MOVIE: Bolt (2008)
BoltYear: 2008Rating: PGLength: 96 minutes / 1.60 hours
Mid-2000s Disney was an interesting time for their CGI movies. Pixar had been dominating for at least a decade and created gorgeous films with heartwarming plots. Struggling to keep up with this new medium, Disney still hadn't fully committed to CGI, and it has not aged well. Just as an example, think about how incredible WALL-E (2008) looked and realize it came out the same year as Bolt (2008). Not to say that Bolt is a terrible movie, it just feels bland in comparison—both on looks and plot.
Part of the problem of this era of CGI movies is how dated they can feel. Sure, Disney was using some CGI in their animated films even as far back as The Little Mermaid (1989). It's just that Pixar seemed to understand that humans needed to be more like caricatures to escape the uncanny valley. The people in Bolt look so weird and wrong that it's...