50 Fun Facts About Bolt

Who voices Bolt?

John Travolta. His Bolt has never left the set where his TV show is filmed, so he believes its stunts, explosions and superpowers are all real.

Who voices Penny, Bolt's owner?

Miley Cyrus. The film-makers asked the Hannah Montana star for a song as well, so she co-wrote the duet she sings over the end credits.

What breed is Bolt?

White Shepherd. Until the film was overhauled its star was a brown mutt; the new team redesigned him with a white coat and long, expressive ears.

Bolt co-director Chris Williams later won an Oscar for co-directing which Disney film?

Big Hero 6. Williams and Byron Howard were handed Bolt in mid-production with 18 months to finish it; six years on, Williams won his Oscar alongside Don Hall.

Bolt co-writer Dan Fogelman went on to create which hit TV drama?

This Is Us. Fogelman, who had co-written Cars for Pixar, also slips into Bolt himself as the voice of Billy, one of the Hollywood pigeons.

What was Bolt's working title before the film was overhauled?

American Dog. In that version the lead was a TV-star dog named Henry who wakes up stranded in the Nevada desert, still believing the cameras are rolling.

In Bolt, which everyday material does Bolt blame for draining his superpowers?

Styrofoam. Bolt wakes up in a box of packing peanuts just as his powers stop working, and decides the stuff must be his kryptonite.

Bolt was first developed by the director of which earlier Disney hit, who was later removed from the film?

Lilo & Stitch. Chris Sanders was removed when Disney's new animation chiefs demanded a different story, and went on to co-direct How to Train Your Dragon for a rival studio.

Who became Disney animation's creative chief in 2006 and ordered Bolt's story overhauled?

John Lasseter. Arriving from Pixar, he replaced the director, cut a storyline about a radioactive rabbit and gave the new team just 18 months to finish.

In Bolt, what is Bolt feeling for the first time when he accuses Mittens of poisoning him?

Hunger. Fed on schedule all his life at the studio, Bolt has never heard his stomach growl, so Mittens tells him the antidote is food.

Where does Bolt's shipping box end up after he escapes the studio?

New York City. Bolt knocks himself out against a window he expects to smash, drops into a shipping box and is mailed across the country by mistake.

In Bolt, what do the city pigeons hand over to Mittens in return for her 'protection'?

Half their food. When one bird comes up short she demands the lot, he warns that someone will stand up to her one day, and Bolt pounces seconds later.

Who voices Mittens, the alley cat in Bolt?

Susie Essman. The Curb Your Enthusiasm star plays the streetwise stray Bolt takes prisoner, convinced she is an agent of his TV arch-enemy.

What kind of animal is Rhino in Bolt?

A hamster. Rhino lives in an RV park, knows every episode of Bolt's show by heart and rolls after his idol inside a plastic exercise ball.

In Bolt, when Rhino imitates a ringing phone, who does he say is calling?

Destiny. 'I've been expecting your call,' he adds, having just watched animal control drive off with Bolt and Mittens, and he sets off after them to spring Bolt from the van.

Rhino's rolling-ball design in Bolt was inspired by which pet of the film's executive producer?

A chinchilla. He brought it to an animators' retreat, where the sight of it rolling about in an exercise ball gave the film its sidekick.

Who voices the villain Dr. Calico in Bolt?

Malcolm McDowell. His Dr. Calico exists only inside Bolt's TV show, where a network executive sums him up as 'the creepy English guy'.

What nickname does Bolt give Dr. Calico?

The Green-Eyed Man. The studio cats who play Calico's pets use the name to taunt Bolt in his trailer, knowing he believes the villain is real.

In Bolt, which TV interviewer voices the director of the dog's show?

James Lipton. The Inside the Actors Studio host plays a director whose creed is: 'If the dog believes it, the audience believes it.'

Which wrestling legend voices Thug, one of Dr. Calico's henchmen, in Bolt?

Randy Savage. The 'Macho Man' plays one of the TV show's henchmen, actors paid to be flattened by a dog who thinks the fights are real; it was his last cinema film.

Who voices the young Penny in Bolt?

Chloë Grace Moretz. She is heard in the opening scene, set five years before the rest of the film, when a little girl picks out a puppy and names him Bolt.

In Bolt, how do Bolt and Mittens begin their journey west?

Stowing away in a U-Haul truck. Bolt hides them under a sofa being loaded aboard, then leaps out onto the interstate at full speed, dragging Mittens after him.

In Bolt, what does Mittens coach Bolt to do at an RV park?

Beg. Mittens talks him through the head tilt and the ear droop one step at a time, grumbling that she is tied to the one dog on Earth who never learned how.

In Bolt, how does Bolt try to make Mittens talk when they first meet?

Dangles her over a highway. Egged on by the pigeons she has been bullying, Bolt holds her off an overpass until she invents a story about knowing where Penny is.

In Bolt, where does Mittens want the trio to settle down instead of finishing the trip?

Las Vegas. She builds Bolt a cardboard-box bed there, then drags him to a billboard for his own show to prove that Penny is only an actress.

In Bolt, why does Mittens believe that no human truly loves a pet?

She was declawed and abandoned. Mittens has been bluffing all along: the 'wicked claws' she threatens others with were removed by owners who then moved away without her.

In Bolt, what sets the studio stage on fire in the climax?

Knocked-over tiki torches. Bolt's stand-in panics at the henchmen's electrified gloves in mid-scene and runs, sending the lit torches flying.

In Bolt, how does Bolt alert firefighters to where he and Penny are trapped?

Superbarking into an air vent. He copies a trick Rhino played with a house's vents earlier in the trip, and a fireman outside hears the bark carry.

In Bolt, what storyline does the TV show switch to after Bolt and Penny leave?

Alien abduction. The idea is pitched to Bolt earlier by a trio of Hollywood pigeons, would-be screenwriters sure that 'audiences love aliens'.

Which painter's work inspired the look of Bolt?

Edward Hopper. New software let the crew brush paint onto 3-D sets, and, as in his canvases, detail falls away from foreground to background.

Bolt co-director Byron Howard and its storyboard director Nathan Greno went straight on to direct which Disney film?

Tangled. The pair took over the film, then called Rapunzel, weeks before Bolt opened, when veteran animator Glen Keane stepped down as its director.

Who composed the score for Bolt?

John Powell. Two years later he scored How to Train Your Dragon, co-directed by the very man Disney had taken off Bolt.

Which song do Bolt's two lead voice actors sing as a duet over the end credits?

I Thought I Lost You. Penny says the same words to Bolt's stand-in in a rehearsal he overhears, and the song lost the Golden Globe to Springsteen's 'The Wrestler'.

In Bolt, what does Rhino call the television he watches Bolt's adventures on?

The magic box. The phrase is what tips Mittens off: she asks whether it shows moving pictures, and realises her captor is only a TV dog.

In Bolt, which squeaky toy has Bolt had since he was a puppy?

A carrot. Penny calls it Mr. Carrot, and when Bolt finally gets back to his trailer it is the first thing he picks up, moments before he hears her voice.

In Bolt, which phrase does Penny's agent use to brush aside her requests?

Let's put a pin in it. He says it when Penny asks to take Bolt home for a weekend, a request he never means to grant because the dog must stay on set.

At which Disney-run Hollywood cinema did Bolt have its world premiere?

El Capitan Theatre. Disney helped restore the 1926 theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, reopened it in 1991 and has used it as the showcase for its films ever since.

In Bolt, the screenwriting pigeons admit they once 'blew it' with which famous fish?

Nemo. 'Don't freak out, that's how you blew it with Nemo,' one bird hisses to his partner the moment Bolt shows interest in their pitch for his show.

Which two films kept Bolt in third place on its opening weekend?

Twilight and Quantum of Solace. Bolt opened to $26 million behind the vampire romance and the Bond film, then earned slightly more in its second weekend and climbed to second.

In the TV show within Bolt, whom has Dr. Calico kidnapped?

Penny's father. On the show he is the scientist who gave Bolt his powers; off camera he is just another actor, while Penny's real mother waits by the set.

Bolt lost the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature to which film?

WALL-E. Both films answered to the same bosses: Disney had bought Pixar two years earlier and put its chiefs in charge of both animation studios.

In Bolt, the 'top secret map' Mittens shows Bolt really marks the branches of a restaurant chain serving what?

Waffles. Mittens fishes the map out of a dumpster and says Penny is held 'by the waffle with the sunglasses', and the travellers then track their progress by the chain's restaurants in each state.

In Bolt, Mittens teaches Bolt to ride with his head through the window and do what?

Stick his tongue out. Bolt decides it is 'totally awesome' and tells Mittens to try it, but she turns him down: 'It's really a dog thing.'

In Bolt's TV show, which command from Penny makes Bolt tow her scooter at super speed?

Zoom-zoom. Penny uses the same command for real in the burning studio, where Bolt takes a rope in his teeth and leads her through the smoke.

Which song does Rhino perform on stage at the end of Bolt's DVD short?

The Best of Both Worlds. It is the Hannah Montana theme, and voice actor Mark Walton had to record it several times before he was singing it badly enough.

In Bolt, Rhino proudly claims that he is one-sixteenth what?

Wolf. He adds 'with a little wolverine' for good measure, and when he repeats the boast to Dr. Calico in the DVD short the villain cuts him off: 'We're done here.'

The 2008 Bolt tie-in video game focused on what?

Bolt's fake TV life. Players swap between the superpowered dog and Penny on missions inside the show, and the real cross-country trip never appears.

In Bolt, what does the network's Mindy threaten if the show loses half a ratings point?

To fire everyone. Mindy says viewers are 'not happy with happy', so the next episode ends on a cliffhanger that leaves Bolt believing Penny really has been taken.

An early Bolt draft, Ed Catmull recalled, featured a radioactive zombie serial killer who sold what?

Girl Scout cookies. 'I'm all for quirky ideas, but this one had metastasized,' Catmull wrote of the story that Disney's new team then threw out.

In Bolt, what does Mittens say Bolt's lightning-bolt 'mark of power' really is?

Make-up. 'It's the mark of a make-up artist, dog!' she tells him, but Bolt accepts it only later, when Rhino admits it was he who opened the animal-control van.