A Walt Disney Production: “Bolt”

It’s often said that Walt Disney Animation Studios is in the middle of another Renaissance era of critical and box office hits, referred to as the “Disney Revival.” With the first Disney Renaissance of the 1990s, it’s widely agreed that The Little Mermaid was what started it off, sparking public interest in Disney’s animated features after a twenty-year streak of lukewarm successes, with a hit or two mixed in, though it wasn’t enough to truly revitalize the department. The films released from the early seventies to late eighties are collectively known as the “Dark Ages” of the studio, but the last couple of films preceding the 1989 release of The Little Mermaid (these being The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver and Company) have a quality to them that, although it doesn’t quite measure up to most of the Renaissance films, serves as evidence of the positive turn the department was about to take. The same is true for the Revival: though there is some debate as to which film truly started it, Meet the Robinsons and Bolt both showed a lean toward the reemergence of their classic-caliber filmmaking with a modern twist.

Background

The original title for the project was American Dog, and Chris Sanders was on board as director for the better part of production. Its premise was similar to the final film, focusing on a dog from a television series who was unable to distinguish the fictional world from the real world, believing that he really did have superpowers like his character and at one point being separated from his owner. The character who would become Mittens was a male one-eyed cat named Ogo, and Rhino the hamster was a giant radioactive rabbit. It would have been set primarily in the Nevada desert, rather than the varying locales showcased in Bolt, such as New York City, Las Vegas, and suburbia.

Production was underway shortly following Bob Iger’s succession of Michael Eisner as CEO of Disney, as well as the company’s acquisition of Pixar, marking Bolt as the first film from Walt Disney Animation Studios with John “Missteps” Lasseter as chief creative officer. After seeing two screenings of the film, Lasseter and other crew members provided story notes to Sanders that he apparently refused to consider. These creative disputes led to Sanders’ departure from Disney in late 2006, moving to DreamWorks only a few months later, at which point he began development on the film that would become The Croods, with him and Lilo & Stitch co-director Dean DeBlois joining production of How to Train Your Dragon the next year. On Bolt, Sanders was replaced by Chris Williams and Byron Howard, who would go on to direct Big Hero 6 and Zootopia, respectively. After all of the crew members who had left the project along with Sanders were replaced, the new team had only eighteen months to finish the film, which luckily didn’t go through any massive script overhaul, and Bolt was a critical and financial success, earning back over 200% of its budget and being nominated for Best Animated Feature or the equivalent in eight different award ceremonies including the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

Positives

The backgrounds and environments were inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, incorporating subtle brush strokes to achieve a look that more emulates classic 2D animation, despite it being a CG film. Though some of the human character designs are a bit dated, the rest of the visuals are still nice to look at, and the production team makes good use of visual storytelling to show Bolt’s character progression, along with a couple of cute original songs and a score by John Powell, who would go on to score the How to Train Your Dragon films, though Bolt doesn’t call for quite as epic a sound.

The film’s opening sequence plays out as an episode of the fictitious series that Bolt and his owner, Penny, both star in. It’s a clever misdirect when it’s revealed to be nothing more than that, but up to that point, it’s a fun mini-story full of action and badass special effects (pardon my language, but I couldn’t think of a better description). It seems that the writing and animation staff were just having as much fun with the Michael Bay-inspired opening as possible, parodying the genre as much as celebrating it. The lighting and colors are fittingly dark and dramatic, and contrast with the warmth and realism of the characters’ actual environment. Its tone feels like a show that might have been airing on Fox or ABC Family back in 2008, and by introducing us to the show’s world before the film’s actual setting, it helps us to understand the reality that Bolt thinks he lives in, and so is genuinely confused when he can’t take down obstacles through means as simple as shooting them with lasers.

All of Disney’s strongest films are made that way not by appealing visuals or catchy songs, but by strong characters. The titular character and his companions on his journey to return to his owner are all dynamic and likable, and their interactions with each other are both funny and emotional at times. The comedy from Bolt’s obliviousness to reality with Mittens the cat playing the straight man as she’s dragged along with him is charming up to a point, and luckily that point is when he has the realization that he is in fact from a TV show and doesn’t have any actual superpowers. Fortunately, there’s not too much sulking after that, and from there, he’s closer to Mittens’ level, though he still has a naiveté about the world outside Hollywood that also leads to some good jokes involving him learning how regular dogs live. Rhino the hamster isn’t quite as well-written as the former two, but his overconfidence makes for some one-liners on par with the quick-witted humor of Zootopia, which is a good representation of this film’s comedic style overall. It’s easy to see how Bolt steered the creative minds at Disney in the direction of future hits like the one mentioned above.

After Bolt has his epiphany, they make for a fun trio, with some heart-tugging moments as well. Mittens is ostensibly a cold-hearted mob boss type, but it’s later revealed that this is nothing more than a survival tactic, and her vulnerabilities show through in a character arc that is in itself an indictment of the treatment received by animals considered to be less adoptable. At first glance, her cynical and sarcastic nature seems to come just from her being a cat, therefore being less excitable or energetic than most dogs. But as her friendship with Bolt develops, we learn by and by that it comes from the trauma of having been declawed and abandoned by her owners. The scene in which this is finally revealed still hits as hard as it did when I was ten, and in a society that assumes cats are evil because they don’t show emotion or affection in the same ways that dogs do, this is a needed plot thread. The movie addresses outright the fact that in shelters, it’s typically the cute, healthy, and outwardly affectionate animals who are adopted into good homes, while the rest of the animals live out the rest of their lives in pens and cages. It’s a topic that doesn’t seem to be discussed often in film, least of all talking animal led comedies. But the movie also doesn’t stop in its tracks to do so — it’s woven into the plot as Bolt is led to wonder if his search for Penny is actually pointless, and animals really are just disposable to humans. And with so many animals being treated that way in reality, a movie like this that shows this particular issue from their perspective conveys an important message to adults, while kids are being taught about the value of friendship in general.

The film’s portrayal of both dogs and cats is accurate beyond just mimicking their usual behavior: Bolt is protective and anxious from being made to believe that “[his] person” is always in danger, but is allowed to embrace his playful and fun-loving nature once he understands that she isn’t. Mittens is more rational and judgmental at times, but she’s also loving once she receives the love and attention that she’s been missing. Both have to infer humans’ behavior and intentions, which can lead to them getting confused, frightened, or simply cautious. The details in how they’re animated are clever, with them behaving more like their real-life counterparts when we’re seeing from the perspective of the human characters, and becoming slightly more human-like when the focus shifts to them. It makes it that much more enjoyable when Bolt learns how to play and enjoy life like a regular dog, learning how to fetch and sticking his head out a window on the road for the first time. John Travolta and Susie Essman both give great performances, and seem to be having a lot of fun with their respective roles. The same can be said for Rhino’s voice actor, Mark Walton, as well as the majority of the supporting cast, which is comprised of a decent mix of voice actors and live-action actors, where a lot of mainstream animated films tend to rely too much on celebrity voices (not that this movie is totally free of that, but that’s a discussion for later).

The human cast gets significantly less focus, but they have their shining moments as well. Penny’s heartbreak over her lost pet is relatable and adds stakes to Bolt’s quest. The TV show’s director is hilarious in how seriously he takes himself and his methods, and although there’s no proper villain, Penny’s agent has some great comedic moments in how truly awful a person he is.

Negatives

There’s a reason Bolt is rarely credited with actually starting the Disney Revival, and it’s because the film is too dated to be quite on par with the films that came in the following years. The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frozen appealed to audiences because their humor and heart were reminiscent of the Renaissance films, while still holding their own unique identities. Bolt has a good amount of heart, but a good quarter of its jokes rely on pop cultural references that either go over kids’ heads or are an obvious sign of the time it was in production. Although, frankly, those are the least of this movie’s over-modernization.

The biggest issue that came from Bolt being produced in the early-mid-2000s was the casting of Miley Cyrus as Penny. While I understand the decision to bring her on, with recent animated Disney films not having performed exceptionally well and Hannah Montana having been at the height of its popularity, but it was a huge misstep. She seems to be trying her best, but it’s painfully obvious that she was too old for the role and was only added to draw in more kids. Her voice doesn’t fit Penny’s design in the slightest, and the marketing pushed her as if she was the star when she’s more of a supporting character to Bolt and Mittens. The character herself is fine, and the bond between her and Bolt is well-written, but Cyrus just doesn’t sell it.

The movie’s first act takes too long to introduce the talking animal aspect. Yes, it waits a bit to get the human characters out of the way so we can enter the animal world, but some time could have been shaved off of the introduction (especially the misdirect segment) to more quickly get to this, seeing how it’s one of the most prominent features of the storytelling throughout the rest of the film. Similarly, Bolt and Mittens’ first encounter would have been made funnier by her having been shown a couple of scenes previous. As it is, it doesn’t really register how satisfying it is for the pigeons to see her knocked down a peg after she’s exploited and intimidated them for so long. The pigeons are also painfully humorless; they get a chuckle here and there, but they’re mostly obnoxious and only serve to halt a scene dead in its tracks to either explain a joke or continue an unnecessary and unfunny running gag. Luckily, they only appear in a handful of scenes, and are absent from long stretches of the film.

Though most of the plot works and has some relatable and tense emotional stakes, it relies on contrivances in some key moments. For some reason, the cast and crew of the show going back into production after Bolt goes missing means Penny has to stop searching for him altogether, rather than just distribute her “lost dog” flyers and wait for word while also working during the day with the replacement dog they bring in. The animators nearly sell the emotion the scene is going for, but it doesn’t fully work since Penny’s producers urging her to “let Bolt go” doesn’t make total sense. There’s also the scene in the third act when Bolt has finally made his way back to the studio to find that Penny has apparently moved on to another dog and forgotten all about him, only for the director to yell, “Cut,” and Penny to lament Bolt’s disappearance to her mother just after he’s left. It’s not as bad as some movies, since there’s no easy way for Bolt to communicate with Penny on the issue, but it’s still a tired method of having him lose hope just before the climax.

Final Thoughts

Bolt now feels like a sort of spiritual predecessor to Zootopia, with a similar comedic tone and focus on platonic relationships, the former of which was more tightly written in the later film, after Byron Howard had better honed his narrative skill. There are some problems with its outdated references, stunt casting, and minor issues with its plot, but in the end, its positivity and lightheartedness make it a lot more fun to watch than something like Home on the Range or Chicken Little. The main arc of Bolt learning that he doesn’t need the powers he thought he had, and is loved and wanted simply for being the loyal companion he’s always been progresses through his friendships with other well-rounded and fun characters, as well as a surprisingly (yet fittingly) sober climax that cements the love he has for his owner, and is altogether a heartwarming story. The film is largely a love letter to pets: primarily dogs, but also animals that are less popular, whether it be because of cultural attitudes toward a species, a physical deficiency in one particular animal, or an animal simply not being as cute as a healthy, springy White Shepherd.

There isn’t as much to say about this film as there was for Brother Bear or Home on the Range, but for what the movie was trying to accomplish, that’s a good thing. It achieves its larger emotional goals and makes for a fun watch with some heavier moments that never feel jarring or out of place. And as this series moves into the Revival period, just like ten years ago, Bolt is a sign of greater things to come.

Originally published at miseensense.wordpress.com on August 30, 2018.