Bolt (2008)
Directed by Chris Williams
Bolt is the star of the biggest show in Hollywood. The only problem is, he thinks it's real. After he's accidentally shipped to New York City and separated from Penny, his beloved co-star and owner, Bolt must harness all his "super powers" to find a way home.
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Bolt lives on a Los Angeles sound stage constructed for his benefit to make him a more convincing animal actor; he spends every day in what seems like an 8-year-old's version of The Truman Show, saving his human friend Penny ( Miley Cyrus ) from nefarious, well-armed terrorists.
As written by Chris Williams and Dan Fogelman, and co-directed by Williams and Byron Howard, "Bolt" also has an intriguing plot that is kind of the family animation version of the Jim Carrey-starring "The Truman Show."
Like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, the pup is not in on the secret that what he calls life is mindless entertainment for the masses.
But as Bolt finds when he escapes his trailer one day, that's all make-believe, a canine version of "The Truman Show."
A cross-breed of the live-action Disney adventure The Incredible Journey and the Big Brother aspects of The Truman Show, the computer-animated Bolt is the story of a sheltered dog who learns to make friends and think for himself when confronted with the real world.
Remember when you saw “The Truman Show” and thought, “Gee, this would have been better if instead of Jim Carrey it was a dog”?
Though every frame is great to look at, "Bolt's" script - by the co-writers of "Mulan" and "Cars" - lacks the wit of its closest Pixar relative, "The Incredibles."
This is a Disney film, so there's never any real question regarding Bolt and his friends' ultimate success or failure, but the writing team of Dan Fogelman (Cars) and co-director Williams (Mulan) has concocted one of the most witty and often hilarious Disney outings in years.
"Bolt" is also the directorial debut of Disney animation department vets Byron Howard and Chris Williams ("Mulan"), who cowrote the screenplay with Dan Fogelman ("Cars"), another Disney/Pixar marriage.
Animators Byron Howard and Chris Williams, whose previous work includes Chicken Little and Mulan, slide into the director's chair for the first time.
Bolt is the first animated Disney feature to be fully produced under John Lasseter’s watch, and the fact that it unspools like Pixar-light is at once a qualified compliment (hey, it’s better than prior Mouse House originals like Treasure Planet !) and further proof that Pixar’s greatest strength doesn’t derive simply from Lasseter’s (admittedly vital) imagination but, instead, from its collaborative environment of uniquely creative minds.