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Analysis of Disney’s Bolt

This was not written by me. It was composed by an acquaintance of mine, Nicholas R. Zabaly, as the test for a possible animation section of the site. Some interesting points are brought up that audiences may not have contemplated, whether they agree or not. I’m certainly looking forward to what Nicholas offers us later.

Disney’s Bolt as Confirmation of Traditional Cultural Values
By Nicholas Zabaly

By now, much has been made of the controversy over Bolt, Disney’s animated hit of the holiday season. Disney watchers and animation fans already know of the difficulties involved in production, which resulted in Feature Animation head honcho / Pixar guru John Lasseter removing director and original creator Chris Sanders (of Lilo and Stitch fame) first from the film and then the Disney company, and ever since strong and divided opinions have dogged the film (no pun intended). While there is potentially a book waiting to be written about the behind-the-scenes scuffles surrounding Bolt (and the other post-Lasseter Disney animated films), and it remains interesting to speculate about what kind of a film Sanders would have given us, the movie we did get is a notable work, one which, like The Great Mouse Detective before it, may be a sign of a new golden age on the horizon at Disney. Moreover, it also does something else that’s very interesting: unlike many recent Disney films, it has a strong (though subconscious) commentary on society, and despite possession of a decidedly commercial bent (observe the casting of Miley Cyrus in a lead role), it is a work that goes out of its way to condemn the often fake and inauthentic nature of Hollywood and present-day American life. In urging a return to simpler and more honest times, Bolt strives to be something quite rare in the modern cinema scene: an old-fashioned Disney movie.

Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) is the canine star of his own action TV show, but doesn’t know none of it is real. Convinced he has super powers and must constantly save his human owner Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus), his entire life is an elaborately constructed sham, all for the benefit of TV producers and the network. When the cameras are off, his wiser feline co-stars, who play the pets of the show’s villain, torment him in his trailer. So, when Bolt accidentally escapes, is knocked unconscious, and sent across the country to New York, his entire life and set of values (as a super-dog) must be revaluated and in many cases discarded in favor of new realities.

Bolt first encounters a group of New York pigeons, the leader of whom is always just on the verge of recognizing him from TV. They lead him to Mittens, a local alley cat who’s been running an extortion racket for food, using the birds as her literal pigeons. Bolt catnaps Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman), believing her to be an agent of evil like the other cats he’s encountered, then starts his journey back to Hollywood to rescue Penny (in the show’s last episode she was left in dire straights). In order to do so, he must cross the entire United States, no small feat for a dog whose survival sense is on a very short leash. Fortunately, he quickly acquires a new companion: Rhino the hamster (voiced by Disney story artist and non-professional actor Mark Walton), a huge fan of Bolt’s TV show. Together, the motley crew embarks on a road trip, discovering along the way the oft harped upon but rarely well-expressed ideas of family togetherness, friendly trust, and real (versus screen-acted) emotion. What sets Bolt apart from other similar films is that it actually works, thanks in large part to a sympathetic and well-crafted script by Dan Fogelman and Chris Williams. Along the way numerous opportunities are given, usually through the intervention of Mittens, for Bolt to lose his unintentional Hollywood phoniness and preposterous delusions and learn be a real dog.

Discoveries of this authenticity come in strikingly traditional places. At one point, Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino play house in a traveling model home, discovering (or remembering) their family roles in much the same fashion as children did decades ago. Mittens introduces Bolt to the ‘dog-truths’ of drinking from the toilet and, in a more uplifting moment, sticking his head out the car window, clichés as old as the movies and yet still somehow affecting when they are discovered for the first time. Bolt, in his expected superhero role, has been too busy to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, much like The Jungle Book’s Mowgli who must be introduced to “The Bare Necessities” by jungle-bum Baloo. In discovering his true self, Bolt throws off layer after layer of his ingrained behaviors to get at the authentic animal beneath. Other moments come during a montage sequence in the middle of the film. This important section serves as the visual representation of the road trip, with the central idea of ‘seeing America’ referenced again and again by the numerous road signs and iconic landmarks. Reinforcing this are the scenes of the animal characters growing closer to one another, forming their own family unit out of their initial dysfunction. This sequence really brings home the message: family closeness comes from a result of national awareness, and more importantly a sense of where you fit within that nation. Beyond plotting necessity, the fact that Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino are each from a different part of the country emphasizes that genuine connections can be made despite regional differences. Mittens even has the idea of settling down: when the group reaches Las Vegas, she prepares an ‘American dream home’ for them: an assembly of cardboard boxes on the outskirts of the Strip, a sort of animal equivalent of the houses now being foreclosed at record rates. But Bolt rejects this realization of the playhouse. Though by now he’s come to know he’s not a superhero, he still wants to return to Penny, his ‘person,’ who has raised him since puppy-hood.

Mittens is not sympathetic. Herself an abandoned stray, she’s given up any notion that humans can be a part of her ‘American dream.’ She fights with Bolt, accusing him of regressing into delusion by thinking that Penny’s love was ever real. After the two part ways, it seems the family unit has fractured. But surprisingly, it’s Rhino to the rescue. In his genuine admiration for Bolt, he won’t let his friend continue on alone. At his urging, Mittens goes on to Los Angeles. Here, at the studio, is the final showdown.

Penny, having been convinced to continue the TV show in Bolt’s absence and accept another dog to fill his role, has been going through the motions. Her superficial, self-centered agent (voiced by Greg Germann) continually disregards her desires for his own, smothering any objection by telling her to “put a pin in it.” Nonetheless, Penny endures, if for no other reason than to keep the network executives from firing the show’s crew. Into this milieu Bolt returns, only to see Penny, his beloved friend, embrace the replacement show dog with words of affection. Crushed, he leaves, remembering Mitten’s words. Mittens, however, has witnessed the whole scene and knows that Penny is acting. She stops Bolt, and urges him to return to the studio lot. He does so just in time: the replacement dog has started a fire in the sound stage, endangering Penny. In scenes reminiscent of the recent Universal Studios fire, Bolt has his chance to be a hero, saving Penny not with an explosive ‘super bark,’ but by being a real, normal dog with a real, normal bark. The exploitative agent tries to turn the near-tragedy into a marketing bonanza, and is finally given a square kick of human decency by Penny’s mother. Penny and Bolt both quit the show, and retire to normal life in a picturesque farmhouse in the country. Together with Mittens and Rhino, they make up a new family unit, free of the fakery and superficial lifestyle of Hollywood (and by extension, the modern world that thrives on its fantasies). The American heartland is once more the center and symbol of family connectedness. More importantly, though, the pigeons roosting outside their house (the country cousins of the earlier New York group) question whether they’ve seen Bolt somewhere before, and conclude that they never have. The film ends on this remarkable note. As a rejection of fame and an embrace of the ordinary, it is better to live an ordinary, simple, traditional life with those you care about and who care for you than all the fame, notoriety, or ‘superpowers’ in the world. The real superpower is having a genuine emotional bond, and the real hero is the quintessential American dog.

Whether or not Bolt’s traditional themes jive with modern audiences, or whether viewers will even be consciously aware of them, are debatable. However, just as previous Disney gems have banked on the definition of family relationships (such as how King Triton must learn to let daughter Ariel have her own life in The Little Mermaid), Bolt presses its moral points on familial themes. In order for Penny and Bolt to have an authentic relationship, said relationship must be free of the modern superficiality and self-aggrandizement (and the delusions they create) represented by Hollywood. Perhaps the most fascinating question the film leaves is what kind of relationships the writers and directors have, as animation people, to the larger Hollywood world. Even if on close viewing the message seems a little old-fashioned, it offers interesting considerations on contemporary life, and certainly inspires far more thought than the typical talking animal movie. Whatever skeptical animation fans may say, Bolt has successfully achieved ‘message movie’ status, an accomplishment for any modern American studio film, much less an animated one.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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