How 'Bolt' is a Critique of Disney

Edit: I want to address the baseball glove bit. I don’t think mistakenly buying the wrong gift is “abuse” that was the wrong thing to say there, but I think there’s more nuance than that. The kid having to gaslight himself into thinking it is a bike is making a point that his childhood fucked him up mentally, whether intentionally or not. To me it is saying that his parents probably played a role in making him how he is, but more than likely it’s actually the fact his family was poor. This adds a greater depth to his then future role in playing into a capitalist farm house like Disney. I wish I could edit the video but hey, you live and you learn and you work to improve next time. I wish I could have delved into that idea more. Original description: This video is different from stuff I usually make, but sometimes you have this creative itch and you just have to chase it regardless. I want to do more of this in the future, stuff that's a little out of my normal comfort zone of making videos, appreciate any and all support! Huge thanks to everyone on Patreon for giving me the financial leeway to be able to do more stuff like this www.patreon.com/LazerzZ it means the world. Hope everyone enjoys!

Y'know, this interpretation feels a lot more likely to be deliberate if you look into the movie's history, because, as it turns out, Bolt is the direct result of an artistic passion project being hijacked by the network and watered down into something simpler with broader appeal. (And when I say hijacked, I MEAN hijacked. Disney booted the original creator from the project when he refused to budge, and replaced him with an up-and-coming who was more willing to cave into their demands)

I haven't seen Bolt in years, but something I noticed just now is that when Penny is "kidnapped" and not allowed to comfort Bolt, my first thought was "if that happened in real life, that dog would probably end up viciously attacking someone and it'd make big news". And then watching the scene where the handler comes in to put Bolt in the cage- I never realised the handler was in full padded gear because the showrunners knew that the dog would be very likely to genuinely viciously attack and they willfully ignored this for the sake of the ratings.

I'm just now realizing that the reason they had to "completely redo Penny's face" was because they RECAST HER! That part always confused me as a kid, but now that I'm older, I find this incredibly funny.

Love that Penny just steals someone's hamster.

If you're still wondering "how in the world did Disney let this slide???" It's because frankly, they don't care. This movie, despite it bringing attention to a lot of the darker areas in their industry, still made them a ton of money. All this "critique" did was fool people into thinking Disney cares about what people hate them for while continuing to do those exact things behind the scenes.

I genuinely cried when he barked into the vent. In the show, the fake hero barks so fiercely it sends a ripple through the ground. In reality, the real hero barks not with intense power, but with intense love, through a vent to call for help. The bark isn't even that dramatic-sounding. It's just a plain dog bark, but that's what's so special about it. Bolt is just a normal dog, yet that won't stop him from being a true, reality-is-real hero.

I remember finding the scenes where Bolt is in the trailer after filming's over funny as a kid. Now that I actually have a dog, a rescue dog at that who has suffered trauma and experiences anxiety as a result of being abused as a pup, I just feel awful watching those scenes where Bolt is guarding the door and clearly torn on wanting to play versus protecting his loved one. I see that every time someone knocks on my own door and my dog barks and stands his ground, looking back at me desperately as if to say 'I want to stop but I can't, or you'll get hurt.' It's genuinely distressing to see an animal suffering that kind of inability to distinguish a real threat from a fake one, even in the context of an animated film. Look after your pets, and never take their intelligence for granted. They'll fill in the gaps themselves, and they'll stick to that forever if you're not careful to teach them otherwise.

When Mittens tries to convince Bolt that Penny doesn't love him, I don't think it's because of her perspective on celebrities, I think she was projecting her own trauma with her past owner onto Bolt. Mittens was kicked out of her house by a person who didn't care about her so it makes sense that she'd have a negative view point on other pets owners

Bolt couldve ended with Penny finding a new nicer agent or a new show, and continuing to act after she got better. The fact that they decided she should be allowed to leave acting permanently really reinforces the point you made. Its not just Bolt the Show thats bad, its the whole industry

Anyone ever notice how Penny's real name isn't ever mentioned? The only time she's addressed as such is in the show, by Bolt himself, and by the other animals offstage; she's never referred to as "Penny" by her mother, agent, or any other human character outside of the show itself.

I remember being a dumb media illiterate kid and being FOOLED, thinking Mindy from the network truly was a responsible and guiding adult. Sickening to think, that kids like me experienced ACTUAL people like Mindy.

My dog was named bolt after this movie, he was a runt of his pack and he’s been on this earth for over 14 years now, and with this movie getting more and more appreciation, I can’t help but feel happy that it’s getting the love it deserves.

It’s funny because back when the movie came out a lot of people criticized the casting of Miley Cyrus for this movie because Hannah Montana was at the height of its popularity and people were getting sick of it (much like how Disney would shove Frozen down everyone’s throats years later). But fast forward to now I think the casting choice was very clever especially for all the reasons you covered in the video.

I had a DVD disc on bolt 10 years ago. I managed to convince my school to make my entire class watch it in the theatre. Even the teachers were captivated by it. At the time, my 9 year old self thought that they loved the movie for the action like any kid would. But as I grew up, I saw what made this supposed 'kids movie' leave such a mark on grown adults.

This movie and Meet the Robinsons are so heart felt and they are made with such a care, they are definitely underrated gems

24:43 its the fact that when i was a kid i genuinely thought she was being good natured here and only realize now how fucking twisted that is, i think that really aids to the way the character is executed and shows how convincing she can be

I could be wrong. But doesn’t Penny’s agent even say something like “I have a daughter just like you. And I would trade her for you in a heartbeat”. Which could mean, paired up with his bike story. That his parents likely never appreciated or loved who he was. They likely wanted a big star or sports player for a son. Which may be why he decided to become an agent. Because he couldn’t be a big actor. Instead the closest way he could make them proud was by being an agent. Someone who works in Hollywood. And that line about his daughter may hint that he’s doing the same thing to his daughter. He’s pushing her to become someone big, cause his parents taught him to only value someone for what they are. A star or some forgettable face.

Only today did I realize the parallels between "Bolt" and "The Truman Show". I mean, both main characters have spent their whole lives in a fabricated existence made to be watched by the masses on tv. Both also experience the questions that come with this revelation such as "Do those who love me do so because they were told to?" and "How many decisions in my life were, in reality, decided for me?" The main difference (asides from species) is that one character finds the truth while inside the fabricated world, and the other only sees it once they are outside of the fabricated world.

It seems very fitting that "Bolt" was satirising Disney and the Hollywood machine, given that it was Disney that led the charge, and left many bodies on the cutting room floor, while others surrendered to its might just to be spared. The recent Disney flops highlights many of the flaws built into the machine, and Bolt gives us an insight into how the machine works, I have a funny feeling this was happening behind the scenes during the production of "Wish". Disney's Wish was suppose to celebrate the studio's centennial, the one hundredth year birthday was an event, and the dollop was going to be Wish, the crescendo of all the studio's successes, only for it to turn out to be an embarrassing fail. Like the TV show Bolt, it was manufactured and cynical as hell, banking on the fame of its brand and franchises, believing it was too big to fail, ironic, since Bolt was released on 2008, on the eve of the Great Recession, nevertheless, Wish was the perfect embodiment of the programme working as designed, amatures also contributed to failure, particularly the music, pop artists wrote the music for Wish, with AI sounding lyrics, and sounds poorly compared to the classical theatrical musicals Disney was remembered for. Basically, Disney made the TV show into a reality, instead of action sci-fi, Wish was adventure fantasy, with the outlandish spectacle and fan pandering to draw in the audience, and yet, it failed to materialise, it's actually quite surreal just how much Wish resembles the TV show from Bolt, although the aesthetics are different, the design is still present, and I think the audience has finally gotten wise enough to see how the machine functions, I think I'll watch Bolt again to see what else it called out about the industry.