This dog tale is the first major Disney film made by Pixar and there isn’t much doubt that the contemporary animation enhances the more traditional storytelling.

Bolt, a dog (voiced by John Travolta), is the all-powerful star of a TV show who can’t quite comprehend that it’s all make-believe when he’s able to defeat fleets of baddies in helicopters, planes and cars. Separated from his young owner (Miley Cyrus), he meets a trio of slick urban pigeons, a down-and-out but shrewd alley cat and a hamster called Rhino who is trapped within his exercise ball.

These are all fun conceptions, even if the many splendid action sequences have the effect of getting in the way of the better character drawing. Perhaps the single most inventive piece of animation is our hero’s Hollywood-type agent, who you suspect is copied from someone the makers know in real life.

While it’s a bit strange that the film takes the mickey out of its Hollywood masters at the same time as offering us so obviously anodyne a commercial project, there’s no doubt that Bolt cuts the mustard as a technically brilliant piece of animation. Even if it’s a bit too knowing in places for children and a bit lightweight in others for adults, as a whole it gives Pixar every chance to show that even with a moderate story line it can give us something to savour.