Page 65 - CelebrationsSpring2020

It was almost twelve years ago when a barking big shot American Dog, Disney named as the director Chris Sanders,
named Bolt bounded onto the big screen. The story was not entirely new – it was a bit of a variation on 1993’s Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, with shades of 1998’s The Truman Show – but there was a lot resting on this little pup’s furry shoulders, potentially even the future of Disney animation.
Bolt, which opened in 2008, was written by Dan Fogelman and Chris Williams, who also co-directed the film alongside Byron Howard, with a score by John Powell. The film appeared during what was a bit of a “no-man’s land” era of Disney animation, which is referred to by some as the “Second Dark Age” (the “First Dark Age” being the time after Walt’s death in 1966 until the Disney Renaissance, beginning in 1989).The novelty of the Disney Renaissance had faded, and the glory of Pixar had only just begun to shine. Fortunately for the company, live movies were entering a new heyday: this was the era of kid-friendly favorites such as 2003’s Holes and Freaky Friday, as well as Enchanted (2007); sports films like Remember the Titans (2001), The Rookie (2002), Miracle (2004) and The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005); and franchises that included The Princess Diaries, Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure and The Chronicles of Narnia. While Disney Animation enjoyed a few successes, such as Lilo & Stitch (2002), Chicken Little (2005) and Meet the Robinsons (2007), which all fared well at the box office, others, such as Treasure Planet (2002) and Home on the Range (2004) were financial disappointments. Were Disney’s days in the animated sun gone for good?
Spoiler alert: they were not. This was not the first time Disney had found themselves in a similar situation, and based on past history – namely after World War II, when Disney was saved by Cinderella in 1950, and the bleak time after Walt’s death in 1966 through the 1980s, until the onset of the Disney Renaissance with The Little Mermaid in 1989 – there was every reason to believe that the company would find a way out once again, though this time not with a singing princess, but a spunky puppy.
So what about Bolt helped turn things around for the Animation Studio? It is difficult to pinpoint any one factor. Certainly the story, chronicling a dog who has always lived on television set and ergo falsely believe that he has super powers, upon which he relies in order to rescue his young owner when he thinks her to be kidnapped, captured the hearts of film-goers. This was not the original plot of the story: clearly because of the high stakes of this film, the pressure was on, and for an early version of the film,
who had previously helmed the highly successful Lilo & Stitch. John Lasseter, who at that time headed both Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, saw early drafts of the film, which featured a dog named Henry trapped in the Las Vegas desert with a radioactive rabbit and a cat wearing an eye-patch--and made story suggestions with which Sanders did not agree, so he was replaced by Williams and Howard. (This resulted in the team having fewer than two years to complete Bolt; most films are worked on for at least twice that amount of time.)
New developments in animation also undoubtedly helped the film’s popularity. Bolt was the first Disney film to utilize non- photorealistic rendering (NPR), a type of three-dimensional animation which was cutting edge at its time. As opposed to photorealistic rendering, in which animated objects and characters are designed to look as realistic as possible, NPR is used to create images that are inspired by figures or other pieces of art, but not photographs. This also made Bolt the first film to be created using 3-D technology; in earlier films, 3-D features were added with computer-generated imagery (CGI) after the animation had been constructed. This technique would later be used for Tangled (2010).
And there is always that now-expected attention to detail for which Disney has become renowned. For example, in order to accurately animate the hamster Rhino, the team adopted a pet of their own (which they named Doink), placed him on a piece of Plexiglass, and filmed him from underneath, so that they could see how hamsters move. And rather than relying on photographs or memory, the creative team traveled to various locations seen in the film, including Las Vegas, New York City, San Francisco and even a trailer park in Ohio. They wanted not only to thoroughly represent each setting, but also to see how light affected each building, in order to realistically recreate these images in their own artwork.
Some might also point to the outstanding cast, which featured acclaimed performers from various branches of the entertainment industry, led by A-lister John Travolta, who voiced the title character. Perhaps destined to be eternally associated with his role of Tony Manero in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever, his career had already run the gamut of genres, ranging from television situation comedy (Welcome Back Kotter), to musicals (Grease and Hairspray), to more intense offerings such as Pulp Fiction and Face/Off, so why not a Disney movie to add to his vast and varied resume?
Artwork ©Disney
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