Bolt Into the Holidays
Look out world, Bolt is soon to be unleashed! The latest Disney movie follows the adventures of Bolt, a white Shepherd puppy voiced by John Travolta. Bolt has lived his entire life on the set of a dramatic television show, where he plays a dog with super powers. When he is accidentally shipped cross-country to New York City, he embarks on a mission to return to Los Angeles. The only problem is, Bolt thinks his superpowers are real. He is soon joined by Mittens the cat, voiced by Susie Essman, and a TV-obsessed hamster, Rhino, voiced by Mark Walton.
According to the production staff, the look of the film was inspired by the work of Edward Hopper. The revolutionary process of non-photorealistic rendering, known as NPR, was used to render the distinctive look of the film. The NPR process, which is also being used for Disney’s up-coming Rapunzel (2010), gives Bolt a three-dimensional look that is a first for Disney.
The first trailers of Bolt were released with the theater prints for WALL-E and managed to set off a tsunami of interest. The project was initially entitled American Dog and was the brain-child of Chris Sanders of Lilo & Stitch fame. His version of the film centered on a TV star dog named Henry. Henry finds himself abandoned in the desert and must find his way home with the help of a one-eyed cat and a radioactive rabbit.
However, when John Lasseter took the reigns of Disney in 2006, he screened a rough version of the film and asked for major changes to be made. When Sanders refused to make any cuts, he was quickly replaced by Chris Williams and Byron Howard. Lasseter explained, “Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn’t take it to the place it had to be.”
Bolt as we know it has set alight the public’s interest. A video game version of the film will be released on November 18, 2008 for all major gaming platforms. This will surely mobilize a huge young audience. Coupled with a star-studded cast of voices, Bolt is sure to be a very big hit.
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