I was crazy enough to make an oversized Bolt dog-tag and hang it around my neck throughout the whole movie and inside the shoping complex!
Well it's just made out of cardboard but it's painted with gold and black enamel and is lightweight. The effect of that was tremendous. I had more eyes on me than expected. But I'm glad to be a part of the movie. My show was scheduled to start at 10:40AM but it only started about 15 minutes later as is usual. It's a Thursday and not many would watch such an early show. Not even those wake-up-late, enjoying-school-holidays kids! Therefore, there wasn't much of a croud and my cinema hall was only about a quarter full or less.Here's a picture of the Bolt poster at GSC and the other of Bolt's promotionals presented right after the flight of stairs leading into the cinema halls:
Before entering Hall 6, I queued up to collect my 3D glasses. They were taken out from transparent plastic wrapings and looked perfectly new. Ahh... It's good to be the first batch. Won't be a good experience having smelly glasses to wear throughout the show, now would it? heh... These high precision devices each cost RM 200 to replace. We were told not to touch the lenses. They look like sunglasses with a tiny tinge of green and red upon closer inspection. The frames were black and thick for handing. There's even a printed notice on every pair stating that it has anti-theif device.
As I've mentioned, my seat was dead centre. That means I got the most out of the movie screen and the surround sound! We were presented with some digital 3D trailers upon entering the hall. Now I must state that this new digital 3D is of a new technology and this is my first experience. Gone are the days where we have to wear use-once, paper-made, red and green glasses where we have to to remove them every so often because it'll hurt our eyes if it's too long. This is a digital projection, not those analog film strips of sepia. The concept is to project alternating frames for both the left and the right eyes at high speed. The 3D glasses will filter out these frames for only what's ment for the left and the right eye. Thus producing a stereogram and what our eyes would see as 3D. If you were to remove your 3D glasses, what you see wouldn't be in red and green but in full colour instead, just like the 2D version! However, there'll be a slight double vision effect or blur.
Now for the movie itself! No spoilers here so don't worry. The producers spent so much effort to make Bolt look extra cute! You've got to watch the movie itself to believe how cute he was made to be. I overheard people beside me saying "So cute!" mid-show. The producers even spent time observing real dogs. Here's a part which might be too cute to the extend that it's awkward but it made all of us in the cinema laughed! Mittens was teaching Bolt how to do some cute faces to beg for food here:
I love how the movie opens with Penny adopting Bolt from an animal rescue and not buying pets from a pet shop. Disney actually encourages animal adoption! Good for Disney! Yeah! Pet shop owners can be unscrupulous and very business-minded. Besides, don't we have enough strays already? Humans...
This movie also has a very interesting storyline, much better than I had expected. It is filled with twist and turn and unexpected surprises. Dispite the good humour (the late-50s man seated to my left was good at laughing together with me) throughout the show, it has a deep underlying emotion that touches the hearts of many. Bolt's story started off with a very sad note but ended with joy. At the few heartbreaking parts I got emotional, but hey! I'm a dog person.
The 3D aspects were like spices to perfect a dish. Just before the movie starts, we were presented with overwhelming notification that the show we were about to watch is in Dolby Digital 3D. The whole movie was presented in 3D. We even get to see the opening Walt Disney castle in 3D. However the effects were most prominent and exaggerated at action pack scenes. If was fun watching Bolt jumping out of screen, a ladder with Mittens and Bolt on it falling down right at you, be pepper-sprayed directly in the face and many more. With 3D, the text including credits float interestingly in mid-air! There were no annoying Mandarin and Malay subtitles for the 3D version too! Perfection!
It was truly a great experience for me. One that is well worth the money. If you enjoy the loving relationship between a dog and his owner or are simply a pet person, this movie is definitely a must-watch. For those who enjoy humour and action or simply want to give 3D a try, then give this movie a try.
Below are more pictures from the movie. Enjoy!
