Try to imagine the meeting where "Bolt" was pitched to studio executives: "It's like 'The Truman Show,' but with an animated dog. In 3-D."

Fortunately, those studio executives were from Disney Animation, which is now in the capable hands of Pixar's John Lasseter.

Pixar's attention to detail seems to be rubbing off on Disney, whose first project under Lasseter's supervision is a good-looking if lightweight treat.

Bolt (voice of John Travolta) is just an ordinary dog, but he doesn't know it. Plucked from a shelter by a girl named Penny (Miley Cyrus), the short-haired shepherd is thrust into the world of espionage, where a diabolical villain (Malcolm McDowell) continually targets the girl to get to her scientist father. Yet the explosive action is all make-believe, a TV show for which the unwitting Bolt is being filmed by hidden cameras.

But a snafu at the studio lands Bolt in a packing crate, and he is shipped from Hollywood to New York. Alone in the big city and unable to summon his "superbark" or other powers, Bolt is pitied by a streetwise cat named Mittens (Susie Essman), who reluctantly agrees to accompany the canine on a cross-country trek back to Penny.

Along the way, they are joined by a nerdy hamster named Rhino (Mark Walton), who lives inside a plastic ball and is convinced that Bolt is the hero he plays on TV.

Short on plot or rollicking gags, "Bolt" is essentially a road-trip movie in which mismatched adventurers learn to respect and rely on each other.

Where it really shines is in the animation. As the critters hitch rides across the country, every rest stop is as carefully rendered as the animal's faces, which reach out from the screen to tug at our heart strings.

Bolt, co-directed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams, is the first Disney animation that was planned for 3-D, but the effect is not showy or overdone. Even in those venues where it will be shown in traditional 2-D, "Bolt" looks like a holiday standout.

joewilliams@post-dispatch.com — 314-340-8344

PG — 1:36 — Contains some mild action and peril