So, we ended up skipping the show at El Capitan – $26 a person, including the little one was just a bit more than my wallet could bear this weekend. Instead, we trucked on over to the local, but still nice, stadium seating theater one town over. Sure, the adult matinee price was $9, but The Kid™ is still free, and we smuggled in some of her favorite treats so she chowed down on trail mix instead of Sno-Caps™ and soda.
Things started off a bit hairy when she decided she didn’t want to even enter the theater. We’ve hit the stage where things that didn’t frighten her one day scare her spitless 24 hours later for no apparent reason, and for a minute the theater going experience seemed to have ended up on that particular hit list. Luckily, she calmed down as soon as we got to the seats and the previews lit across the screen. After seeing the trailer twice now, I’ve duly noted that she’s pretty completely enamored with the Blob from the “Monster vs Aliens” flick they’ve been advertising, but I’m not sure she could handle the fighting the movie seems to promise.
As for “Bolt,” she pretty much loved it and The Wife™ and I both enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s not quite a Pixar-level movie, but the gap has definitely been closed betwixt Disney and their step-sibling studio. Frankly, the best parts of the movie were the snippets of the TV show Bolt is the star of. I’m sincerely hoping that Disney has a primetime cartoon in the works that would expand upon this aspect of the movie, but after the ridiculously low opening weekend, I’m not holding out any kind of hope for such a franchise expansion.
For the most part, my daughter loved the show. She was pretty much sucked into it as soon as the opening scene started, and she didn’t really squirm that much fr the next 90 minutes or so. There were a few times she ended up in Mommy’s lap – when Bolt is separated from Penny early on and in the scary portion of the last act, she was a bit overwhelmed and needed some maternal comforting. She was able to compose herself and get back to enjoying the show quickly enough both times, though, and she even danced in her seat a bit during the obligatory montage sequence.
All in all, it was a highly recommended way to spend a Sunday morning with the family. As much as “Madagascar 2” was an enjoyable romp, “Bolt” surpasses it in terms of quality, outright entertainment value and Grown-Up-Watchability. We’lle defintely end up with both on DVD at some point, but I’ll be much happier when the dog is in the player.
Interesting bit of trivia – “even though there’s a complete soundtrack available for “Bolt,” only three songs were listed in the end credits. And one of them, Motorhead’s “Dog-Faced Boy,” doesn’t even appear on the CD.
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on Nov 25th, 2008 at 8:12 am
The fam has earmarked Bolt for the first annual Turkey Day at The Movies. So, it’s good to hear that the show sounds as good as hyped. I think that the reason behind the closing gap between Pixar/Disney and regular in-house Disney flicks con be attributed to Disney hiring John Lasseter as Chief Creative Officer in ‘06. You can kinda see his comic/character influence in the pigeons interaction with Bolt.