American Dog
Encyclopedia
Bolt is a 2008 American computer-animated
adventure
/action
comedy
film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and is its forty-eighth animated feature. It is the first film directed by Chris Williams
(who previously worked on Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove
) and Byron Howard
(who previously worked on Lilo & Stitch
and Brother Bear
). The film stars the voices of John Travolta
, Miley Cyrus
, Malcolm McDowell
, Diedrich Bader
, Nick Swardson
, Greg Germann
, Susie Essman
and Mark Walton
. The film's plot centers on a small white dog named Bolt
who, having spent his entire life on the set of a television series, thinks that he has super powers. When he believes that his human, Penny, has been kidnapped, he sets out on a cross-country journey to "rescue" her.
As with earlier CGI
Disney films, such as Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons
, Bolt was also distributed in Disney Digital 3-D
in the theaters equipped for it. The movie was nominated for a series of awards, one of which being the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
which was, however, lost to WALL-E
.
star on a hit television series called Bolt in which the titular character has various superpowers and must constantly thwart the evil plans of the nefarious Doctor Calico. To gain a more realistic performance, the TV show's producers have deceived Bolt his entire life, arranging the filming in such a way that Bolt believes the television show is real and he really has superpowers. After filming completes for the latest episode, Bolt escapes from his on-set trailer mistakenly believing Penny has been kidnapped by the television villain. He attempts to break through a window, knocking himself unconscious as he falls into a box of foam peanuts. With no one aware Bolt is in the box, it is shipped from Hollywood
to New York City
. In New York, he meets Mittens, a female alley cat who bullies pigeons out of their food. Bolt, convinced this is another adventure, forces Mittens to help him get back to Hollywood, and the two start their journey westward on a truck after Bolt knocks Mittens unconscious. Meanwhile, in Hollywood, Penny is deeply saddened over Bolt's disappearance but is convinced by the studio to continue filming with a Bolt look alike. As their adventure proceeds, Bolt starts to notice that his superpowers aren't working, and rationalizes this is the effect that styrofoam has on his body.
Surprised at his first feelings of both pain and hunger, Bolt is shown by Mittens how to act like a cute, but needy dog, and is rewarded by food. They meet Rhino, a fearless, TV-obsessed hamster and huge Bolt fan who joins their team. Mittens tries to convince Bolt that his superpowers aren't real, but their discussion is cut short by the arrival of Animal Control, who captures them both and transports them to an animal shelter. After being freed en route by Rhino, Bolt finally realizes that he is just a normal dog, but regains his confidence after Rhino (oblivious to this revelation) gives him a pep talk. They rescue Mittens from the shelter and escape, allowing them to continue their journey. Along the way, Bolt learns to enjoy typical dog activities (such as hanging his head out the window), but Mittens refuses to go farther than Las Vegas
. She tells Bolt that his Hollywood life is fake and there is no real love for him there. Her emotional rant reveals that she was once a house cat, but was abandoned by her previous owner and left to brave the harsh streets alone and declawed. Bolt refuses to believe that Penny doesn't love him, and continues on alone, wishing Mittens the best. Rhino, learning of Bolt's departure, convinces Mittens that they must help him, and the two set off to find Bolt once again.
Bolt reaches the studio, finding Penny embracing his lookalike. Unaware that Penny still misses him and that her affection for the lookalike was only a part of a rehearsal for the show, he leaves, brokenhearted. Mittens, on a gantry in the studio, sees what Bolt does not: Penny telling her mother how much she misses Bolt. Realizing that Penny truly does love Bolt, Mittens follows Bolt and explains. At the same time, the Bolt-lookalike panics during filming and accidentally knocks over some torches, setting the sound stage on fire and trapping Penny. Bolt arrives and reunites with Penny inside the burning studio, but cannot get her out. In desperation, and unwilling to abandon Penny, Bolt tries using his super bark. The firefighters hear Bolt's barking through the building's vents and manage to pinpoint his location, rescuing him and Penny before they succumb to smoke inhalation.
Penny's mother subsequently quits the show when their agent attempts to exploit the incident for publicity purposes. Penny herself adopts Mittens and Rhino, and moves to a rural home to enjoy a simpler, happy lifestyle with Bolt and her new pets. The show continues, but with a replacement "Bolt" and "Penny" – "Penny's" new appearance being explained in the show as being serious injuries necessitating her undergoing facial reconstruction surgery, and adopting an alien abduction storyline (one that even Rhino finds unrealistic, and Bolt finds "ridonculous"). The epilogue scenes during the credits show Bolt, Penny, her mother, Mittens, and Rhino enjoying their new life together.
. The film's previous plot told the story of a dog named Henry, a famous TV 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. In 2006, after becoming Chief Creative Officer at Disney, John Lasseter
along with other directors from Pixar
and Disney viewed a couple of early cuts of the film and gave Chris Sanders notes on how to improve the story. According to Lasseter, Chris Sanders was replaced because Sanders resisted the changes that Lasseter 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." After Sanders left and the original title was removed, the animation team was told to complete the filming just 18 months instead of the usual four years that is normally required to produce a computer-animated feature. 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
.
and the cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond
. New technology in non-photorealistic rendering
(NPR) was used to give it a special visual appearance, a technique also used in the 2010 release Tangled. To give the film's 3D backgrounds a hand-painted look, the company artists used new patented technology designed specifically for the film.
Bolt's characteristics are based on an amalgam of breeds, although the designers started with the American White Shepherd. 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."
The design of Rhino in his plastic ball
was based on executive producer John Lasseter
's pet chinchilla
, which was brought to an animators' retreat during the film's production.
. The soundtrack featured the film's score and two original songs - "I Thought I Lost You" by Bolts stars Miley Cyrus
and John Travolta
(nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song on 2009) as well as "Barking at the Moon" by Rilo Kiley
singer Jenny Lewis
. The soundtrack was released on November 18, 2008.
Although Motörhead has a song in the film, they do not seem to appear in either the soundtrack or the score. Motörhead's song, "Dog-Face Boy" (from their Sacrifice
album) is in a mailroom scene where a young worker is listening to it on his headphones and inadvertently wraps Bolt up in a box that gets shipped off to New York City.
Track list:
reported that 89% of critics gave positive reviews based on 175 reviews. Another review aggregator, Metacritic
, gave the film a 67/100 approval rating based on 29 reviews following under the category "generally favorable reviews".
Perry Seibert of TV Guide
gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote the film "amuses both those who make up the film's target audience and the parents along for the ride. This winning mix of exciting action, heart-tugging sentiment, and gentle character comedy makes Bolt yet another solid addition to Disney's history of family-friendly fare." Tasha Robinson of the A.V. Club gave the film a B+ stating that "Bolt is the studio's first film since Lilo & Stitch
that feels like it's trying to recapture the old Disney instead of aggressively shedding it in favor of something slick and new. And yet it comes with a healthy cutting-edge Pixar flavor as well." Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times wrote that "[Bolt] also has an intriguing plot that is kind of the family animation version of the Jim Carrey
-starring The Truman Show
."
and Quantum of Solace. On its second weekend, it rose to #2 behind Four Christmases
with a 1.4% increase. In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $114,053,579 by its closing date on February 22, 2009. An additional $195,926,415 million was made internationally as of January 2, 2011, for a worldwide total of $309,979,994.
in the United States on March 22, 2009. The BD set included 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. This marked the first time a major home-video release debuted on Blu-ray Disc before DVD. Bolt was released on both Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2009.
A short film called Super Rhino
is included in the DVD
and Blu-ray versions of the film.
The DVD has sold 4,581,755 copies, generating $81.01 million in sales as of December 31, 2009.
The 3D version of the film will be released on 3D Blu-ray on November 8th 2011.
, Wii
, PlayStation 2
, PlayStation 3
, Xbox 360
and PC
. The game focuses on Bolt's fake TV life, not the actual storyline. A separate game was released for mobile phones, and a third game, RhinoBall, was released as an application on Apple's App Store.
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
adventure
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
/action
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and is its forty-eighth animated feature. It is the first film directed by Chris Williams
Chris Williams (director)
Chris Williams is an American film director, screenwriter and animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is well known for have directing Glago's Guest and Bolt....
(who previously worked on Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove
The Emperor's New Groove
The Emperor's New Groove is a 2000 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures through Buena Vista Distribution on December 15, 2000. It is the 40th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics...
) and Byron Howard
Byron Howard
Byron P. Howard is an American motion picture director and story artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation, and is best known as the lead character animator on Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear and the director on Bolt and Tangled....
(who previously worked on Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch
This article is about the movie. For the television series, see Lilo & Stitch: The Series.Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002...
and Brother Bear
Brother Bear
Brother Bear is a 2003 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures, the forty-fourth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. In the film, an Inuit boy pursues a bear in revenge for a battle that he provoked in which...
). The film stars the voices of John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
, Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
, Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
, Diedrich Bader
Diedrich Bader
Karl Diedrich Bader , better known as Diedrich Bader, is an American actor, voice artist and comedian. Many know him for his roles as Oswald Lee Harvey on The Drew Carey Show, Lawrence from the film Office Space, the Tae Kwon Do instructor Rex from Napoleon Dynamite, Tank "Shredder" Evans in Surf's...
, Nick Swardson
Nick Swardson
Nicholas Roger "Nick" Swardson is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and writer. He is best known for his recurring role as Terry Bernardino in the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, for his work in Happy Madison films, most notably the 2011 film Just Go With It, and for his new Comedy Central...
, Greg Germann
Greg Germann
Gregory Andrew "Greg" Germann is an American actor. He played the roles of Richard Fish in the television series Ally McBeal, businessman Mattson from Child's Play 2 and the vet Laurence from Quarantine...
, Susie Essman
Susie Essman
Susan "Susie" Essman is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, television producer, and voice artist. She is best known for her role as Susie Greene on the HBO television sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm...
and Mark Walton
Mark Walton (story artist)
Mark Walton is a story artist and voice actor at the Walt Disney Feature Animation. Walton is best known for voicing Rhino the hamster in Bolt.-Early life:...
. The film's plot centers on a small white dog named Bolt
Bolt (character)
Bolt is a white American Shepherd Dog and the protagonist from the 2008 animated feature of the same name. His character development embodies the film’s main messages regarding trust and loyalty....
who, having spent his entire life on the set of a television series, thinks that he has super powers. When he believes that his human, Penny, has been kidnapped, he sets out on a cross-country journey to "rescue" her.
As with earlier CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
Disney films, such as Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons
Meet the Robinsons
Meet the Robinsons is a 2007 American computer-animated family film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 30, 2007. The forty-seventh animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, the film was released in both the United States and the...
, Bolt was also distributed in Disney Digital 3-D
Disney Digital 3-D
Disney Digital 3-D is a brand used by the Walt Disney Company to describe three-dimensional films made and released by the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and shown exclusively using digital projection....
in the theaters equipped for it. The movie was nominated for a series of awards, one of which being the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is one of the annual awards given by the Los Angeles-based professional organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
which was, however, lost to WALL-E
WALL-E
WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future...
.
Plot
A girl named Penny and a dog named BoltBolt (character)
Bolt is a white American Shepherd Dog and the protagonist from the 2008 animated feature of the same name. His character development embodies the film’s main messages regarding trust and loyalty....
star on a hit television series called Bolt in which the titular character has various superpowers and must constantly thwart the evil plans of the nefarious Doctor Calico. To gain a more realistic performance, the TV show's producers have deceived Bolt his entire life, arranging the filming in such a way that Bolt believes the television show is real and he really has superpowers. After filming completes for the latest episode, Bolt escapes from his on-set trailer mistakenly believing Penny has been kidnapped by the television villain. He attempts to break through a window, knocking himself unconscious as he falls into a box of foam peanuts. With no one aware Bolt is in the box, it is shipped from Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In New York, he meets Mittens, a female alley cat who bullies pigeons out of their food. Bolt, convinced this is another adventure, forces Mittens to help him get back to Hollywood, and the two start their journey westward on a truck after Bolt knocks Mittens unconscious. Meanwhile, in Hollywood, Penny is deeply saddened over Bolt's disappearance but is convinced by the studio to continue filming with a Bolt look alike. As their adventure proceeds, Bolt starts to notice that his superpowers aren't working, and rationalizes this is the effect that styrofoam has on his body.
Surprised at his first feelings of both pain and hunger, Bolt is shown by Mittens how to act like a cute, but needy dog, and is rewarded by food. They meet Rhino, a fearless, TV-obsessed hamster and huge Bolt fan who joins their team. Mittens tries to convince Bolt that his superpowers aren't real, but their discussion is cut short by the arrival of Animal Control, who captures them both and transports them to an animal shelter. After being freed en route by Rhino, Bolt finally realizes that he is just a normal dog, but regains his confidence after Rhino (oblivious to this revelation) gives him a pep talk. They rescue Mittens from the shelter and escape, allowing them to continue their journey. Along the way, Bolt learns to enjoy typical dog activities (such as hanging his head out the window), but Mittens refuses to go farther than Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
. She tells Bolt that his Hollywood life is fake and there is no real love for him there. Her emotional rant reveals that she was once a house cat, but was abandoned by her previous owner and left to brave the harsh streets alone and declawed. Bolt refuses to believe that Penny doesn't love him, and continues on alone, wishing Mittens the best. Rhino, learning of Bolt's departure, convinces Mittens that they must help him, and the two set off to find Bolt once again.
Bolt reaches the studio, finding Penny embracing his lookalike. Unaware that Penny still misses him and that her affection for the lookalike was only a part of a rehearsal for the show, he leaves, brokenhearted. Mittens, on a gantry in the studio, sees what Bolt does not: Penny telling her mother how much she misses Bolt. Realizing that Penny truly does love Bolt, Mittens follows Bolt and explains. At the same time, the Bolt-lookalike panics during filming and accidentally knocks over some torches, setting the sound stage on fire and trapping Penny. Bolt arrives and reunites with Penny inside the burning studio, but cannot get her out. In desperation, and unwilling to abandon Penny, Bolt tries using his super bark. The firefighters hear Bolt's barking through the building's vents and manage to pinpoint his location, rescuing him and Penny before they succumb to smoke inhalation.
Penny's mother subsequently quits the show when their agent attempts to exploit the incident for publicity purposes. Penny herself adopts Mittens and Rhino, and moves to a rural home to enjoy a simpler, happy lifestyle with Bolt and her new pets. The show continues, but with a replacement "Bolt" and "Penny" – "Penny's" new appearance being explained in the show as being serious injuries necessitating her undergoing facial reconstruction surgery, and adopting an alien abduction storyline (one that even Rhino finds unrealistic, and Bolt finds "ridonculous"). The epilogue scenes during the credits show Bolt, Penny, her mother, Mittens, and Rhino enjoying their new life together.
Cast
- John TravoltaJohn TravoltaJohn Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
as BoltBolt (character)Bolt is a white American Shepherd Dog and the protagonist from the 2008 animated feature of the same name. His character development embodies the film’s main messages regarding trust and loyalty.... - Susie EssmanSusie EssmanSusan "Susie" Essman is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, television producer, and voice artist. She is best known for her role as Susie Greene on the HBO television sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm...
as Mittens - Mark WaltonMark Walton (story artist)Mark Walton is a story artist and voice actor at the Walt Disney Feature Animation. Walton is best known for voicing Rhino the hamster in Bolt.-Early life:...
as Rhino - Miley CyrusMiley CyrusMiley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
as Penny - Malcolm McDowellMalcolm McDowellMalcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
as Dr. Calico - Nick SwardsonNick SwardsonNicholas Roger "Nick" Swardson is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and writer. He is best known for his recurring role as Terry Bernardino in the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, for his work in Happy Madison films, most notably the 2011 film Just Go With It, and for his new Comedy Central...
as Blake - Diedrich BaderDiedrich BaderKarl Diedrich Bader , better known as Diedrich Bader, is an American actor, voice artist and comedian. Many know him for his roles as Oswald Lee Harvey on The Drew Carey Show, Lawrence from the film Office Space, the Tae Kwon Do instructor Rex from Napoleon Dynamite, Tank "Shredder" Evans in Surf's...
as Veteran Cat - Chloë MoretzChloe MoretzChloë Grace Moretz is an American actress, known for her role as Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero film Kick-Ass. She also appeared in The Amityville Horror, Days of Summer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo, and portrayed Abby, the child vampire, in Let Me In.-Personal life:Moretz was born in Atlanta,...
as Young Penny - Greg GermannGreg GermannGregory Andrew "Greg" Germann is an American actor. He played the roles of Richard Fish in the television series Ally McBeal, businessman Mattson from Child's Play 2 and the vet Laurence from Quarantine...
as The Agent - James LiptonJames LiptonJames Lipton is an American writer, poet, composer, actor and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio, which debuted in 1994...
as The Director - Randy SavageRandy SavageRandall Mario Poffo , better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler, best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling .Savage held twenty championships during his professional wrestling career and was a...
as Thug - Kari WahlgrenKari WahlgrenKari K. Wahlgren is an American voice actress who has provided English language voices for dozens of anime titles and video games. Her debut role was as one of the main characters of FLCL, Haruko Haruhara. She had a live-action role as Tinker Bell in the 2003 Damion Dietz film Neverland...
as Mindy - Grey DelisleGrey DeLisleGrey DeLisle is an American voice actress, singer-songwriter, and comedienne. To date, she has released four solo albums and has featured on the tribute album Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash and film soundtrack of Loggerheads...
as Penny's Mother - J.P. ManouxJ.P. ManouxJean-Paul Christophe Manoux is an American actor.-Life and career:Manoux is the oldest of seven and a native of Fresno, California. He is perhaps best known for his work in multiple Disney series: as S.T.A.N...
as Tom - Brian StepanekBrian StepanekBrian Stepanek is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Arwin Hawkhauser in the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody...
as Martin - John DiMaggioJohn DiMaggioJohn William DiMaggio is an American voice actor. A native of North Plainfield, New Jersey, he is known for his gruff, deep voice and New Jersey accent, which he uses to voice mainly villains and anti-heroes.-Filmography:...
as Saul - Jenny LewisJenny LewisJennifer Diane Lewis , is an American singer-songwriter musician and actress. She was the primary vocalist of the indie rock band Rilo Kiley, and has released two solo albums. She currently performs as part of the duo Jenny & Johnny with boyfriend Johnathan Rice...
as Assistant Director
Development
At first, the film was going to be titled American Dog, and was written and directed by Chris Sanders. Eventually, Sanders was removed from the project and replaced by Chris Williams and Byron HowardByron Howard
Byron P. Howard is an American motion picture director and story artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation, and is best known as the lead character animator on Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear and the director on Bolt and Tangled....
. The film's previous plot told the story of a dog named Henry, a famous TV 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. In 2006, after becoming Chief Creative Officer at Disney, John Lasseter
John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering....
along with other directors from Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
and Disney viewed a couple of early cuts of the film and gave Chris Sanders notes on how to improve the story. According to Lasseter, Chris Sanders was replaced because Sanders resisted the changes that Lasseter 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." After Sanders left and the original title was removed, the animation team was told to complete the filming just 18 months instead of the usual four years that is normally required to produce a computer-animated feature. 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
Disney Digital 3-D
Disney Digital 3-D is a brand used by the Walt Disney Company to describe three-dimensional films made and released by the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and shown exclusively using digital projection....
.
Animation
The look of the film was inspired by the paintings of Edward HopperEdward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
and the cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond
Vilmos Zsigmond
Vilmos Zsigmond, A.S.C. is a Hungarian-American cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild placed Zsigmond among the ten most influential cinematographers in history.-Biography:...
. New technology in non-photorealistic rendering
Non-photorealistic rendering
Non-Photorealistic rendering is an area of computer graphics that focuses on enabling a wide variety of expressive styles for digital art. In contrast to traditional computer graphics, which has focused on photorealism, NPR is inspired by artistic styles such as painting, drawing, technical...
(NPR) was used to give it a special visual appearance, a technique also used in the 2010 release Tangled. To give the film's 3D backgrounds a hand-painted look, the company artists used new patented technology designed specifically for the film.
Bolt's characteristics are based on an amalgam of breeds, although the designers started with the American White Shepherd. 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."
The design of Rhino in his plastic ball
Hamster ball
Hamster balls are hollow spheres made of clear plastic into which hamsters, gerbils, degus and other small rodent pets are placed, allowing them to run around outside their cages without the risk of running away, getting lost under furniture or in walls...
was based on executive producer John Lasseter
John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering....
's pet chinchilla
Chinchilla
Chinchillas are crepuscular rodents, slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. Along with their relatives, viscachas, they make up the family Chinchillidae....
, which was brought to an animators' retreat during the film's production.
Music
The score to Bolt was composed by John PowellJohn Powell
John Powell is a British composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, and collaborating with...
. The soundtrack featured the film's score and two original songs - "I Thought I Lost You" by Bolts stars Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
and John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
(nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song on 2009) as well as "Barking at the Moon" by Rilo Kiley
Rilo Kiley
Rilo Kiley was an American indie rock band based in Los Angeles. Formed in 1998, the band consisted of Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder, and Jason Boesel....
singer Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis
Jennifer Diane Lewis , is an American singer-songwriter musician and actress. She was the primary vocalist of the indie rock band Rilo Kiley, and has released two solo albums. She currently performs as part of the duo Jenny & Johnny with boyfriend Johnathan Rice...
. The soundtrack was released on November 18, 2008.
Although Motörhead has a song in the film, they do not seem to appear in either the soundtrack or the score. Motörhead's song, "Dog-Face Boy" (from their Sacrifice
Sacrifice (Motörhead album)
Sacrifice is the twelfth studio album by British band Motörhead. Released in 1995, it is the second, and last album, to feature the four man line up of Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Würzel, and Mikkey Dee, as Würzel left the band at the end of recording this album....
album) is in a mailroom scene where a young worker is listening to it on his headphones and inadvertently wraps Bolt up in a box that gets shipped off to New York City.
Track list:
Critical reaction
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 89% of critics gave positive reviews based on 175 reviews. Another review aggregator, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, gave the film a 67/100 approval rating based on 29 reviews following under the category "generally favorable reviews".
Perry Seibert of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote the film "amuses both those who make up the film's target audience and the parents along for the ride. This winning mix of exciting action, heart-tugging sentiment, and gentle character comedy makes Bolt yet another solid addition to Disney's history of family-friendly fare." Tasha Robinson of the A.V. Club gave the film a B+ stating that "Bolt is the studio's first film since Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch
This article is about the movie. For the television series, see Lilo & Stitch: The Series.Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002...
that feels like it's trying to recapture the old Disney instead of aggressively shedding it in favor of something slick and new. And yet it comes with a healthy cutting-edge Pixar flavor as well." Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times wrote that "[Bolt] also has an intriguing plot that is kind of the family animation version of the Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
-starring The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
."
Box office
On its opening weekend, the film opened number 3 with $26,223,128 behind TwilightTwilight (2008 film)
Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series...
and Quantum of Solace. On its second weekend, it rose to #2 behind Four Christmases
Four Christmases
Four Christmases is a Christmas-themed romantic comedy film about a couple who go to see their divorced parents in one day...
with a 1.4% increase. In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $114,053,579 by its closing date on February 22, 2009. An additional $195,926,415 million was made internationally as of January 2, 2011, for a worldwide total of $309,979,994.
Award nominations
Bolt was nominated for the following awards:- 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated FeatureAcademy Award for Best Animated FeatureThe Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is one of the annual awards given by the Los Angeles-based professional organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
- lost to WALL-EWALL-EWALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future... - 2008 Annie Award for Best Animated FeatureAnnie Award for Best Animated FeatureThe Annie Award for Best Animated Feature is an Annie Award, awarded annually to the best animated feature film and introduced in 1992. In 1998 the award was renamed Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature, only to be reverted back to its original title again in 2001...
- lost to Kung Fu PandaKung Fu PandaKung Fu Panda is a 2008 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures... - 2008 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature - lost to WALL-E
- 2008 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film - lost to WALL-E
- 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature FilmGolden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature FilmThe Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film was awarded for the first time at the 64th Golden Globe Awards in 2007. It was the first time that the Golden Globe Awards had created a separate category for animated films since its establishment. The nominations are announced in January and...
- lost to WALL-E - 2008 Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Film - lost to WALL-E
- 2008 Produce Guild of America's Best Animated Motion Picture - lost to WALL-E
- 2008 Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media FeatureSatellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media FeatureThe Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature is an annual Satellite Award given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :-2000s:- 2010s :...
- lost to WALL-E - 2009 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Animated Movie - lost to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Home media
Bolt was released on Region A Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
in the United States on March 22, 2009. The BD set included standard DVD and digital copy
Digital copy
Digital Copy provides consumers who purchase a film on DVD or Blu-ray Disc with an additional, digital copy of the movie for devices capable of operating with a file in contrast to a DVD.-Features:...
versions of the film. Single-disc DVD and Special Edition DVD with Digital Copy versions followed in Region 1 on March 24. This marked the first time a major home-video release debuted on Blu-ray Disc before DVD. Bolt was released on both Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2009.
A short film called Super Rhino
Super Rhino
Super Rhino is a 2009 Walt Disney animated short, starring the characters from feature film Bolt. Directed by Nathan Greno the Head of Story on Bolt, the short film picks up sometime after the conclusion of Bolt. The excitable and TV obsessed hamster Rhino finds out his friends Penny and Bolt have...
is included in the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray versions of the film.
The DVD has sold 4,581,755 copies, generating $81.01 million in sales as of December 31, 2009.
The 3D version of the film will be released on 3D Blu-ray on November 8th 2011.
Video games
Disney Interactive Studios produced a video game based on the film, released in November 2008 for Nintendo DSNintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
, Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and PC
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. The game focuses on Bolt's fake TV life, not the actual storyline. A separate game was released for mobile phones, and a third game, RhinoBall, was released as an application on Apple's App Store.