John Travolta, Miley Cyrus strike the right notes in Bolt

GENRE: CGI family comedy

THE PITCH: Super-powered canine Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) protects young Penny (Miley Cyrus) from evildoers, unaware that they're on a TV series. Separated from Penny, the dog travels cross-country with a fanboy hamster (Mark Walton) who thinks Bolt's a real hero, and cynical alley cat Mittens ("Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Susie Essman) who knows he's not.

MONEY SHOTS: The TV show's action scenes feature hilariously over-the-top "money shots" reminiscent of the Matrix movies. Bolt's goofy expression when he tries to use his "heat vision." The hamster's use of his ball as a vehicle and unlikely weapon. A road-trip montage in the flat animation style of a restaurant U.S.A. placemat. Bolt's final act of Lassie-like heroism makes a good payoff, no matter how predictable it is.

BEST LINE: "Are you mad? You don't know the power of Styrofoam!" Bolt tells Mittens, believing that Styrofoam has robbed him of his "superpowers": "Normally I'm a tad more indestructible."

WORST LINE: "There is no home like the one you've got/Because that home belongs to you," sings Jenny Lewis in a syrupy montage that shows Bolt learning how to be a "real" dog.

VULGAR HUMOR: The film features brief gags about sniffing tails, drinking from the toilet and dog slobber, but overall it's blessedly family friendly.

POP REFERENCES: Mittens calls Bolt Cujo after the Stephen King book. Three fuhgeddaboutit New Yawker pigeons sound like the Goodfeathers cartoon fowl from "Animaniacs." A Hollywood pigeon frets, "Don't freak out, this is how you blew it with Nemo," in a nod to Finding Nemo.

SOUNDTRACK "HIGHLIGHTS": Travolta sings an overly enthusiastic duet with Cyrus on "I Thought I Lost You" in the closing credits. Otherwise, he gives his most likeable performance of the past, oh, 10 years or so.

VOICE CAMEO: James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio" appropriately provides the voice of the pompous TV show creator who insists that Bolt believe that fake peril is real. (It's sort of a Truman Show thing.)

PRODUCT PLACEMENT: Bolt and friends take part of their incredible journey on a U-Haul. The film shows or references numerous real magazines, including the New Yorker and Tiger Beat. A visit to Las Vegas shows such familiar spots as Bally's casino and the Bellagio fountain.

MAKE THE 3-D UPGRADE? Yes. Bolt is available on select screens in 3-D, but wasn't screened for critics that way. Nevertheless, in action sequences such as the speeding-train cliffhanger, so much stuff pokes out at the audience that Bolt probably uses the gimmick very well.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Any movie that resorts to adorable puppy shots – and the voice of Miley Cyrus, for that matter – shows little shame in appealing to its audience. Despite a heavily sentimental final third, the film's witty tweaks of film clichés and genuine affection for its characters works to make Bolt's title role a real hero. Or is that a real fake hero?