Frightening and jolly

My nephew Willie having some fun:

You'll want to reach out and hug "Bolt"

My freelance review:

If you love dogs, you'll love Bolt, Disney's new cartoon movie. (And if you don't love dogs, you should.)

The voice of John Travolta is the voice of Bolt, a dog who -- day after day -- faces danger and intrigue to rescue his "person" Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus) from a new set of bad guys. He's quite the super-hero, but he's just doing what a dog should do -- kind of like an exaggerated version of barking at the mailman!

But it's all a facade. Bolt doesn't see the special effects crew making all of his Indiana Jones-style antics possible -- nor the cameras filming it all. That is all kept from him, for fear that if he finds out what's going on, neither he nor his #1 TV show would be quite the same.

Bolt is a delight, a sweet story with plenty of action, comedy and heart. Bolt says things that I imagine my own dogs saying, if they could talk. And after he accidently falls into a shipping box that sends him from Hollywood to New York, Bolt teams up with a jaded cat named Mittens and a sarcastic hamster named Rhino. Mittens helps Bolt realize the joys of being a normal dog -- for the first time, and the trio head cross-country to get Bolt back home to his "person."

I think Bolt is going to have great appeal throughout the holiday season. The animation, most of which is computer-generated, is superb but not overly-done. There's an overall beauty to the visuals that hark back to the old hand-drawn Disney classics.

And in select theatres, Bolt is in 3-D, making it all the more tempting to want to reach out and hug Bolt!

Polly the kitten

Some people can be so cruel and others so kind. Observe the stark contrast here: