Bolt is a 2008 American animated action-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Chris Williams and Byron Howard (in their feature directorial debuts) and produced by Clark Spencer, from a screenplay written by Williams and Dan Fogelman. The film stars the voices of John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell, James Lipton and Greg Germann. This was also one of the final film roles for Lipton before his death in 2020, the other being Igor which was released the same year as Bolt.
The film's plot centers on a dog named Bolt, who has spent his entire life on the set of a television series and firmly believes that he has superpowers. When his beloved owner Penny is "kidnapped" on the show, Bolt runs away from the set to rescue her, eventually teaming up with sarcastic alley cat Mittens and a hamster named Rhino who is a fan of Bolt's television series, to embark on a cross-country journey back home.
Bolt premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on November 17, 2008, and was released in the United States on November 21. Despite a relatively marginal box-office performance, the film received a strong positive critical reception. It is also regarded for helping to instigate a rebirth of Walt Disney Animation Studios, setting the studio on a new creative direction that led to other critically acclaimed features such as Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013).[2][3]
A White Swiss Shepherd puppy named Bolt is adopted by a 7-year-old girl named Penny. Five years later, Bolt and Penny star in a hit television series named after Bolt, in which Bolt and Penny fight crime and foil the plans of the villain, Dr. Calico, who has kidnapped Penny's father, with Bolt using various superpowers in their adventures. To gain a more realistic performance from Bolt, the show's director has arranged the filming in such a way that Bolt believes everything in the show is real, including his invulnerability, super-strength, and percussive sonic "Superbark". This means Bolt can never leave the set and live as a normal dog, much to Penny's dismay. After a cliffhanger episode causes Bolt to believe Penny has been kidnapped, he escapes from his on-set trailer in Hollywood, but knocks himself unconscious and falls into a box of packing peanuts, which is then shipped to New York City.
Feeling hungry for the first time in his life, Bolt accepts Mittens' advice and behaves like a cute and needy stray, securing food for them both at an RV park where they are joined by Rhino, a fearless hamster and huge fan of Bolt. Rhino's description of Bolt's adventures causes Mittens to realize Bolt is from a TV show, but she is unable to convince Bolt of the truth. In frustration, Bolt repeatedly attempts to "superbark" Mittens, but the noise draws the attention of the local animal control service, and Bolt and Mittens are both captured and taken to a shelter.
Bolt, freed from the patrol van by Rhino, finally realizes and accepts that he is just a normal dog. However, he regains his confidence after Rhino (oblivious to this revelation) gives him a motivating speech, and they rescue Mittens from the shelter. As they travel west, Bolt and Mittens form a close friendship; she teaches him how to be an ordinary dog and enjoy typical dog activities. Mittens makes plans for the three of them to stay in Las Vegas, but Bolt is still determined to find Penny. Mittens reveals to Bolt that she was declawed and abandoned by her owners, and believes that no human truly "loves" their pet. Bolt vehemently disagrees with her, and continues on alone to Hollywood. After finding out about Bolt's departure, Rhino convinces Mittens to go to Hollywood and find him.
When Bolt reaches the studio, he finds Penny embracing the replacement dog during a rehearsal, and, believing that she has replaced him, leaves feeling heartbroken. Mittens, who has caught up to him and witnessed the events, reassures Bolt that Penny does love him. At the same time, the Bolt look-alike panics during the show's filming and accidentally knocks over lit tiki torches, setting the stage on fire with Penny trapped inside. Bolt arrives, and the two reunite inside the burning studio, but are unable to escape and Penny begins to suffocate from the smoke. Bolt stays with Penny and repeatedly barks into the building's air vent, alerting the firefighters to their location.
Bolt and Penny are rescued. Penny and her mother quit the show after Penny's agent proposes that they exploit the incident for publicity. The show continues with a replacement "Bolt" and "Penny" and a bizarre new storyline involving alien abduction. Penny adopts Mittens and Rhino, and they move to a rural home to enjoy a simpler lifestyle together.
In November 2002, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the directors of Lilo & Stitch (2002), had signed a multi-picture deal with Walt Disney Pictures. It was also reported Sanders was working on an untitled computer-animated film.[4] Nearly a year later, in November 2003, the project had been titled American Dog.[5] The plot centered on Henry, a famous canine star, who one day finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert with a testy, one-eyed cat and an oversized, radioactive rabbit who are themselves searching for new homes, all the while believing he is still on television.[6] In August 2005, the project's conceptual artwork and synopsis were then showcased publicly at the annual SIGGRAPH conference.[7] By November 2005, American Dog had been slated for a summer 2008 release.[8]
Following the corporate acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull had been respectively appointed as Chief Creative Officer and President of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar. In the fall of 2006, Lasseter, along with other directors from Pixar and Disney, attended two screenings of the film and gave Sanders suggestive notes on how to improve the story. Catmull stated "somewhere along the way, the plot had also come to include a radioactive, cookie-selling Girl Scout zombie serial killer. I'm all for quirky ideas, but this one had metastasized."[9] In December 2006, Sanders was removed from the project,[10] and by early 2007, he had joined DreamWorks Animation.[11] According to Lasseter, Sanders was replaced because he had resisted the changes that he and the other directors had suggested. Lasseter was quoted as saying "Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn't take it to the place it had to be."[12] Earlier that same month, Disney had laid off about 160 employees within its animation division.[13] Sanders said he had no ill will over being removed from the film, and hoped he could revisit some of his ideas in the future. He approved of the final film and the changes made, stating: "I think it would have been frustrating if the movie were essentially the same but with only slight changes. And I suppose my scenes and storylines are still sitting there on the shelf. I could actually pull them out and do them again. But it would be completely different."[14]
In February 2007, Lasseter had confirmed Chris Williams and Byron Howard were the film's new directors.[15][16] As directors, Williams focused on the story reels and layout while Howard tackled character design and animation.[17] The radioactive rabbit and eyepatch-wearing cat characters were removed from the story while the dog Henry (now renamed Bolt) was redesigned into a White Shepherd with a lightning bolt-shaped patch that runs down the left side of his body. Furthermore, Lasseter ordered the American Southwest setting to be removed given his then-recent film Cars (2006) had a similar terrain.[18] Following the story overhaul, the animation team was told to complete the animation in 18 months instead of the usual four years that is normally required to produce a computer-animated feature.[19] On June 8, 2007, Disney announced that the film, now under its current name, would be released on November 21, 2008, in Disney Digital 3-D.[20][21]
The look of the film was inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper and the cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond.[22] New technology in non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) was used to give it a special visual appearance, a technique later used in Tangled (2010). To give the film's 3D backgrounds a hand-painted look, the company artists used new patented technology designed specifically for the film.[23]
Bolt's characteristics are based on an amalgam of breeds, although the designers started with the American White Shepherd.[24] Joe Moshier, lead character designer, said, "they American White Shepherds have really long ears, a trait that I tried to caricature in order to allow the animators to emphasize Bolt's expressiveness."[24]
Motrhead's song "Dog-Face Boy" (from their Sacrifice album) is in a scene in which a mailroom worker is listening to it on headphones while inadvertently wrapping Bolt up in a box that gets shipped to New York City.[28]
Bolt had its world premiere on November 17, 2008, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, at the El Capitan Theatre.[29] It was commercially released in theaters in the United States on November 21, 2008. By its fourth week in theaters, the film was accompanied by Pixar's Cars Toons short Tokyo Mater.[30]
Bolt was released on Blu-Ray in the United States on March 22, 2009. The Blu-Ray combo set included a standard DVD and digital copy versions of the film. Single-disc DVD and Special Edition DVD with Digital Copy versions followed in Region 1 on March 24.[31] This marked the first time a major home-video release debuted on Blu-ray Disc before DVD.[32] Bolt was released on both Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2009.[33]
A short film called Super Rhino is included in the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film.[34] By December 2009, the DVD has sold over 4.5 million copies, generating $81.01 million in consumer sales.[35]
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