The only reason I ever got on Facebook was to promote various ventures on which I was working.  At first, it was for a now defunct history consulting firm.  A few years later, as I grew in my Faith, it became a platform for me to continue the work I started as a Ph.D. student when I began writing about films from a Catholic perspective.  I bring up the social media platform because one of the few uses I have for it is to look back on memories.  It is not the most Catholic of behaviors, but I can be a bit nostalgic.  Once a year, I am reminded of a survey of Disney animated films, which is passed around by fans in order to brag about how many of the titles they have seen.  Before I started The Legionnaire, I was proud to say that of the roughly fifty entries on the list, I had watched about five.  Now it is closer to all of them.  One that has eluded me to this point is Bolt (2008), mainly because I did not remember hearing about it when it premiered.  If nothing else, this is me filling in a cinematic gap.

You Penny Forrester (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz) has Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) sized gap in her life that is filled when her parents buy her the title puppy.  Five years later, the two are still together, though theirs is not exactly the normal relationship between a girl and her dog.  They are the stars of a television show in which Penny’s father (voiced by Sean Donnellan) has been kidnapped by the evil Dr. Calico (voiced by Malcolm McDowell).  Fortunately, Bolt possesses super strength, incredible speed, heat vision, and the ability to produce a “super bark” powerful enough to destroy just about everything in his path.  These abilities are the result of Mr. Forrester’s genetic tampering, making the pooch Penny’s (voiced by Miley Cyrus) protector.  There is only one problem: Bolt thinks all of this is real.  The show’s director (voiced by James Lipton) believes the dog’s performances will be more convincing if he does not know he is acting.  Thus, elaborate sets and special effects are used to convince Bolt that Penny is genuinely in danger.  Penny would prefer that her dog be allowed to behave like a normal pet when the cameras stop rolling, but the people making money from the program have other ideas.  Things get particularly problematic when an episode ends with Penny being captured by Dr. Calico’s men.  Believing his person is actually in danger, Bolt escapes his trailer to rescue her.  In the process, he knocks himself unconscious and falls into a box that is shipped across the country to New York City.  When he awakens, he has no idea where he is, but remains determined to save Penny.  His first problem is that none of his powers seem to work.  Having spent his entire life believing himself practically invincible, Bolt reasons that the packing peanuts in the box must have weakened him.  A group of pigeons eventually points him toward Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman), a stray cat who bullies the birds into bringing her food.  Since Dr. Calico has cats, Bolt concludes that Mittens must be one of his agents.  He ties her to himself with a leash and demands that she take him to Penny. Mittens notices the Hollywood address on Bolt’s identification tag and realizes where he belongs, though it is apparent that the dog is detached from reality.  The pair hitch a ride west in a moving truck, eventually making their way to a recreational vehicle (RV) park.  Bolt experiences hunger the first time, so Mittens teaches him humans will feed you if know how to beg.  It is there that they meet Rhino (voiced by Mark Walton), a hamster who spends much of his life inside a plastic ball watching television. As luck would have it, his favorite show is Bolt’s.  He recognizes his hero immediately and enthusiastically joins the mission to rescue Penny.  Mittens now understands why Bolt thinks he has superpowers, but convincing him is another matter.  His attempts to demonstrate his super bark attract animal control, resulting in Bolt and Mittens being captured.  Rhino manages to free Bolt, which finally forces the canine to recognize that he is an ordinary dog.  He initially takes the news poorly, but Rhino’s unwavering belief in him provides some encouragement.  More importantly, Bolt realizes that Mittens remains imprisoned, and the two go to rescue her.  Their westward journey resumes, though it is considerably different now that Bolt knows the truth.  In turn, Mittens teaches him how to enjoy normal canine activities.  Their growing friendship is tested when they reach Las Vegas.  Mittens wants the three of them to stay there, where food and shelter are readily available.  Recounting her own experience, she tells him that humans will always abandon their pets.  Bolt refuses to believe Penny would do the same and continues to Hollywood alone.  Rhino persuades Mittens that they should follow their friend.  Meanwhile, Penny has been devastated by Bolt’s disappearance, but the studio has continued production using a replacement dog.  When Bolt finally reaches the set, he sees Penny embracing his double and assumes Mittens had been right.  What he does not see, but Mittens does, is Penny afterward expressing how much she misses her real dog. Mittens finds Bolt and tells him the truth, but their reunion with Penny becomes considerably more urgent when the replacement dog panics during filming and knocks over flaming props.  Bolt runs into the burning building and finds her, but they cannot locate a way out.  Instead, he begins barking into an air vent. It is not the destructive superpower he once imagined himself possessing, but firefighters hear the sound and use it to locate them.  Penny and Bolt are rescued, after which her agent suggests exploiting the near tragedy for publicity.  That is enough for Penny and her mother, who quit the show.  Penny, her mother, Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino move to a quiet home away from Hollywood.  Bolt may not have the powers he once thought he did, but after crossing the country for the person he loves and refusing to abandon her when her life is in danger, he proves himself to be something considerably more important: a good dog.

There is an argument to be made that being a good dog like Bolt is a sign of God’s love, perhaps in its truest sense.  To risk a slight blasphemy, the devotion that such pets give to us approximates the way we are called to rely upon the Almighty.  It is us that overcomplicates what we think we need from the Divine instead of being satisfied with the blessing He already bestows.  While this is obviously attributing far too much seriousness to this animated silliness, I will confess that the film touched me in other ways.  There are issues of abandonment and homelessness, which feed into the earlier point about relying on God’s love.  More caveats are needed.  What I am about to say is not to suggest that poverty is a moral good.  I also do not wish to oversimplify the situation of anyone living on the streets.  The circumstances that lead to people becoming unhoused are nuanced and varied, and we should give such unfortunate folk the dignity God has for them by treating each on an individual basis.  I am also keenly aware that I am using a cartoon to talk about systemic issues of poverty, which might seem laughable.  All the same, I was particularly struck when we see Mittens in the animal control shelter, shut down and facing the corner.  She has no hope because she thinks she is too ugly to be adopted by another family.  On a related note, this is why we as Catholics and Christians should support no-kill shelters.  The Church maintains that all living creatures, including (and maybe especially) pets deserve to be treated with dignity.  The same applies to the homeless.  It is good to see that Mittens tries to make the best of her situation, but we see her happiest when she is in a home.

What made me happiest with Bolt was seeing the end credits begin to roll.  It is the typical Disney nonsense, though a shocking amount of violence in the first few minutes.  As such, I am not sure who is the target audience with this one, though whatever it is, I am not likely it.