Bolt

... in 3-D, no less.

Got to the cinema last night along with a fellow maths teacher and we tossed a coin to decide between this and Vicky Christina Barcelona, Woody Allen's latest supposed-return-to-form. The Woodster won, at which point we realised that really, we'd rather he hadn't. And so we went for the catoon dog instead. As you do. (Now, try capturing that decision-making process in a mathematical equation...)

I didn't have particularly high hopes for the 3-D glasses, as my left eye is weak compared to the right and so 3-D picture thingummies tend not to work for me. But this worked more or less fine, and it was a bonus not having to look like a real dweeb wearing different colour lenses, as these ones were clear. And to be fair there was a reasonable amount of things pointing out the screen at you, in the manner of 3-D films of old. But I wouldn't say the 3-D really added over much to the experience.

What, then, of the film itself? Well, I enjoyed it a great deal, and laughed long and hard quite a few times. It doesn't outstay its welcome and there's a good amount of humour pitched at grown-up level, to keep us intellectual types happy. The movie is pretty much stolen by the hamster sidekick, and the voice artists are good, though I did spend a long time trying to identify the voice of the female cat, only to find out by the closing credits that it was No-one I'd Ever Heard Of. Which was a bit annoying. It's not Toy Story (though the central plot borrows heavily from both TS movies), but it's a great way to spend an evening. Good curry too, but that's another story.

And the maths?
Well, given that dogs don't count past... um... three? four?... there's not a lot going on. But that allows you to pontificate instead on how little progress movie-making has made with this 3-D schtick. I mean, about 50 years after the first 3-D movie (The Revenge of The Thing From Another Title I Just Made Up), here we are, and the best we can do is still to work in three dimensions? Yeesh, gimme a break! What about four dimensions? Five? I want n-dimensional movie-making, dammit, and I want it now!

I mean, is it too much to ask for a movie set in a Klein bottle? I'll bet Charlie Kaufman could write it. No problem.