Took the daughter (3...4 in a month) to see this Sunday afternoon. To its credit, it kept her attention the whole time, which is what any parent is looking for from a movie.
Bolt is an action movie hero dog who doesn't realize that his whole life is fake. Due to a ratings ploy, he is more agitated than normal, which leads to him to escape from the studio. He runs around thinking that he has to save his person from the green eyed man and that he has super powers.
There's your movie and as some critics are pointing out, it's been done by Disney before. Buzz Lightyear anyone?
I say to the critics, who cares? I see the same boring themes repeated over and over in art house films, but you can't praise them enough. The important thing is whether the film is entertaining or not and Bolt is entertaining.
Bolt isn't as funny as other Disney films because it focuses more on the character growth and his (their) journey.
There also aren't any heavy handed hidden messages, although pet adoption is definitely pushed to the audience.
I doubt Bolt will be a classic Disney film, but it's good enough that if you have kids, it'll probably be in your DVD collection.
7 out of 10.