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    Bolt 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bolt_disney.png
Voiced by: John Travolta; Richard Anconina (European French Dub), Ernesto Laguardia (Latin Spanish dub)

The main and titular protagonist.


  • Always Save the Girl: He's so utterly committed to Penny that, even after filming has wrapped and they're alone in their trailer, he protectively guards the door and won't calm down to play with her. When he's tricked into thinking she has been put in serious jeopardy, a cross-country trek starts to get her back.
  • Amplified Animal Aptitude: On and off the set.
  • Ass Kicking Pose: Before delivering the Superbark, Bolt always assumes the position. Right forepaw, forward. Right hindpaw, backward. Then, WOOOOF!!!
  • Badass Adorable: In the TV series. He's actually an adorable shepherd.
  • Badass Normal: Despite coming to realize his superpowers are all fake, he still ultimately pulls through everything thrown at him by sheer determination.
  • Canine Companion: To Penny. First in the Show Within a Show, and then in real life at the end.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Spending most of your life in a recording studio with zero knowledge of the outside world will do this to you.
  • The Comically Serious: Due to him actually thinking he's a superhero.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Thinks Dr. Calico, the villain of the Show Within a Show, is behind everything.
  • Determinator: He will not give up searching for Penny no matter what.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: During the road-trip montage, he and his friends enjoy rain falling on them while on top of a vehicle. Mittens notices that the drizzle is washing away the thunderbolt makeup on his fur. It's a perfect symbolism on how Bolt has finally accepted his "real-ness" and his newfound friends.
  • Famed In-Story: Deconstructed. It's due to his fame as an action dog for a TV show that the directors for his show decide to get him to method act, and also why the agent keeps Penny away from him, which in turn causes the film's conflict.
  • Fantastic Racism: Pre-Character Development, Bolt really has a strong loathing of felines, due to them being heavily tied to TV villain Dr. Calico:
    Bolt: You just can't stop lying, can you cat?! It's in your genes, man. It's just gross!
  • Female Feline, Male Mutt: With Mittens.
  • First Injury Reaction: Bolt's paw bleeds a bit after he and Mittens jump out of a moving truck. Since he's been living in a recording studio all his life and has never been in any real danger, he's confused by this leakage of "red liquid". Mittens is incredulous that he doesn't know what blood is by now, but Bolt mistakenly believes that styrofoam is his Kryptonite Factor.
  • Fish out of Water: Has spent most of his life being tricked into thinking that his superhero action show is reality, and that he actually has superpowers. Outside of his controlled soundstage, he has no idea what is going on and tends to attempt things that he is not capable of.
  • Freudian Trio: The Ego to Mittens' Superego and Rhino's Id-detached from reality, but still committed to heroism and kind to his friends.
  • Heroic Dog: Spends most of his life being tricked into thinking he's a superhero. Even after he realizes it was all fake, he continues to act as a hero, with his daring rescue of Mittens from the pound, and later on trying to actually save Penny from a burning building.
  • Interspecies Friendship: With Mittens and Rhino.
  • Kryptonite Factor: Parodied. Due to a misunderstanding as to why his "powers" aren't working, he comes to the conclusion that styrofoam packing peanuts are this to him.
  • Large Ham: Comes as a package with the superhero delusions.
  • Locked into Strangeness: Played with. He believes the lightning mark in his fur is a symbol of his powers, but it's actually just make up.
  • Manchild: For a dog who speaks, at least.
  • Nerves of Steel: His time on the show has thrown so many improbable situations at him, with him effortlessly taking them out, that it's given him a tremendous amount of bravery. His replacement was raised as a much more normal dog, realistically whining and cowering when put into a dangerous situation, leading to tragedy and Penny being put in real danger; Bolt wastes no time saving her despite the risk.
  • No Social Skills: Having spent 5 years isolated in the TV studio, Bolt is often socially inept when meeting and interacting with different characters in reality, such as Mittens and other dogs. Mittens, who is a cat, actually knows more about how dogs are supposed to behave around each other than he does, and has to teach him.
  • Nice Guy: He is very altruistic and doesn't like the idea of harming towards another.
  • Older Than They Look: He's a five year old dog, and for a large breed like a German Shepherd, this qualifies as middle aged. Despite this, he has the size and build of a little puppy.
  • A Pet into the Wild: He's a very sheltered pet dog who gets lost in the city and has to find his way home.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Ends being extremely close friends with Mittens.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: As a puppy.
  • Skilled, but Naive: For a dog who falsely believes he has superpowers and was raised in an incredibly sheltered and controlled environment (to the point he doesn't even understand the concept of hunger), Bolt is remarkably skilled and resourceful, even while he still delusionally believes himself to be a superhero. Also, even though he's an ordinary non-superpowered dog, that's nothing to laugh at; as a dog, he's still crazy strong compared to Mittens.
  • "Truman Show" Plot: Spends most of his life thinking he is actually a superhero, and the plot of the TV show he stars in is reality.
  • Undying Loyalty: Raised from puppyhood to be Penny's protector.

    Mittens 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mittens_9.png
Voiced by: Susie Essman; Marie Vincent (European French Dub), Verónica Jaspeado (Latin Spanish dub)

A stray cat who Bolt befriends on his journey to find Penny.


  • Balloon Belly: She gains one after having Bolt beg for food from the people in the RVs. She loved every minute of it, and also lampshades it.
  • Butt-Monkey: She was prone with being thrown into slapstick jokes or situations with Bolt and/or Rhino.
  • Broken Bird: She's been traumatized by her Dark and Troubled Past, and it's made her bitter and cynical.
  • Cats Are Mean: Subverted. Initially, she kicks around the pigeons and makes them bring her food, but during her journey with Bolt and Rhino, she softens up and grows a heart.
  • Cats Are Snarkers: Responds to Bolt's superhero delusions, among other things, with much sarcasm. She's the page picture for a reason.
  • Cat Stereotype: She's black and white, so she's snarky and becomes unlucky.
  • Con Man: Since she's been declawed, she can't hunt. But she likes to threaten people with her claws that don't actually exist. Before she met Bolt, she survived by extorting food from pigeons in this way, by making empty threats to the pigeons of, "bring me food or I eat you."
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Her owners suddenly packed up and moved away one day, leaving her, a declawed cat, to fend for herself. She wonders what she could have possibly "done wrong" to cause them to abandon her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Replies to nearly everything with snark.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Cold and selfish, but ends up warming up to Bolt. Eventually.
  • Ear Ache: She has a ragged bite mark on her left ear. It's unknown how she got it.
  • Female Feline, Male Mutt: She forms this dynamic with herself as the female cat and Bolt as the male dog.
  • Freudian Excuse: The reason she's a jerk who runs a protection racket against pigeons for a living, is because her owners abandoned her. She tells Bolt that Penny's just pretending to love him, but she later realizes that she was wrong when she saw how heartbroken Penny was without Bolt.
  • Freudian Trio: The Superego to Bolt's Ego and Rhino's Id-snarky, reserved, and the voice of reason to Bolt.
  • From Stray to Pet: At the end of the film, she's taken in by Penny. Though she seems to be more for Penny's mother than Penny herself.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Mittens is very envious of Bolt because of the cushy life she thinks he’s had and his adorable appearance which makes him loved by humans. She’s also jealous of all dogs in general, claiming that cats hates dogs because they want to be dogs.
  • I Just Want to Be Loved: Mittens hides so much pain after her owners abandoned her and wishes for someone to truly care for her.
  • Hidden Heart of Gold: She uses snark to mask her depression about being abandoned by her family.
  • Interspecies Friendship: She eventually becomes friends with Bolt (a dog) and Rhino (a hamster).
  • Jerkass Realization: After witness a heartbroken Penny telling her mom that she still misses Bolt, Mittens realizes that Bolt was right: Penny truly loves him.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's not very nice, but underneath it all she's just desperate and lonely.
  • Lean and Mean: Was very skinny due to not having means of food as a stray, though the "mean" part is averted later in the movie.
  • Messy Hair: She has messy fur because she's a stray.
  • The Not-Love Interest: Though they're never romantically involved, her plot arc with Bolt has a lot of the hallmarks of a romantic subplot, complete with a pseudo-Falling-in-Love Montage. By the end, they're basically Platonic Life-Partners.
  • Only Sane Woman: Amongst herself, Bolt, and Rhino, she's the only one who knows that Bolt's TV show isn't real. When Rhino mentions seeing Bolt perform amazing feats on the "magic box", she immediately pieces together that he's a TV star.
  • A Pet into the Wild: Mittens was a pet cat until her owners abandoned her.
  • The Pigpen: Is rather dirty and scruffy-looking due to her status as a stray. However, in the ending scene, her fur is much neater and has a softer look, implying Penny or her mother cleaned her up.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Ends up being this with Bolt.

    Rhino 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rhino_hamster.png
Voiced by: Mark Walton; Gilles Lellouche (European French Dub), Jesús Guzmán (Latin Spanish dub)

A hamster that meets Bolt and Mittens.


  • Ascended Fanboy: As a fan of Bolt's TV show, he's very excited about getting to join Bolt on an adventure.
  • Badass Adorable: For a hamster, and deluded crazy one at that, he's pretty badass.
  • Boisterous Weakling: He's a tiny hamster, and yet he's dead serious about snapping the neck of a human guard.
  • Bubble Boy: Some gags reminiscent of this trope, although he can leave his ball when necessary.
  • Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Rhino believes all TV shows and movies are true, and falsely believes that Bolt is a hero with superpowers like on his show, and that all the actors from his show are the characters they play.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Thinks Bolt's TV show is real despite the fact that no one is tricking him into thinking that and he actually watches it on TV. He refers to the TV as the "magic box".
  • Disappointed in You: Expresses disappointment in Mittens after she pushes Bolt away and says that he no longer needs them.
  • A Dog Named "Cat": Who names a hamster 'Rhino'? ...up until this movie came out, anyway?
  • Evil Laugh: Although he’s one of the good guys, he humorously does a melodramatic evil laugh after getting out of his hamster ball.
  • Fanboy: He’s a huge fan of Bolt. He even tells Bolt that every minute he spends in his company becomes the new greatest minute of his life.
  • Fearless Fool: Rhino is always ready to do life-threatening stunts or fight enemies who are gigantic compared to him.
  • Freudian Trio: The Id to Bolt's Ego and Mittens' Superego-Hot-Blooded, excited, and always ready for an adventure with Bolt.
  • Genre Savvy: Coexisting with Wrong Genre Savvy: that is, his dramatic instincts are correct for the Show Within a Show, incorrect for the "real" world of Penny and Bolt, but correct again for a character in an "Incredible Journey"-type movie made by Disney.
  • Hero-Worshipper: Rhino rants about how awesome Bolt is, and he wants to be a hero and save people just like Bolt does on his TV show.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Rhino dreams of being a superhero.
  • Keet: He’s very enthusiastic and excitable.
  • Large Ham: Pretty well sums him up.
  • Nice Guy: He’s a caring, loyal friend to Bolt and he dreams of being a hero and helping people.
  • No Indoor Voice: Yells whenever excited. And he's nearly always excited.
  • Power of Friendship: He completely believes in this trope.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: A cute hamster.
  • Rousing Speech: For someone living in a delusional fantasy, he's quite good at these. He delivers very hammy speeches that somehow manage to be really good advice despite the fact that his reasoning behind what he says is completely Wrong Genre Savvy.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Bolt.

    Penny 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/penny_bolt.png
Voiced by: Miley Cyrus, Chloë Grace Moretz (young); Camille Donda (European French Dub), Samantha Domínguez, Itzel Mendoza (Latin Spanish dub)

Bolt's beloved owner.


  • Action Girl: Since the Bolt TV show runs on Enforced Method Acting, Penny would have to do all of her own stunts, and in the video game adaptation she is playable alongside Bolt himself, fighting Dr. Calico's goons with a device referred to in-game as a wheelbar. If the game, which has the premise of being Rhino watching the Bolt TV show, is considered canon to the events of the film, and if Penny really does do everything she's seen doing in the show, that would make her very capable.
  • Badass Adorable: She is a very cute girl. Not so much a badass, but she plays one on TV.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Her short brown hair matches her brown eyes.
  • The Cutie: Just look at her!
  • Disappeared Dad: Off-stage, her father is neither seen nor mentioned.
  • Damsel in Distress: Plays one in the Show Within a Show, then becomes one for real at the climax of the movie.
  • The Danza: Implied. She plays a character named Penny in the Bolt TV show, and given that the show relies on Enforced Method Acting and the opening shows she's owned Bolt since before the show, her real name is probably also Penny.
  • Guilt-Ridden Accomplice: Penny loves Bolt and wants to treat him like a normal dog, but begrudgingly goes along with the show's wishes to keep him isolated from the real world. She is completely shattered when this results in his disappearance, and feels bad about having to work with his replacement.
  • Heroes Love Dogs: Isn't this kind of obvious?
  • Missing Mom: In the Bolt TV show, her mom is never mentioned. However, it is averted when she has a real mother.
  • Nice Girl: She’s a sweet kid.
  • Protectorate: To Bolt.
  • Selfie Fiend: A positive example She often takes pictures of herself and Bolt together to commemorate their adventures, both fake and real.
  • Red Is Heroic: Though her hair's more of a brownish red, she still wears a red shirt, and is a hero.
  • Tomboy: Her happy ending is moving out to a country house where she can run around a lot with her slobbery pet dog, as shown in the movie's credits.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: She's pretty smart.

    Penny's Mother 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2023_04_09_at_102226_pm.png
Voiced by: Grey Griffin

Penny's loving mother.


  • Good Parents: Her daughter may be a high-profile child actress, but she is no Stage Mom; her first priority is Penny's happiness and well-being. When Bolt goes missing, she helps Penny print out "lost dog" flyers and reassures her that Bolt is doing okay out there. She also quits the show without hesitation when it's clear that their agent doesn't care about her daughter's safety.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: At the end of the film, she adopts Mittens along with Bolt and Rhino.
  • Mama Bear: She literally punches Penny's agent out of the ambulance after he suggests using the fire incident to make more money. The agent “acting” sympathetic, then shaking Penny’s stretcher while she’s in it is just asking for it.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Penny and her mother have the same short reddish-brown hair.
  • Take This Job and Shove It: After a studio fire in which her daughter and Bolt nearly die, and her agent attempts to exploit the incident for publicity, Penny's mom throws him out of the ambulance, fires him and quits the Show Within a Show.
    Penny's mother: We quit!
  • Unnamed Parent: She is only referred to as Penny's mother.

    The Agent 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/agent_bolt.jpg
Voiced by Greg Germann, Carlos Segundo (Latin Spanish dub)

Penny's Studio Agent.


  • Big Bad: The closest the film has to one, since his refusal to let Penny and Bolt be in unison causes Bolt the insecurity that drives his desire to escape. Once Penny's mother quits her job as an actress on Penny's behalf, the TV show changes due to the agent's absence.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Though he cares only about profiting from the show (something everyone rarely respects nor tolerates), he never actually yells, fights, or complains, and acts a Stepford Smiler. Whereas his supposedly so-called pleasant and respectable disposition, on the other hand, is just a cover.
  • Character Catchphrase: "Let's put a pin in it!"
  • Establishing Character Moment: His very first scene has him disregarding Penny's current situation and asking her to "get to that Teen Vogue cover shoot."
  • Hate Sink: He is made to be annoying and unsympathetic towards Penny and Bolt so the viewer can empathize when Penny's mom punches him and announces that they're quitting the show.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: When Penny and Bolt almost die in the fire, the Agent sits with her mother in the ambulance. At first he seems comforting and empathetic, only to then start gushing about the publicity and studio leverage they can get from this incident.
    I can't imagine what you must be feeling. No mother should ever have to go through something like this...but I promise you we're going to make this work for us. I am talking cover stories, production deals, executive producer credit! This is so great!
  • Lack of Empathy: While Bolt is missing, the Agent does very little to comfort Penny and indiscreetly pressures her to carry on with the show as usual despite the pain of losing her dog. He later takes this too far after Penny nearly dies in the set fire, excitedly thinking about the benefits this will get them rather than showing any concern for his client’s life.
  • No Name Given: Along with the director and most of the other staff working on the show, the Agent is never referred to by name, and is only credited by his job.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: He shows absolutely no sympathy for Penny's life-threatening burns and encourages her stressed mother to use said burns for publicity. This earns him a punch from Penny's mother and costs him his job as one of his clients.

    Mindy Parker 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mindy_parker.png
Voiced by Kari Wahlgren, Patricia Palestino (Latin Spanish dub)

The network executive of the studio in charge of producing Bolt's TV show.


  • Honest Corporate Executive: She does have the usual executive obsession with ratings, but she is mainly concerned about keeping her employees paid and does care about Penny.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While Mindy is abrasive and harsh with her threats to fire the director and staff, she’s completely justified being angry that their convoluted and borderline-cruel methods of perfecting Bolt’s performance are costing the studio large amounts of time and money while only generating lacklustre ratings.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's a stern executive who threatens to fire the crew for a slip in ratings. However she's not all a bad person, genuinely sympathizing with Penny losing her pet and telling Penny that if she can't move on, the studio will shut down and the crew will lose their jobs.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike the obnoxious agent, Mindy understands how much Bolt means to Penny and knows her accepting a replacement dog isn't an easy decision. However, she makes it clear to Penny if she doesn't let Bolt go, the studio has to shut down and fire crew members.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The one she gives to the director in the prologue.
    "Wow. Okay. You want reality? Here you go, chief. The show's too predictable. The girl's in danger, the dog saves her from the creepy English guy, we get it. There's always a happy ending. And our focus groups tell us 18-to-35-year-olds are unhappy. They're not happy with happy. So maybe you should, I don't know, spend a little less time worrying about the dog's method acting and more time figuring out how to stop 20-year-olds in Topeka from changing the channel. Because if you lose so much as half a rating point, so help me, I will fire everyone in this room, starting with you! How's that for real?"
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In trying to mix up the show's plot for better ratings, she inadvertently sets the stage for Bolt running away from the studio.

    The Director 
Voiced by: James Lipton, Oscar Bonfiglio (Latin Spanish dub)
The director of the Bolt TV show.
  • The Dragon: His decision to have Bolt method act every episode is the direct cause of the film's overall conflict, as it's Bolt's belief that the show is real that leads him to escaping from the studio, while Penny's agent manages everything regarding Penny's role in the show.
  • Edgy Backwards Chair-Sitting: He does so whilst describing Bolt's method acting to Mindy.
  • Large Ham: Probably the largest ham of the entire film.
    The Director: You're missing everything, Mindy. You see a dog. I see an animal that believes, with every fiber of his being— EVERY FIBER— that the girl he loves is in mortal danger! I see a depth of emotion on the face of that canine, the likes of which has never been captured on screen before. NEVER, Mindy from the network. We jump through hoops to make sure Bolt believes everything is real. It's why we don't miss marks. It's why we don't reshoot. It's CERTAINLY why we do NOT allow the dog to see BOOM MIKES... because, Mindy from the network... if "the dog" believes it... then "the audience" believes it!
  • No Name Given: His name isn't given, and he's only credited as the Director.

    Dr. Calico 
Voiced by: Malcolm McDowell, Octavio Rojas (Latin Spanish dub)
The main antagonist of the Bolt TV show.

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