History WesternAnimation / Bolt

--> '''Rhino:''' ''Every time he did this on the magic box, it was awesome!''
'''Mittens:''' ''Magic what?''
'''Rhino:''' ''You know, the magic box people stare at.''
'''Mittens:''' ''Wait a minute, does this box have moving pictures on it?''
'''Rhino:''' ''Yeah, and Bolt's pictures are the best.''
'''Mittens:''' ''Bolt's pictures. Of course, he's from a... Oh no! Oh no. No, wait, wait. Bolt, dog, hear me out!''

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mittens fits the trope. When we first meet her, she is running a Mafia-style protection racket, bullying pigeons out of their food. She is also clearly antagonistic towards Bolt initially (not without cause, as he kidnaps her and treats her with disrespect). After the dog rescues her from the animal shelter, Mittens gradually warms up to Bolt, teaching him how real-life dogs behave, and they become friends. Later, she runs off to tell Bolt that Penny really loves him, and rescues Rhino from his plastic ball as it begins to crack under the weight of a collapsing door.

The film went through several years of TroubledProduction, beginning life with the title of ''American Dog'' and featuring a very different plot that still centered around a television dog that believed himself to be inside the show. Originally directed by Creator/{{Chris Sanders}}, [[ExecutiveMeddling friction]] after Creator/{{Pixar}}'s integration into Walt Disney Animation led to Sanders being replaced and the film undergoing a significant overhaul into ''Bolt''. The dust up led to Sanders departing Creator/{{Disney}} altogether, leading to his creation of ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' for rival Creator/DreamWorksAnimation.

* TheNthDoctor: When Penny quits the program, her replacement is {{Handwaved}} in-show as the result of [[MagicPlasticSurgery extreme facial reconstruction]]. Amusingly, the replacement actress has bright green eyes, while Penny's eyes are brown. Reconstructive surgery ''can't do that''.

* DownerEnding: The show seemingly ends on one, as Bolt escapes before the follow-up can be produced. Penny is captured by Dr. Calico, ending on a cliffhanger.

* CarboardBoxHome: Mittens tries to entice Bolt into staying in Las Vegas with her by showing him the homes she made for them out of cardboard boxes and some cushions.

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese version has a different ending theme called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg38D2woPpI "Onaji Sora wo Miageteru" ("I Look Up at the Same Sky")]].

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: The actors playing Dr. Calico's mooks in the ShowWithinAShow. On-screen, they're a threat to Penny and Bolt; when the cameras aren't rolling, they're generally nice to their co-stars and crew.

** [[spoiler:The big guy playing Calico's henchman in the first action scene fulfills this trope near the end of the movie -- he's one of the few people who runs back into the burning studio to try and rescue Penny. He is seen shortly afterwards getting oxygen from a canister to treat smoke inhalation.]]

* ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction: In real life, the scenes of a television show are rarely filmed in the order they're scripted (The "cliffhanger" of Penny's capture certainly wouldn't have been saved for last). Not to mention, putting so much effort into EnforcedMethodActing for a dog would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. This is somewhat {{deconstructed|Trope}}, as Mindy from the Network is annoyed at how the production seems to have misplaced priorities and threatens to start firing people. [[invoked]]

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Pretty much universal on Bolt's TV show.
** The villains of the ShowWithinAShow. Towards the end of the film, Rhino spots one of Dr. Calico's underlings and charges toward him to attack. [[CutenessProximity The actor merely picks up Rhino's ball and proceeds to gush about how adorable he is]], oblivious to Rhino's attempts to fight him. Earlier, the actors playing mooks are nice to the crew who assist them (one says "Thanks, Larry" in a grateful tone after having his helmet shield wiped clean).

* NoodleIncident: Mittens is depicted as having a ragged bite mark in her left ear. How she got this is never explained in the film.

* CatchPhrase:
-->'''Penny:''' That's a keeper!
-->'''Penny's Agent:''' Let's put a pin in it.

* TakeThatAudience: Possibly. At the start of the film, Mindy from the Network complains that the show is unpopular among 18-35 year olds (an in-universe PeripheryDemographic) who feel each episode ending happily makes it too saccharine and predictable, and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom the show's attempts to appease the critics]] leads to [[ForWantOfANail disaster for all the characters]] ([[SeasonalRot and the show]] [[JumpingTheShark in the long run]]). At the time this film was released, the animation industry was engulfed in a cynical post-''Shrek'' era, with Disney's supposed saccharine movies and predictable happy endings being criticized among adults, which led to Disney falling into a rather infamous AudienceAlienatingEra by trying to appease cynics at the expense of film quality. (This is something John Lasseter was vocally against and determined to put an end to when he signed on with Disney, starting with this film.)

* RunningGag: A few. One minor one involves a pair of college-age men moving across the US from New York presumably to somewhere in the West. They cross paths with Bolt and friends a few times, though the two groups only notice each other once or twice.

* ForWantOfANail: In an effort to simply boost ratings, a TV show loses its biggest star, resulting in his sub-par replacement burning the set to the ground and almost ''killing'' his co-star, who quits shortly after. The program is forced to [[JumpingTheShark make up a convoluted plot]] to cover it all up which (presumably) ends in its cancellation.

* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Once she is (literally) roped into accompanying Bolt, Mittens often ends up playing the role of OnlySaneMan to the naive dog, though not always successfully. She explains a number of things he hasn’t encountered before, such as teaching him the concept of hunger (and how to beg for food like normal dogs do) and not putting himself in situations where he will be injured (given that Bolt thinks he has superpowers, she rarely convinces him on this issue, however). Later, Mittens teaches him how dogs act in real life as they go across country, and in Los Angeles tells Bolt that Penny really does love him (stalling him long enough to discover that the girl is in trouble).

* BalloonBelly:
** Mittens, after exploiting Bolt's cuteness in order to get food for them, sports a fully-rounded stomach. She [[LampshadeHanging lampshades it.]]
--->''"Hey! Look! My stomach's distended! How great is that?"''