The Film
Movie studios have gone a bit doggie lately. It's no wonder, kids and adults love cute little puppy faces. On disc this year alone we've had Space Buddies, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and later this month Marley and Me. But Bolt may stand out as the top dog (sorry, couldn't resist) in canine Blu-ray Discs for 2009.
Bolt will surly be a hit among the 7-to-11 crowd for at least one reason, Miley Cyrus, who plays the voice for Bolt's "person," Penny. The star himself is voiced by John Travolta. Penny and Bolt star in a TV show about a super dog and his girl and their continuing adventures as they battle the forces of evil in the form of Dr. Calico and his nasty feline side kick. In this show, dogs = good; cats = degenerate creatures of darkness, at least for a little while.
Bolt is a dog caught up in the illusion of his TV show, until a series of predictable accidents toss him out of his studio trailer and into the real world. He ends up in New York City, still believing he's a super dog, and needs to find his way back to save Penny, who he thinks has been kidnapped by Dr. Calico. On his way back across the country he teams up with Mittens the streetwise cat and Rhino the unflappable hamster--a huge Bolt fan. And the rest of the movie finds the unlikely heroes trying to hep Bolt find his way back home.
Need a second opinion? Check out Karen Dahlstrohm's review of the 3D theatrical release of BOLT.
Disney consistently puts out Blu-ray Discs that make great reference material for home theaters. Bolt is no different. The 1.78.1 aspect ratio fills a 16:9 screen nicely, unlike the annoying 2.35:1 (if accurate) presentation of Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Some scenes could look a little flat, but most of the movie is flush with details, especially close-ups of Bolt's rippling fur. Some of the bonus features are not so perfect though.
The Sound
Disney knows surround. The opening chase sequence of Bolt rivals anything James Bond ever did. The surrounds fill with enemy jet fighters while the LFE channel booms with Bolt's sonic super bark. If your setup allows it, use the DTS-HD Master Audio track, but if not, the Dolby Digital track also sounds good.
The Extras
Bolt on BD is busting with bonus features. First, not only do you get the BD disc itself, with an extra digital copy disc (for filling up your iPod or Zune), but Disney is now packaging a standard DVD with its top movies (Bolt included) so you can also play it in your minivan. Thank you Disney for treating us like humans not cash boxes.
Other notable bonus features include the standard deleted scenes, a short feature focusing on the hamster, a music video with Miley Cyrus and John Travolta, a video game and a concept gallery. It's enough to keep your kids up way past their bedtime. As with other Disney releases on Blu-ray, expect a fine assortment of BD-Live features as well, though these are not available yet 11 days before the street date.
Also, although not technically an "extra" the Blu-ray version of Bolt provides additional incentive to go High Definition: the Blu-ray Disc with bonus DVD will be available in stores two days before the standard DVD version (March 22 for Blu-ray, March 24 for DVD).
Final Thoughts
I'm a fan of several Pixar films for their ability to appeal to parents as much as kids, and Bolt fits neatly into that category. Some of the one-liners are real belly busters, even if the kids don't get them. With very three-dimensional characters, a well-paced story and technically-awesome presentation, Bolt is one I'll probably sit through more than once. I just hope I can get that Miley Cyrus song out of my head.
Editor's note: Bolt on Blu-ray currently has problems playing back on a Panasonic DMP-BD35 or DMP-BD55 with the 1.7 firmware installed, though it plays fine on units with 1.5 firmware. It also plays back fine on a PS3 and on a Samsung BD-P2500. The symptom is that it will not load the menu on affected players (though the trailers play fine). Also, as a workaround, you can unplug the network cable which does allow the menu to load. Thanks to Josh on Blu-ray.com and Ralph and Dave on avsforum for the heads-up. We will notify Panasonic about this issue and hope they will be able to provide a fix in firmware on or before the release date.
UPDATE: This appears to have been fixed by a change by Disney to their back-end BD-Live servers.
Where to Buy:
Product Details:
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Movie | |
| Extras |
