Trivia


 * Bolt is an American White Shepherd.
 * The diesel locomotives pulling the freight train that Bolt swings onto from the bridge are EMD SD70MACs, owned by CSX. Some of the train cars are Gunderson 48' All-Purpose well cars, owned by Trailer Train Corporation (TTX).


 * Miley Cyrus was not the first choice for Penny. Chloe Moretz voiced the entire film before Miley was placed on the project.


 * WILHELM SCREAM: When Rhino is switching channels while watching TV.


 * The design of Rhino in his plastic ball was based on John Lasseter's pet chinchilla, which was brought to an animators' retreat during the film's production.


 * Originally developed by Chris Sanders (creator and co-director of Lilo & Stitch (2002)) as "American Dog", with a similar storyline, but with major location and character changes. The titular dog, named Henry, originally had much more of a "Stitch" look, the character of Mittens was originally Ogo, a male cat with an eye patch who worked as a mechanic in a junkyard (this character eventually became the star of Sanders' personal webcomic, "Kiskaloo"), Rhino was originally an oversized radioactive rabbit, and a lot of the movie took place in the deserts of the American Southwest (similar to the location of Pixar's Cars (2006)). Sanders was replaced by Chris Williams and Byron Howard, and the project was overhauled in late 2006.


 * The number on Bolt's dog tag is the address of Disney's feature animation building.


 * First Disney animated feature conceived and produced in 3-D. The two previous features, Chicken Little (2005) and Meet the Robinsons (2007), were converted to 3-D after the fact.


 * Storyboarded but not animated was a scene in Las Vegas, where Bolt (who was just passing through the city with Mittens and Rhino, and foraging for food) is confronted in a dark alley by two Doberman Pinschers, who proceed to brutally bum-rush him, and rip off his collar (complete with ironic quick cuts of clips from the "Bolt" TV show playing on a big TV display, which Rhino was watching, in the city nearby). Left for dead by the two dogs, Bolt, disillusioned, realizes that his "super powers" are not real (which was further emphasized when Bolt then sees the program for himself). The producers decided to nix this scene, as they not only felt that it was way too dark, but it didn't fit into the story structurally.


 * When Penny is printing "LOST DOG" flyers, the last 4 digits of the phone number on the copier are: 8423. This makes the number (877) 504-8423. 877-504-8423 is a number reserved by ABC for movies and TV series. Calling it will provide the following short tape recorded message: "Thank you for calling ABC. The number you have reached is a fictional non-working number used for motion picture and television production."


 * When the animals arrive at the Hollywood studio, a car pulls up and the security guard is distracted by the driver who has an appointment with "Joe Mateo". Joseph Mateo is one of the studio artists listed in the movie's credits.


 * First film to be released on Blu-Ray before DVD.


 * Originally, Mittens was to be called Mister Mittens as her masters never took the time to check if she was male or female.


 * Look and lighting director Adolph Lusinsky and his team traveled to several of the film's "real-life locations" such as an Ohio trailer park, the San Francisco docks, New York streets and the desert surrounding Las Vegas to study how the light in those places interacted with the scenery.


 * Directors Byron Howard and Chris Williams and look and lighting director Adolph Lusinsky were inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper and films from the early seventies, especially the works of cinematographers Gordon Willis and Vilmos Zsigmond for the film's visual look.


 * In order to properly animate Rhino, the crew adopted a real hamster which they called Doink and filmed it from beneath while it was walking on a sheet of Plexiglas. Thus they were able to see how Rhino would walk in his plastic ball.


 * The first Walt Disney Studios film produced under chief creative officer John Lasseter's management.


 * The crew found it difficult to find a balance for Mittens' appearance, between her neglected mangy fur, her hooligan side due to her miserable life on the streets and parts of softer fur still visible from every angle.


 * According to executive producer John Lasseter, the film's emotional center is Bolt's journey and the personal evolution it provokes in him.


 * Despite the film being fully computer animated, the crew still relied heavily on hand-drawn storyboards.


 * Another sequence storyboarded but not animated was another variation of Bolt realizing that his super-powers are not real, this time, through dramatic failure: Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino were traveling along a bridge over a river. Rhino accidentally falls off the bridge, and to Mittens' terror, Bolt, still believing himself to have super-powers, jumps in to save him. The rescue doesn't quite go as Bolt expected, and he almost drowns, but still tries hard to save Rhino. When Mittens helps a shaken Bolt back to shore, they find Rhino's hamster ball, believing him to be dead, until they see a wet, awestruck Rhino, who thanks Bolt for saving him. But Bolt realizes that he didn't really save Rhino, and feels the lightning bolt shape on his side, which smeared from the water. The scene was nixed, because, once again, it didn't fit into the story structurally, and it was felt that something more poignant had to be done with this scene, which is what was done in the final film.


 * The "Bolt" TV show (and thus, Bolt's alias) was originally going to be called "The Omega Dog."


 * The hotel/casinos shown in the Las Vegas scenes actually exist.


 * "Penny" is never referred to by a proper name by any of the human characters. Her mother calls her by endearments and the agent calls her "My Little Superstar."


 * Jenny Lewis originally wrote and recorded two songs for Bolt, but one was replaced with "I Thought I Lost You" performed by Miley Cyrus and John Travolta


 * The studio lot shown in Bolt is a recreation of the Riverside Dr entrance to the Disney Studio lot in Burbank, California.


 * Bolt's carrot chew toy is a visual reference to Carrot, a character in early segments of the weekly Internet puppet show "Funday Pawpet Show", a favorite broadcast among many Florida Disney creative personal, some of who have made appearances on the show.


 * The guard's weapons are of a bull-pup design, placing the trigger before the magazine.


 * Mittens wasn't born on the street but actually she was born in a family and they left her when they moved away to California.