Bolt (2008 film)

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.[6] Nearly a year later, in November 2003, the project had been titled American Dog.[7] 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.[8] In August 2005, the project's conceptual artwork and synopsis were then showcased publicly at the annual SIGGRAPH conference.[9] By November 2005, American Dog had been slated for a summer 2008 release.[10]

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."[11] In December 2006, Sanders was removed from the project,[12] and by early 2007, he had joined DreamWorks Animation.[13] 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."[14] Earlier that same month, Disney had laid off about 160 employees within its animation division.[15]

In February 2007, Lasseter had confirmed Chris Williams and Byron Howard were the film's new directors.[16][17] As directors, Williams focused on the story reels and layout while Howard tackled character design and animation.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21][22]

The look of the film was inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper and the cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond.[23] 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.[24]

Bolt's characteristics are based on an amalgam of breeds, although the designers started with the American White Shepherd.[25] 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."[25]

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.[26]

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]

The 3D Blu-ray version of the film was released in November 2010, in France[36] and UK.[37] A month later, it was released worldwide exclusively to select Sony TVs.[38][39] In the United States, it was released on November 8, 2011.[40]

On its opening weekend, the film opened in third place, earning $26.2 million behind Twilight and Quantum of Solace.[41] On its second weekend, it rose to second place, earning nearly $26.6 million behind Four Christmases.[42] Overall, Bolt grossed $114.1 million in the United States and Canada and $195.9 million in international territories, totaling $310 million worldwide.[1]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 89% based on 189 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Bolt is a pleasant animated comedy that overcomes the story's familiarity with strong visuals and likable characters."[43] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, calculated a score of 67 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[44] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[45]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Bolt was "a sweet Disney family film, but Lasseter's oversight has made it smarter than it otherwise would have been. It's not in Pixar's league, but it's laced with idiosyncratic characters with pleasantly wacky attitudes. That may sound like the obvious thing to do but that doesn't mean anyone else has done it."[46] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter felt the film was a "notable step up for Walt Disney Animation Studios", although he felt the script needed "more of a comedic punch, with fuller character quirks and complexities to go along with the enhanced visual dimension." Nevertheless, Rechtshaffen complimented the vocal performances from Travolta, Cyrus, and Malcolm McDowell.[47] Todd McCarthy, reviewing for Variety, noted the film was an "OK Disney animated entry enhanced by nifty 3-D projection" as it "bears some telltale signs of Pixar's trademark smarts, but still looks like a mutt compared to the younger company's customary purebreds."[48]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times complimented the film as "a real movie[,] not a great one, perhaps, but a more organic and thought-out piece of work than the usual animated hodgepodge that lures antsy children and their dutiful parents into the multiplexes. It has its sentimental strains, but it doesn't push them too hard, or resort to the crude, pandering humor of, say, the Shrek franchise."[49] 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."[50] 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."[51]

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film 1+1⁄2 stars out of four, writing he personally "felt abandoned just watching it. It's a seriously withholding action comedy, stingy on the wit, charm, jokes, narrative satisfactions and animals with personalities sharp enough for the big screen, either in 2-D or 3-D. I saw it in 3-D, which helped, especially with an early, massively destructive chase through the streets and freeways of Los Angeles. Plus, the herky-jerky movements in the head and neck region of three credulous pigeons -- those were funny."[52] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal wrote: "I did not find Bolt lovable. Likable, yes, and occasionally endearing -- yet the best parts involve a hamster in a plastic ball. The movie dog's confusions are entertaining, though they're familiar to anyone who has seen Buzz Lightyear in Pixar's peerless Toy Story films. But the spunk of the hamster, a corpulent rodent named Rhino, is stirring, and there's a timeless purity to the spectacle of him scurrying around in his private little sphere."[53]

Bolt was nominated for the following awards:

• 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature – lost to WALL-E[54]
• 2008 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature – lost to Kung Fu Panda[55]
• 2008 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature – lost to WALL-E[56][57]
• 2008 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film – lost to WALL-E[58]
• 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film – lost to WALL-E[59]
• 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song - lost to The Wrestler[59]
• 2008 Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Film – lost to WALL-E[60]
• 2008 Producers Guild of America's Best Animated Motion Picture – lost to WALL-E[61]
• 2008 Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature – lost to WALL-E[62]
• 2009 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Animated Movie – lost to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa[63]
• 2009 Visual Effects Society Award for "Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture"  – lost to WALL-E[64]
• 2009 Visual Effects Society Award for "Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture" (two nominations for "Bolt" and "Rhino")  – lost to WALL-E[64]
• 2009 Visual Effects Society Award for "Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Feature"  – lost to WALL-E[64]