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That was a smart move by the marketing people. The hamster, whose name is Rhino, is by far the best thing in the movie. He isn't funny, exactly, but he is funnyish, which will have to do.
The problem is, he doesn't show up until the film is halfway over.
Made by the otherwise brilliant folks at Pixar and Disney, "Bolt" is a pastiche, an uncomfortable mish-mash of ideas that fails to blend into a cohesive whole. For most of its length, it resembles "The Incredible Journey," the classic children's tale of three animals returning home on a trip that takes them hundreds of miles.
Part of it is like an animal version of "The Truman Show," the Jim Carrey film about a man who discovers that his entire life has been a national television show. And part of it resembles "The Player," "Tropic Thunder" and other comedies about Hollywood, filled with far too many in-jokes about the process of making movies or television, and the people who make them.
After a funny parody of action shows -- again, children won't get the jokes, and neither will most of their parents -- the film begins a quick decline. John Travolta recognizably provides the voice of Bolt, the dog who is the star of his own TV show, and thinks it is reality.
Mistakenly believing his beloved person (well-voiced by Miley Cyrus) is in danger, Bolt escapes from the Los Angeles studio and winds up being shipped to New York City. There, he discovers he does not seem to possess the superpowers he always thought he had.
Trying to set him right is a cat with a New York attitude (Susie Essman), and together the two determine to travel back across the country to reunite Bolt with his person.
Along the way, they have adventures. But they aren't very adventurous adventures, except one on top of a moving train, which only points out how unadventurous the other adventures are. They also meet Rhino, which helps, but only somewhat.
The climax is hokey but fun, and the final several minutes are made with precisely the kind of heart that is missing from the rest of the film. Even so, the animation -- which is smooth, fluid and creative -- suffers from wild fluctuations of scale.
That's a mistake for amateurs to make, not the professionals at Disney and Pixar.
Contact Daniel Neman at (804) 649-6408 or .
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