The Voices of Bolt
Disney/Pixar is doing it again; telling us the trials and tribulations of some very cute creatures in an astoundingly-great-looking animated feature film. Bolt (voiced by mega-star John Travolta) is the cutest little white doggie ever. Miley Cyrus, in her first animated voice performance, is Bolt's human companion Penny. Miley even co-penned a song "I Thought I Lost You" and sings it with John.
Bolt is the story of a TV actor dog who doesn't know that his superpowers aren't real! The pup has been starring in a superhero TV show since he was tiny and, once he's accidentally thrust into the real world, he has to cope and make his way back to his co-star and human pal Penny with the help of new friends Mittens the cat (Susie Essman) and Rhino the fanboy hamster (Mark Walton). We went over to the colorful Disney/Pixar animation building on the Disney lot in Burbank to look around and chat with the voice talent and filmmakers for Bolt.
According to Miley, "one of the reasons I wanted to do this movie is because I love animals. I have five dogs of my own and I know if one ran away, I would not be able to do anything and that's the way Penny is. She can't work. She can't sleep. She can't eat". Miley also loved the movie's heart-felt story. "It really is an emotional roller-coaster ride. You start out kind of scared of this evil villain but you're excited at all of the action in the TV show sequences. They you're sad because Bolt leaves. Then you are laughing at Rhino". As a TV star herself, Miley even relates to Bolt. "In the beginning, Bolt does not want to play. He's all serious, all business with Penny. He's always trying to protect her. But Bolt learns that he has to also be a dog. It's like me; I have to be a kid!"
Famous actor John Travolta has never voiced an animated character before but was waiting for just the right one. "I'm already in touch with my inner dog, but this is a new process for me. I thought, 'I can play a dog with my eyes closed.' People always compared me to a dog growing up, I didn't know whether to be insulted or not. Although I had done advertisement voiceovers as a kid, I had not yet gone on the journey of discovering how animated features are put together. It's a leap of faith because you don't have the other actors with you, and you don't really know what the animators are conjuring up as an end result. So therefore you have a bit of a 'take me there, show me the way, and I'll just give you Chinese menu options.' So you do 15 to 25 versions of one sentence and then the animators hopefully like one of them and then they put it together."
As for working with Miley, John didn't get to voice-record his part in the same room with the teen mega-star but is in the music video with her for their song. "We finally did the video together where we sang together, but we had to sing our parts separately like Frank (Sinatra) and Barbra (Streisand) did I guess on the duet." John's kids were thrilled that their dad got to sing with Miley. "I was so popular when I got home after the news of doing a song with Miley. Doing a movie with her was big enough news and then singing and dancing with her was a whole other thing. I can dine out on that for months". We asked John about his favorite Disney films growing up. He votes for 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan.
Travolta's pals Robin Williams and Tom Hanks have voiced several animated characters but John was waiting for just the right one. "My good friends have done great animated features, Tom Hanks did Toy Story, Robin Williams did Aladdin, and I didn't want to do an average film. If I'm going to do an animated feature, I'm going to do a great one".
Animator Mark Walton was thrilled on being told his was the right voice for adorable fanboy hamster Rhino. We wondered how close this jump-up-and-down fanboy optimism is to the animator/voice actor's own personality. "As some people have said, I think it may have been a little bit of type casting. It wasn't a whole lot reaching or an effort for me to get into the excitable, nerd, fan boy geek, because that's pretty much me if you know me very well. Getting to be a character voice in a Disney film as a funny, well-written, well-animated character, it's not hard for me to generate a lot of enthusiasm. So yeah, I'd say it's pretty much me maybe dialed up a little bit more than normal".
Comic actress Susie Essman of the TV show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" plays Mittens, an abandoned street cat who is first angry at, then befriends Bolt. "What attracted me to Mittens in the first place was how much she changes and I feel like she is almost the moral authority of the film. She's the voice of reality. Bolt is delusional and Rhino is out of his mind. Bolt has been misinformed, misused and he's a victim. I think once I find that out then I develop this incredible compassion for him and the friendship starts to evolve." Susie feels that friendship is at the core of the film. "I think what Mittens learns from Bolt is all about friendship and trust and loyalty. He's the most loyal, trusting friend. He is loyal to his person, and the cynic that I am, I learn to trust and become a loving, trusting kitten again, which I think is so important."
Famous Disney/Pixar chief John Lasseter told us how proud he is of the voice actors in Bolt. "I just want to say one thing about how difficult it is for actors to do this. I think it's one of the toughest acting jobs because they really do not have the inspiration from the set, from the other cast members. If they (perform) on a stage they get the energy of the audience, from even the costumes that they're wearing. (For recording a voice for an animated character) they really are just in a studio with a director and they have to go deep inside them for emotions, for energy. While their characters don't necessarily look like them, there's a lot of facial gestures and things like that that do find their way into the animation performances, and so this is where the voice actors really, really, really influence the characters. Their performances are the inspiration for all of us to create the animation and the characters."
John Travolta sums up what a lot of audience members will experience and take home from Bolt. "When I saw it, I cried five times and I laughed probably a ton more than that. And I just didn't know how clever this movie was really in the doing of it. Only the visionaries knew that. It left me as an audience member, touched and wanting to go home and hug everybody I loved including my pets."
