Things to Watch For in Bolt

[tealin]

Right ... it's been, like, a week since I've seen it, but these are the references and in-jokes that I remember.


The Sovereign Studios' water tower is modelled after the Disney Studios water tower - the only Hollywood water tower with six legs.

The studio ID tags look similar (but not identical) to the Disney ID tags.

If you like the design of the Waffle World map, you should totally check out Conduct Happiness, which is partly run by the guy who designed it and has been a designer at Disney for years. (What, plug? Me? Never!) Also his mini Yorkie provided the voice of Puppy Bolt.

The address on Bolt's dog tag is the street address of Walt Disney Animation Studios. I don't know what the significance of 03174G1 is, though.

The main New York pigeon was voiced by Lino diSalvo, an animator on the movie who is actually from New York.

Rhino the hamster was voiced by Mark Walton, a story artist at Disney, who is actually Rhino (though not a hamster). He also was a regular commenter on this blog until he got too busy being famous. ;)

During the downshot on the studio gate, when we first arrive at Sovereign Studios, a car pulls up and a lady says 'I'm here to see Joe Mateo' ... Joe Mateo is a board artist who worked on the film.

There's a statue of a man pointing, during the travel montage, and I don't know if it's intentional but it looks an awful lot like one of the directors. (that's a ... kinda weird-looking picture of him ... but that's all I could find.)

This is so not an in-joke but I find it amusing that the photocopier in the movie is pretty much exactly the photocopier I regularly use, right down to the placement of the printed sticker label. I'm sure there are a million photocopiers like it but dangit, that is my photocopier.

SPOILERY SPOILERCAKES:
I don't know if it directly influenced the film, but Disney did actually have a fire on a soundstage housing a set for the first Pirates. I don't think any dogs were involved, though.

Comments

[avorpalllama.livejournal.com]

Also!

-Not intentional (i've asked around), but the guy who tapes up the box Bolt gets stuck in totally looks like Nathan Greno (head of story).

-Dan Fogelman, one of the writers, is the voice of one of the LA screenwriter pigeons (the "intern").

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thanks!

[danicarip.livejournal.com]

I just saw that today, and it was fabulous! Rhino really stole the show xD Thanks for sharing the in-jokes, they're amazing :D

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

Neat little tidbits to know, thanks!

Why do movie studios have water towers, anyway?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well, it's handy to have water on hand for rainy scenes or water scenes and stuff, I guess, without having to run the tap for hours on end, especially back in the day when LA didn't have a great big reliable water supply. And they're good advertising. And recently I heard something about air conditioning...? The Disney one's empty now (unless you believe Randeep's theory that that's where they keep the Waltcicle) .

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

I've heard of AC units that are water-cooled, so yeah, AC would make sense. I know from a time we had a maintenance issue at the Boardwalk Villas in WDW the maintenance guy told us the building's AC was a water cooled system of some sort.

[rakkenfloofer.livejournal.com]

Oh, you know Randeep? I've barely heard from that jerk since he left for Disney last month! (J/K, he is probably the least jerky person I know)

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

I take it you meant to reply to twirlynoodle and not me. :P

[rakkenfloofer.livejournal.com]

Oh, um, yeah. Sorry. *sheepish*

[moonmystique.livejournal.com]

LOL Keely. I didn't know you had an LJ. Boris and I've Skyped Randeep about our group film. You gotta just bother him on msn.

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

>Waltcicle

Just wow.

[beckychan.livejournal.com]

Everyone knows that Walt wasn't really chriogenically frozen. Really, he was creamated, and his ashes are in a urn in the treasure room on Pirates of the Caribbean. Walt's favorite ride was always "the next ride" and pirates was going to be the next one to open when he died.

True story!

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Walt Disney isn't dead. He's in a state of suspended animation.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yes yes, but the Waltcicle is so FUN!

[karalora.livejournal.com]

I've seen the urn. It's hard to describe, but I know it when I see it. It's not always visible, though--sometimes the Cast Members move stuff around in the treasure room and it winds up behind another object.

[mariahgem.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I knew a few of those, including the voice actor of Rhino being a storyboarder! And I caught the Joe Mateo thing! rotfl! Awesome! I'm gonna have to see it again to see your copy machine!! XD

[wizardelfgirl.livejournal.com]

Man, I still have to wait 3 weeks for it to get released over here! (Actually it's 4 weeks, but I'm counting on snagging an invitation to the premiere ;))

Nice in-jokes. I wonder, do they still do the hidden Mickey thing? It would be fun to look for it, but only if it is there!

[capnflynn.livejournal.com]

Saw Bolt last night, and it was fantastic! Thanks!

[hobbitnat.livejournal.com]

Bolt was amazing! i loved the night scenes with the back moon-lighting! super awesome work!
I heard of the address on Bolts tag, cause don' they do that in Monster's Inc too somewhere?

I was all flustered at first cause there wasn't a short, then i remembered it wasn't Pixar, to bad, although they did Mickey Mouse shorts before Meet the Robinsons...?

Anyhow, I LOVED it!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

There was going to be a short but then they decided it didn't fit the tone of the movie ... maybe by that point it was too late to get one out of the vault or something.

[(Anonymous)]

In the UK they slapped on a Mater short about him drag racing in Japan, sadly it just really...didnt work...

Also, gotta say, long time lurker first time poster!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

They did that here, too, a few weeks into its run, trying to lure more bums into seats. Dunno if it worked, but I suspect it was aimed at good ol' American heartland NASCAR fans rather than the Brits (or anyone else, for that matter.) That wasn't the short they were intending at first, though. I don't know which movie it'll end up being attached to ...

Glad to see you out of the shadows! :)

[enigmaticpengin.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna have to see it again just so I can point out all of that to other people and look smart.

Not that I'd mind seeing it again, of course. ;)