Line #3 Fridge/Bolt


1	!!FridgeBrilliance
2	* Penny's real-life father [[DisappearedDad is not seen or mentioned at all]], even when she and her mother quit the show and return to a normal life in the ending. Assuming he wasn't around even before Penny got Bolt at the shelter, this is actually quite beneficial to the show's story and [[EnforcedMethodActing Bolt's performance]]. If Bolt had met or got to know Penny's real father before doing the show, he'd have realised that the actor playing her in-universe father on the show wasn't him.
3	* When Penny tells Bolt to "zoom-zoom" as they're fleeing the fire, Penny coughs uncontrollably while Bolt seems unaffected. Smoke rises, and Penny's much taller than Bolt, so is inhaling much more of it. She's also been exposed to the smoke for longer, so her trachea has been getting more and more irritated since the fire broke out.
4	* At first the opening scene seems typical or even trite--of ''course'' Bolt, the one dog that's visibly different, is also the only one behaving differently from the other puppies and also somehow the only one that notices and is interested in greeting a young Penny, he's the protagonist. It actually makes sense, though. The other puppies appear to be both younger and of a softer, calmer, more companionate breed, and they're focused on the shelter worker because he has their breakfast. Bolt, on the other hand, has the classic build of a white-morph German Shepherd mix--an intelligent, energetic, high-drive breed that needs a lot more than just kibble to motivate them. He's not ignoring the shelter worker because he's Special And Unique; he's ignoring the shelter worker because he's ''bored,'' and much more interested in the interesting novel stimulus of a new person than in his breakfast.
5	** This high drive, handler focus, and need for mental stimulation ''also'' make him, conveniently enough, the perfect candidate for the complicated trick-training necessary to make him a TV star!
6	* Bolt doesn't have super powers, but behaves as if he does because he believes he does. Mittens doesn't have claws, but pretends that she does because she knows she doesn't, but that's all she's got. Think about it. So similar, and yet different...
7	* [[spoiler: Penny and her mom leaving the show makes sense. Aside from the agent's own insensitivity, doing the show, Penny went through months of trauma worrying about her dog. Plus, considering the freak accident that occurred on set that '''nearly killed Penny through asphyxiation''', any responsible parents would be furious over their child being put in danger through a studio's irresponsibility]]
8	* [[spoiler: The show going in a new direction, with a plot about Penny and Bolt being abducted by aliens, makes sense. Mindy threatened to fire the crew if they couldn't get the ratings up. The studio causing a fire that could've killed people, sent the lead actress to the hospital, and Penny's mom quitting on the spot is the kind of clusterfuck that would enrage someone like Mindy and drive her to fire the idiots responsible. Plus, it is implied Mindy does genuinely care about Penny as a person and would be genuinely upset over her nearly being killed]].
9	* Bolt and Rhino both believe the show is real, and they have also both spent most of their lives inside a trailer.
10
11	!!FridgeHorror
12	* When you get down to it, the studio has a really irresponsible and inept management that does a lot of emotionally abusive behavior and cutting of corners.
13	** The in-universe studio's EnforcedMethodActing is deceptive, manipulative, and evidently places a huge burden of emotional distress on Bolt, even before he [[FromBadToWorse escapes while still thinking he has super powers]]. Given that this is all done merely to make his performance seem more convincing, it borders on animal abuse. And they were planning to do this to ''another'' dog despite knowing how badly it backfired with Bolt.
14	** The studio seems willing to do anything to get good ratings, like the ridiculously unsafe set design; [[spoiler:torches that use real fire (instead of the fake fire they use at some restaurants) surrounding a pad below a little girl who's literally tied up? Even if they didn't expect the dog to end up knocking over the torches, they couldn't be certain the torches WOULDN'T get knocked over, making it still indefensibly unsafe. Either the set designers DidntThinkThisThrough, or they thought having slightly more convincing fire was worth risking the life of a little girl over. (Not to mention the rest of the cast and crew.)]]
15	** To top it all off [[spoiler:the movie ends [[EsotericHappyEnding without resolving any of this]]. Bolt is still airing and it's never suggested that our antagonists are [[{{Pun}} fired]] or learn anything. This is bad news for the new dog/girl hire.]]That's likely why Penny and her mother quit the show instead of just getting their agent fired. JerkWithAHeartOfJerk as he is, it's not the agent's fault that the fire started, nor is it his idea to make Bolt think everything in the show was real. It wouldn't have made a difference if he was fired, and that is assuming the executive would even care to even listen to them.
16	*** Arguably, they very well could have ''replaced the entire production staff'' (and given the network exec's threats at the beginning, it's very possible), which would explain the show taking such a drastic turn of direction.
17	*** Considering how badly the show JumpedTheShark after everyone was replaced, it's safe to assume that it got canceled shortly thereafter. So this simple ratings boost was a fool's errand.
18	** It wouldn't be surprising at all if the replacement dog panicking was due to a rushed shooting schedule as well. It's clear that the studio wants to get back to filming as soon as possible, and wouldn't want to delay any more than they already had. So, why go to the trouble of properly training the new dog, or even bother to find a dog that was already trained, when they could just find the first one that happened to look enough like Bolt that they could start shooting again?
19	* The EnforcedMethodActing on the show works, specifically, because the character Bolt is a genetically-altered hero who only fights using the "superpowers" he of course doesn't actually have, never snarling or snapping like a real dog. In real life, dogs used in movies to be "attack dogs" are actually trained in a bitesport style--the dog is trained to have excellent bite inhibition outside of specific situations, to understand that the biting is a fun game that they only ''sometimes'' get to play, and to only bite designated objects, like a protective sleeve or a target toy. Also in real life, the reason a dog with a bite history is considered dangerous is that once a dog has been driven to bite, it means they've learned that the ''only'' way to make humans back off when the dog is scared or angry is to bite--making it more likely they'll resort to biting right away in the future, without appropriate warnings first. To Bolt, ''every single scene is a real, life-or-death situation.'' If it had ''ever'' occurred to him to listen to his instincts and use his teeth, even once, during a shoot...
20	** And this is the dog a studio executive ''took pride'' in pushing to his emotional limits every week.
21	** Essentially: In real life, a single slip-up could easily have resulted in Bolt being ''euthanized,'' not out of cruelty or lack of compassion but because he would have been driven to the point of being an ''active threat to everyone around him except Penny.'' All because the studio exec thought it made his shlocky action show more realistic.
22	* For the "cliffhanger" to work, the studio was planning to keep Bolt isolated and fearing for Penny's life for at least a day! This could've easily wreaked havoc on Bolt's mental health.
23	* Really, Bolt was a danger to himself and others when he thought the show was real. He could easily have been killed many times when he tried to jump over things, stood in front of cars expecting not to get hurt and jumped out of trucks. He also thought all cats were evil and thought nothing of holding Mittens above a road full of cars to get information.
24	* If Bolt hadn't met Mittens, he would've been screwed: not only is he convinced of his own superpowers, he is devoid of any real survival instincts, he doesn't know how to interact with other dogs period, and he is so sheltered he doesn't understand the feeling of hunger. If Mittens hadn't been around to teach him how to be a real dog, his situation could've ended very tragically.
25	* A deleted scene showed an alternate way of Bolt realizing he had no powers, which was portrayed more darkly. Bolt manages to get some food given to him by a butcher shop owner. As he leaves to enjoy his meal, two big stray dogs confront him to take the food. Bolt confidently faces off with the two dogs, warning that they picked a fight with the wrong dog. Unfortunately, the expected consequences bites back in the worst way as Bolt gets mercilessly beaten to within an inch of his life before the stray dogs leave with his food. A horrified Mittens finds Bolt barely alive some time later.

Context Fridge / Bolt