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AMERICAN President-elect Barack Obama has set the
stage for the return of real-life superheroes. At one fund-raising
charity during the heated presidential campaign, he announced in
levity that, contrary to rumor, he was not born in a manger. He was
just the son of Jor-el, in reference to Superman, born in planet
Krypton for a single purpose—to save the world. Rising to the
highest pinnacle in the world’s only remaining superpower nation,
Obama enters a pantheon of superheroes, whose every move may spell
for the world its apocalyptic destruction or eternal salvation.
Saving the world from its vicious cycle of genocidal wars, global
recession, and destructive climate change generally begins from
nurturing a small dream: to protect an innocent, fragile child,
usually one’s own child. Such small dream marks the birthing of
great aspirations. The desire to be great in the eyes of his two
little daughters entails the possibilities for great achievement. He
must not fail them. And because of his new position as American
President, even the dog he has promised his children has achieved
the status of superstardom—like “BOLT”.
BOLT, a character loosely
based on an American White Shepherd, is the latest creation of Walt
Disney Animation Studios for cinematic release by Columbia Pictures,
which constitutes an original, hilarious, animated, action-adventure
comedy drama with fictional animal personalities. For super-dog BOLT
(featuring Hollywood legend John Travolta’s voice), every day is
filled with adventure, danger and intrigue. But BOLT is the
superstar of his own fictional TV show. Raised in studios without
any exposure to the realities of daily life, BOLT is made to believe
that he has been genetically engineered to possess amazing powers,
including incredible strength, laser vision, and a powerful
superbark. Bumping a speeding racecar head-on so that the car flips
over, flying over a helicopter gunship equipped with missiles and
rockets, or barking at an army of armored tanks and speeding
vehicles with a booming bark that sends shock waves stopping
vehicles in their tracks are just a few of BOLT’s superpowers in
his fabricated world. However, to BOLT, he uses such superpowers in
earnest sincerity to protect the young girl Penny (featuring
superstar Miley Cyrus), who owns him. From BOLT’s perspective,
Penny is “My Person”, not his pet owner, stressing that dogs are
not just chattel, commodities, or merchandise to be owned and
purchased but warm-bodied, almost human, beings to be loved and
cherished.
In one attempt to rescue his
person, BOLT slips into a box and is accidentally shipped from his
Hollywood soundstage to New York City. He begins his biggest
adventure yet in an emotional, tear-jerking, cross-country journey
through the real world to find and save Penny. Although the cameras
have stopped rolling, BOLT is armed with delusions that all his
amazing feats and powers are real. He meets two unlikely traveling
companions — jaded, abandoned housecat Mittens, and
television-obsessed hamster Rhino. With two human-like characters,
BOLT realizes many things, among which is the hypocrisy in being a
public persona with all its pretentiousness and promises of victory
and success at every turn. He also realizes so painfully his own
vulnerability as he bleeds when wounded and feels pain, hunger, and
loneliness for the first time.
Mittens, long abandoned to the
streets, is an untrusting, streetsmart, scrappy New York city alley
cat. With her pessimistic attitude and sarcastic sense of humor, she
sharply contrasts with BOLT’s trusting and positive outlook. But
she shows resourcefulness and teaches BOLT the necessary traits for
survival—surviving hunger in the jungle of the dangerous streets
in the real world. But BOLT’s undying loyalty in protecting and
rescuing Penny renews the faith and trust of Mittens in others; that
there are still characters in this world who are genuinely heroic,
sincere, and compassionate. On the other hand, hamster Rhino is
rolling thunder, a pint-sized tour-de-force action hero in the
making. Being a diehard, awestruck, superfan of BOLT’s television
adventures, he has memorized nearly every detail of the dog’s
missions. Because of his ultimate fantasy of teaming with a
superhero, he stops at nothing to help BOLT succeed, continuously
encouraging BOLT, even reminding BOLT he can be no less than the
superdog that everybody watches on the big screen and that he has to
continuously protect Penny from harm. In his enthusiastic desire to
be a hero, he becomes one.
In the end, the message of
this excellent animation is very clear: You do not need superpowers
to be a hero. We all bleed. We all feel pain. We all feel hunger. We
all feel loneliness. We have so much in common with the rest of
humanity. These are the reasons that greed and evil must not be
allowed to prevail in this world. One does not even need to be the
president of the last remaining superpower nation in this world to
do good: to save a child, to alleviate a child’s hunger, to stop
people from fighting and killing one another, to plant a tree. One
just needs to be sincere. Heroism follows.
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