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Multiplex: Bolt

Shamed by Pixar’s far superior CG animation and box-office hegemony, Walt Disney Studios gobbled up the pacesetting animavericks back in 2006. Now they’re rolling out an old grindhouse format for their latest lost-puppy odyssey: 3-D. Far out! Too bad the talking animals look like they’re grimacing from Bell’s palsy. (Did the Pixar geeks hold back on their corporate overlords or just drop the big, red rubber ball? Were they even involved?) Voiced by the once underused, now overexposed John Travolta (whose appeal to children is...what exactly?), Bolt is about a feisty white pooch who works in TV—as an action star—and nurtures exotic power fantasies about his nonexistent super-canine abilities. Accidentally displaced to New York from Hollywood, he hits the road home with two nutty pals in tow. Ho hum de dum. How many versions of The Incredible Journey are we going to see in our lifetime, Walt? Peel your cryogenically frozen fingers from the haloed Disney playbook and give us a new tale (even a Toy Story) to lose ourselves in, please. Can’t you teach an old dog new tricks?

Posted on 11/12/08 by: FilmCatcher5 02:26 PM

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