The Film
Sorry for the title of this article, but, man, that hyper-active hamster in the plastic ball has an infectious personality. At any rate, you can read my initial take on Bolt from my review of it’s theatrical release here. While I still think it’s a fine film that falls short of greatness, I can report that my now four year-old’s appreciation has only grown. He now owns a stuffed Bolt that goes with us everywhere and is his “good boy.” Again, my son falls into the main target demographic for this film, so if his interest hasn’t waned then a job well done to Disney. I’ve seen it enough times now to recognize the hand of Pixar (Pixar’s John Lassiter over saw this film), but I still think it tries too hard in the heart-wrenching department. Still, talking dogs have been and continue to be Disney’s forte, so I definitely recommend you buy this one instead of renting.
Hey, before we get into the special features, here’s some Bolt Fun Facts! (click to enlarge)
Special Features
I’ve made no secret that Rhino the hamster is my favorite part of Bolt and my loyalty has been rewarded on this DVD release. There is a new animated short called, appropriately enough, Super Rhino and has the little guy dreaming a “what if” scenario whereby he gets the same enhancement treatment as the titular pooch. His super-squeek is be-awesome!
You will also find the music video to “I Thought I Lost You” featuring singing by John Travolta and Miley Cyrus as well as a feature on how the song and video came together, “In Session with John Travolta and Miley Cyrus.”
The meatier featurettes are found in the Backstage Disney section. Here you get “A New Breed of Directors: A Filmmakers’ Journey”, which shows how Lassiter and Pixar’s approach to animated filmmaking informed the making of Bolt. “Act, Speak! The Voices of Bolt” features the voice actors, specifically Miley Cyrus, and “Creating the world of Bolt” gets more into the nuts and bolts (forgive the pun) of making an animated film.
To round things off are a couple of storyboarded deleted scenes: “Dog Fight In Vegas” and “River Sequence”, with optional introduction by Chris Williams and Byron Howard. Neither add anything to the main film, although the latter would have meant more Rhino, so, you know, I’m a big fan.
This release also continues the new trend by Disney of having the Blu-Ray also include the standard DVD, which I wholly support. If you are planning on going Blu-Ray soon you can go ahead and get the Blu-Ray and still be able to watch the film and some of the extras on your existing equipment. I’d like to see more studios release these combo packs and I suspect they are they way of the near-future.
Now, as an added special treat from Pop Culture Zoo, here’s an exclusive Q & A with director of the Bolt TV Show! (Click to enlarge)
