Review: Bolt [3D]

“A Hero Is Unleased.”

Due to a massive cold, the holidays and vacation I’ve fallen behind with reviews. Luckily today is a slow work day so I can finally catch up! 

We went to see Bolt when we got to the theater too late to see The Spirit originally… but I’m happy. Bolt in 3D was a lot of fun! It had been in the theaters for a while at that point and there were other kiddie movies out so it was relatively quiet, which was nice. 

Bolt [voiced by John Travolta] is the story of a pooch that thinks he’s a super hero because he has no idea that all his “powers” are carefully orchestrated special effects for a hit TV show, of which he is the star. Ratings start to slide because the audience knows the Bolt formula of him always saving his ‘person,’ Penny [voiced by Miley Cyrus] at the end of every episode, so the studio demands they change things up. The Director doesn’t like it ubt complies [voiced by James Lipton] and give the audience a cliffhanger ending for the season finale by having Penny be captured by the ‘evil Dr. Calico’… [voiced in classic villain style by Malcolm McDowell].

Being that Bolt lives in a Truman Show type world, he has no idea that Penny is safe and sound at home with her Mom, and escapes from his trailer to save her in what ends up being a crazy, cross-country adventure full of danger and furry sidekicks… including an ‘evil’ cat named ‘Mittens’ [voiced by Susie Essman] and a fiesty little hamster/superfan named ‘Rhino.’

The best part of this movie for me was Rhino the hamster [voiced by Mark Walton]. He was hilarious! Some of the lines had me in stitches. In classic Disney style, there were the sad moments and the lessons to be learned, but they weren’t dragged out too long… 

As for the animation and the 3D effects, they were top-notch. I actually didn’t know it was 3D until the ticket girl handed us the glasses. Then I got annoyed because the thought of wearing those heavy, cheap glasses for 103 minutes wasn’t appealing, but they were surprisingly comfortable [not like the old IMAX 3d glasses] and once I got used to the whole 3D thing, I LOVED it. I’m actually looking forward to seeing live-action movies in 3D to see how they do with that. 

For the fun, humor, effects and overall experience, Bolt is a solid…

3 1/2 out of 5

[as an adult... I'm sure it's even higher for kids!]

Add’l Info: Released: Nov 21, 2008 • Runtime: 103 minutes • Rated PG for some mild action and peril • Photo credit: Copyright © Walt Disney Pictures via allmoviephoto.com

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

“Prepare to see Star Wars like you’ve never seen it before”

My husband, Russ, saw this one on Friday while I was at a bookclub meeting, so he’s written this review for me… hence the different format and writing style. Thanks Honey!

Plot summary:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes place between the two most recent Star Wars films (Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith). With the war raging between Count Dooku and his Separatist droid army and the Clone army of the Galactic Republic, Anakin Skywalker has been dispatched by the Jedi Council to locate and rescue Jabba the Hut’s son who has been kidnapped by renegades. Since the Hutt’s control a prime area of space trade routes, whoever has Jabba’s favor will have use of these routes and thus gain a significant advantage over their opponent. However, the plot thickens as we learn there are more sinister forces are at work.

Review:
This film has some of the best animation I have seen. If you liked the Clone/Droid battle sequences from the last three films, this movie will not disappoint. 

While the film is definitely geared toward a younger audience, this isn’t “A Land Before Time” or “A Bug’s Life”. The Clone Wars introduces the audience to Ahsoko Tano who is Anakin’s new Padawan learner (basically, an apprentice). She is somewhat of know-it-all teenager, thus the connection to the younger audience. – There is also some well placed humor in this movie.

Another reason to see this film is that Anakin Skywalker is not portrayed as the excessively whiny and angry Jedi he was in the last three films, but rather a more focused and masculine character. There is also a new villain as well, Asajj Ventress who is like Darth Maul’s sister from “Episode I” but actually talks.

Also, if you’re like me, when you see an animated film you’re always wondering whose voice it is you’re hearing. While Christopher Lee (Count Dooku), Anthony Daniels (C3PO), and Sam Jackson (Mace Windu) all reprise their roles, most of the voices you’ll hear are not the actors/actresses from the last three films. However you probably won’t notice since they come from people that do the voiceovers from the Star Wars video games.

Be wary of Star Wars “purists” that will not be satisfied with anything until George Lucas brings back the original crew of Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewy. This movie is an enjoyable action packed adventure for small and big kids alike.

This is the first animated feature film from Lucasfilm animation.

Add’l Info: Release Date: Aug 15, 2008 • Runtime: 98 minutes • Rated PG for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language and momentary smoking • Photo credit: Copyright © Warner Bros. Pictures via allmoviephoto.com

This Week’s Previews [7.13.08]

This weeks previews were all over the place in terms of genre and release dates. I’m going to put them all in one post vs. devoting separate posts to each… Here’s a quick summary of each with the current release date [we all know they change them at will, so these could be wrong next week for all I know...].

Jump to read about College, Clone Wars, Quarantine, The next Mummy and Death Race…

A Scanner Darkly

“What Does A Scanner See?”

Before I get into this one, I have to let you know that this movie was animated by hand – each frame was painted. This is not some slick filter they’re running it through. Being from an illustrative background, I was floored when I learned this after watching the special features. So you’re watching actual performances that are painted, which I think was a very cool effect and lent itself perfectly to the mood and feel of the movie.  

A Scanner Darkly sat on our livingroom table for probably a good 3 months [thank goodness no late fees... we love netflix] before we finally watched it. Mostly because we really didn’t know what it was about and we were never in the mood – or we were and didn’t know it… This movie is awesome. The writing, the animation, the acting, and especially the dialog… when we finally DID watch it, we looked at eachother and I said, “I want to watch this again. NOW.“