Disney Movie Challenge: Bolt (2008)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Bolt (2008)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021. 

With Bolt it feels like Disney finally figured out how to do Computer Animation.  The movie looks great and has a lot of good action sequences that feel like they wouldn’t have been able to pull off in past movies.  

The movie is about a dog named Bolt (John Travolta).  Bolt is an acting dog and has his own TV show.  The problem is that Bolt doesn’t know he is in a TV show and thinks he really has superpowers. When he thinks his owner Penny (Miley Cyrus) is really kidnapped he escapes. While running around the studio he gets lost and ends up being placed in a box and shipped to New York.  There he begins a perilous journey back to Hollywood with some new friends, a cat named Mittens, and a hamster named Rhino.  Along the way Bolt learns that he isn’t a superhero and other valuable life lessons. 

Bolt had a similar development as Meet the Robinsons.  Both movies started production prior to John Lasseter joining Disney and both underwent significant changes based on suggestions by Lasseter.  Director Chris Sanders (who previously directed Lilo and Stitch) did not appreciate the suggestions and didn’t want to change anything.  Lasseter removed Sanders from the project and the directing duties went to Byron Howard and Chris Williams.  Also similar to Meet the Robinsons Lasseter told the production they had an abbreviated timeline to finish the project (it’s reported that he told them to do what normally takes 4 years in 18 months). 

Somehow in the compressed timeline they put together a good looking movie.  It has the best action sequences in a Disney computer animated movie up to this time.  Pushing the limits of computer animation, new technology was developed for the movie.  Instead of trying to make the movie photorealistic as most computer animation does, this technology did the opposite. The program was used to make the background look like painting and added brush strokes into animation.   They also used different styles to show the difference between the fictional world of the Bolt TV series and Bolt’s real world adventures.   The finished product has a unique look that still holds up. They also decided early on that this film would be in 3D and was animated with that in mind. Previous films were made in 2D and upgraded to 3D. Making the movie with 3D in mind from the beginning gives a more sharper look as the animators can spend time getting the details right.

Probably the weirdest thing about the movie is the premise.  It’s like someone saw The Truman Show and said let's do that except with a dog.  But once the movie turns into a road movie it feels more organic.  I love the ragtag feel of the team he gets together.  It’s still bizarre to me that Rhino would just run away from home to join Bolt, but the whole Bolt and Mittens dynamic works really well.  

Overall:  Despite all the retooling and a weird premise the movie works pretty well.  The action is fun and the cast has some great interactions.  

Random Facts

Even though Chris Sanders was removed from the project he ended up a Dreamworks and helped create the popular How to Train Your Dragon series so things turned out pretty well for him.  In a weird twist of fate his first live action film was Call of the Wild  at Fox.  After Disney bought Fox the movie was technically released by Disney.  So even though Disney fired him he still found a way back.  

Chloe Grace Moretz did all of Penny’s dialogue but then was replaced by Miley Cyrus.  They did keep her as young Penny.  

Both James Lipton and Randy Savage have small parts in the film. This would be the last film for both of them.   

At one point Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for the role of Bolt.  

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000)

and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008)

Once again Disney couldn’t leave a classic alone and felt the need to make sequels. Actually it is one sequel and one prequel. 

Return to the Sea picks up soon after the first one. Ariel and Eric have a daughter Melody.  Ursula’s sister, Morgana, wants revenge and tries to kill Melody as an infant. They are able to fight her off but fearing her return they swear never to let Melody go in the ocean and will keep the fact that she is part mermaid a secret from her. Jump to 12 years later and Melody is defying all the rules and swimming in the ocean. Once again Sebastian is tasked with keeping an eye on her but unable to control a teenage girl. Of course Morgana finds out and grants Melody’s wish to be a mermaid and convinces Melody to steal Triton’s trident.  Ariel must turn back into a mermaid to save her daughter before Morgana’s evil plan can come to fruition.  

The premise isn’t bad but it hits pretty much the same plot points as the first one. One of the differences is that in this one Melody is joined by a penguin and a walrus on her journey as two comic relief characters . Unfortunately these two side characters are just annoying and add nothing to the story. It’s interesting to see Ariel in the role her father was in during the first movie although that aspect is not really explored much.  The songs aren’t very good, definitely not as memorable as the songs in the original. 

Ariel’s Beginning is a prequel to the original as the title implies. The movie is pretty much Footloose underwater.  King Triton banned music after his wife died.  His daughters are miserable and miss the happy times when music was a part of their life.   Ariel meets Flounder who is in a band, she learns that Sebastian has a secret club where they play music.  There is also an evil mermaid, Marina Del Ray  who is trying to take over Sebastian’s spot as the King’s advisor.  When Marina finds out that Sebastian is disobeying the King she sees this as an opportunity to take over his role.  Eventually Ariel has to convince her dad to allow music to come back and that Marina is really evil.  

The worst thing about this movie is that there is only like one original song and it’s pretty bad.  They use "Jump in the Line (Shake, Shake, Shake, Señora)” a number of times which makes it feel like they couldn’t come up with their own music.  It’s also a song that brings to mind Beetlejuice, a much better movie so makes the filmmakers seem even more lazy.  Sally Field does the voice of Marina Del Ray which is fine but the song she sings is just really bad.  She also had a sidekick Benjamin that I couldn’t figure out what kind of fish it was supposed to be and assumed it was a blobfish (according to Wikipedia it’s a manatee). The film ends betraying the beginning of the original.  Since in this one  it’s clear that Ariel wants to bring back music and please her father it makes no sense that in the beginning of the original she is skipping singing classes and forgetting about a performance.  But maybe that’s only a problem if you watch the two movies close to each other.  

Overall: Don’t go in expecting too much from these movies and you won’t be disappointed.  Return to the Sea is the better of the two but lacks the magic of the origins.  Ariel’s Beginning just feels lazy and boring. Reading about it on WIkipedia I found out there are 2 original songs in Ariel’s Beginning but I must have fallen asleep for one of them so that’s how exciting that is.  

Random Facts: 

Tara Strong was 26 when she played Ariel’s 12 year old daughter. She also returned for Ariel’s Beginning and voiced one of her sisters. 

Ariel’s Beginning release was delayed due to production on Cinderella III. Neither was very good.