bolt (2008 film)

''This article is about the movie "Bolt". For the fictional dog from the movie with the same name, see Bolt (character)

Name	Bolt
Caption	Theatrical release poster
Director	Chris WilliamsByron Howard
Producer	Clark SpencerJohn Lasseter
Screenplay	Dan FogelmanChris Williams
Starring	John TravoltaMiley CyrusSusie EssmanMark Walton
Music	John Powell
Editing	Tim Mertens
Studio	Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distributor	Walt Disney Pictures
Released
Runtime	96 minutes
Country
Language	English
Budget	$150 million
Gross	$309,979,654 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.
Name	Bolt
Type	soundtrack
Artist	John Powell
Cover	Bolt-soundtrack.jpg
Released
Genre	Score
Length	36:57
Label	Walt Disney
Chronology	Disney soundtrack
Last album	Meet the Robinsons(2007)
This album	Bolt(2008)
Next album	(2009)

The score to Bolt was composed by John Powell. The soundtrack featured the film's score and two original songs - "I Thought I Lost You" by Bolt's 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.

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.

# "I Thought I Lost You" by Miley Cyrus, John Travolta — 3:36 # "Barking at the Moon" by Jenny Lewis — 3:17 # "Meet Bolt" — 1:49 # "Bolt Transforms" — 1:00 # "Scooter Chase" — 2:29 # "New York" — 1:44 # "Meet Mittens" — 1:25 # "The RV Park" — 2:14 # "A Fast Train" — 2:38 # "Where Were You on St. Rhino's Day?" — 1:58 # "Sing-Along Rhino" — 0:42 # "Saving Mittens" — 1:02 # "House on Wheels" — 3:07 # "Las Vegas" — 2:01 # "A Friend in Need" — 1:13 # "Rescuing Penny" — 3:09 # "A Real Life Superbark" — 0:46 # "Unbelievable TV" — 1:20 # "Home at Last/Barking at the Moon (Reprise)" — 1:29

Release

Theatrical

A trailer for the film was released on June 27, 2008, preceding WALL-E. A second trailer for the film was released on October 3, 2008, preceding Beverly Hills Chihuahua. A special trailer was shown before on October 24, 2008.

The premiere was held at El Capitan Theatre on November 16, 2008 in the arrivals and red carpet attended by John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Malcolm McDowell, Diedrich Bader, Nick Swardson, Greg Germann, Susie Essman, and Randy Savage.

Following the announcement by John Lasseter in December 2006 that all future Disney releases will have a theatrical short, the release was accompanied by the Cars Toons "Tokyo Mater" (also in 3D where available).

Home video

Bolt was released on Region A Blu-ray Disc 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.

Reception

Critical reaction

Rotten Tomatoes 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 compared Bolt with The Truman Show and stated in his review "[Bolt] also has an intriguing plot that is kind of the family animation version of The Truman Show-starring Jim Carrey."

Box office

On its opening weekend, the film opened number 3 with $26,223,128 behind Twilight and Quantum of Solace. On its second weekend, it rose to #2 behind Four Christmases with a 1.4% increase. As of November 1, 2009 the film has grossed $114,053,579 in the United States and Canada with an additional $195.9 million internationally for a worldwide total of $309,979,654.

2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature - lost to WALL-E

2008 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature - lost to Kung Fu Panda

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 Film - 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 Feature - lost to WALL-E

2009 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Animated Movie - lost to

Video games

Disney Interactive Studios produced a video game based on the film, released in November 2008 for Nintendo DS, 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.

References

External links

Category:2008 films Category:American animated films Category:American films Category:Animated comedy films Category:Computer-animated films Category:Disney animated features canon Category:English-language films Category:Fantasy-comedy films Category:Films about cats Category:Films about dogs Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:2000s 3-D films