The Cat Steals the Show

Disney poster, from Wikipedia.

Have you seen the 2008 Disney animated movie “Bolt?” I had not until a 5-year-old grandson picked it to watch on Friday night (his usual movie night) of last week.

The movie started with an improbable, over-done action sequence, and I was worried I had agreed to an empty experience like “Penguins of Madagascar,” a movie I intensely dislike.

But, no. The improbable action sequences were part of a show inside a show—in the movie, Bolt is a TV star dog who acts sincere because he doesn’t know it’s an act. It’s a “coming of age” film in which the child star, in this case a dog, learns the hard truth that he’s just a normal creature.

And the nice truth that being a normal creature can be a beautiful thing. Bolt is lost and trying to get back into his media bubble, and bullies a cat named Mittens to aid his journey.

Mittens, it turns out, is the true star. She knows Bolt’s world is fake. Mittens is a con cat, she’s been fooling pigeons into paying her in a protection racket based on the potential use of claws that she doesn’t even have.

It is Mittens, the lost, feral cat, who must teach Bolt how to become a properly domesticated, and thus happier, dog.

Flickr stream of  Cthomasuscg: Rhino, Bolt and Mittens, three main characters of the movie "Bolt."

I ended up loving the movie (and Mittens). I thought it great because it’s a child-friendly glimpse into the reality that media you see is not actual life. The fourth wall is torn down and the fictional nature of entertainment media is laid bare.

There are media stock characters, to be sure. A “director” too caught up in his artistic vision who finds he must please “Mindy from the network,” who he had belittled on first meeting. It turns out, it’s not the art, it’s the business that has the power in showbiz.

I was slightly disappointed that Bolt and his girl end up retiring from showbiz—I would have preferred that Bolt learn he’s an actor and be willing to continue acting—but I still thought that the movie worked both at the level of entertaining a 5-year-old, and pleasing a media professor in his 60s by illustrating key media realities.

And now, to me, Mittens is my favorite Disney princess.
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