The Making of Bolt
Directed by: Byron Howard, who would go on to direct “Tangled” and “Zootropolis” and Chris Williams, who would go on to direct “Big Hero 6”.
Cast
Bolt is voiced by John Travolta, who is best known for playing Danny in “Grease”. John has said that he enjoyed voicing Bolt because it’s something he’s familiar with, it’s actually what got him into showbiz, doing voice over work for TV and radio commercials.
Penny is voiced by Miley Cyrus, who is perhaps best known in the Disney world for playing undercover teen pop sensation Hannah Montana.
Young Penny is voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz.
Mittens is voiced by Susie Essman.
Rhino is voiced by Mark Walton, who works at Disney as a storyboard artist, writer and has voiced other Disney animals in films like “Home on the Range” and “Chicken Little”. Mark got the job because he was the scratch voice for the character. A scratch voice is just anybodies voice recording the lines so the story writers and the script writers can hear what the film will sound like. It was agreed that Mark did such a great job that they didn’t want anyone else to come in and record the lines.
Mark has said that he found the job easier than normal because the directors bought in the story boards and so he could see exactly how his character looked and felt during his scenes.
Dr. Calico is voiced by Malcolm McDowell.
Mindy is voiced by Kari Wahlgren.
The Director is voiced by James Lipton.
The Agent is voiced by Greg Germann.
Veteran Cat is voiced by Diedrich Bader.
Blake is voiced by Nick Swardson.
Tom is voiced by J.P. Manoux.
Billy is voiced by Dan Fogelman who helped write the Bolt screenplay and went on to write the screenplay for “Tangled” and is also the writer behind the brilliant, but emotional “This is Us”.
Thug is voiced by Randy Savage.
Dr. Forrester is voiced by Ronn Moss.
Penny’s Mom is voiced by Grey Griffin.
Penny’s TV Dad is voiced by Sean Donnellan.
Vinnie, the green pigeon, is voiced by Lino DiSalvo, who is an animator at Disney.
Joey, the blue pigeon, is voiced by Todd Cummings.
Bobby, the purple pigeon, is voiced by Tim Mertens, who is an editor at Disney.
Ester, the animal control officer, is voiced by Kelly Hoover. Fun fact, you can see a picture of Ester on the Policeman’s desk in “Big Hero 6”.
Martin is voiced by Brian Stepanek.
Louie is voiced by Daran Norris.
Saul is voiced by John DiMaggio.
Film Development
Before Chris Williams and Byron Howard were asked to direct this film a man called Chris Sanders was the director. Chris had previously worked on Disney films like “Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin”, “The Lion King” and more. When Chris Sanders was working on the film it was titled “American Dog”. However for unknown reasons either Sanders left of his own accord or was asked to leave and Chris Williams and Byron Howard were asked to take over by John Lasseter, the newly appointed head of Disney. John was under a lot of pressure to make this film great as the studio was starting to release some of the worst films they’ve made to date, like “Home on the Range”, “Chicken Little”, “Treasure Planet” and more. This era of Disney was called the “Post Renaissance”. Bolt would become the last film to be released in this era before “The Revival” era began with the release of “Princess and the Frog”.
During character development sessions Mittens was designed to be the complete opposite of Bolt, who was originally called Omega Dog. Bolt is white so Mittens is black. Bolt is needy, so Mittens in independent. Bolt is the loveable sweet character, Mittens is hard to get along with. Mitten is very intelligent so Bolt is clueless.
The film took 18 months to make, a very short amount of time in comparison to other Disney films. This was completely made using CGI, which at the time was still a relatively new medium, and quite limited. It was only the third completely CGI film that the studio had made, the previous two being “Chicken Little” and “Meet the Robinsons”. The film was also made with 3D in mind rather than just adding it in at the end. This is why you have scenes like Bolt and Penny being chased through the streets of San Francisco and why certain camera angles are chosen in the film. This is a strange decision considering the majority of people don’t have a 3D TV.
This film is undeniably similar to “The Truman Show” in the sense that the main character, Bolt, has no idea that the world around him is fake and that he’s actually a part of a TV show. This is similar to another animated film, “Toy Story” as Buzz Lightyear believes that he’s a space hero, when in actual fact he’s a mass produced toy. Buzz finds out his beliefs are wrong when he sees an advert of himself. The directors originally wanted Bolt to find out that he doesn’t have super powers and his world is fake via a TV but they realised they couldn’t copy “Toy Story” so they needed to get creative. Originally they were going to have Rhino, in his hamster ball, fall into a river and need saving. Bolt would try and save Rhino by diving in, but he finds himself to not be as strong a swimmer as he wants to be and ultimately needs saving by Mittens. This scene didn’t fit in the film so the filmmakers decided it would be better for Bolt to gradually uncover the truth and come to terms with it throughout the film.
Music
There’s no point in having a Miley Cyrus and John Travolta voice characters in a Disney animated film if they’re not going to sing. The duo actually perform the song that plays during the ending credits “I Thought I Lost You”. Miley wrote the song with Jeffrey Steele who is a family friends who used to open shows for Miley’s dad Billy Ray Cyrus when he was on tour.
Jeffrey was given a copy of the film to view privately. When he was watching the film he stopped the film when Penny says “I thought I lost you” to Bolt and this was the trigger for the song. Miley contributed lyrics to the song and the whole thing was completed in a day.
Miley has said that she was inspired by the love she has for her 6 dogs.
Easter Eggs
Written on Bolts tag is “2100 Riverside Dr. Hollywood CA” which is the home of Disney’s Animation Studio. Also Silverlake, from Silverlake Animal Shelter, is a neighbourhood 15 minute drive away from Disney’s Animation Studio.
You can hear the Wilhelm scream when Rhino is watching TV when we’re first introduced to him.
I hope you enjoyed learning about the making of Bolt, come back next week for another Disney blog.