Bolt

Pick up a tabloid or turn on a televised report from Hollywood and you hear and see so-called “diva” and “celebrity” misbehavior. You recognize their first names Paris, Brittany, Robert, and the list goes onwards.

Filmmakers and “agents” often shield their super-stars from the real world on the allegation that they do not need to be bothered by fans and photographers. So, you might say those super-stars who listen to their manager stay inside a bubble so as to protect their image.

In the guise of an animated lost super dog story comes Disney’s “Bolt,” a mutt not let off the set so he remarkably believes that his powers are real. Having lived in the vacuum of his air-conditioned dog trailer, he’s not experienced anything beyond the heat rays, super bark and saving his person, Penny, from dastardly bad dudes.

Mixing the super hero genre with the always absurd ‘fish out of water’ scenario, Bolt , the superdog, falls into a box full of Styrofoam and takes a plane ride to New York City. There a black cat named Mittens will lead him back across the continent to his beloved person. Will she still want him as just a mutt without super heroic abilities?

Disney animation has crafted a lost dog story with a heck of a lot of heart, which rivals the fabled up beat and teary storytelling that keeps the tykes from begging to use the bathroom and the adults from yawning themselves to slumber.

Shot in 3-D, the animated characters have well developed personalities, foils and intimate expressions so that the barrier between drawn and live action suspends itself for the duration. Witticisms abound mostly from wise cat Mitten and Bolt’s own Styrofoam phobia.