewer, 3-D is meddlesome: it’s hard to lose yourself in a movie when characters appear under your nose, a constant reminder of the gimmick that is 3-D.