Bolt

Bolt is one of Auradon's Heroes as the Main Protagonist of the film of the same name. and is a talking dog. He is a main character debuting in Chapter Two as Auradon Prep's New school Mascot.

Bolt
In March 2003, an 8-week-old Bolt is raised at the Silverlake Animal Rescue Center. One day, a girl named Penny enters the locale and spots Bolt almost immediately. Bolt turns to Penny, smiling and wagging happily before being distracted by his own tail and starting chasing it. Penny adopts the puppy, hugs him, and gives him his iconic dog collar.

Five years later, Penny has received a call from her "father" alerting his daughter she is in danger from the evil Dr. Calico. To protect Penny, her father genetically manipulated Bolt to have superpowers, like super-strength, the super-speed, heat vision, and his legendary "superbark". His mission is to protect his owner from Dr. Calico and his minions and save Penny's father who is being held, prisoner. Using these powers, Bolt helps Penny foil Calico's plans, playing the role of a stereotypical, nerveless superhero.

However, it is soon revealed that the entire premise is part of a popular TV show where Bolt plays the lead role. Bolt, however, believes that his adventures are real and that Penny, his actual owner and whom he directs all of his considerable love and devotion to, is in real danger. The directors nurture this illusion through the use of extensive stenography and live-effects, hence tricking the apprehensive canine, year after year, into believing that Penny is in serious danger and in need of constant protection. Everything is done in order to achieve a more realistic, genuine performance from the poor dog whose only real interest is to be with his owner.

Penny, as a child actress who knows the drill, nonetheless returns Bolt's love when she is not being pulled away by other workers or her greedy agent. After each recording session, at the end of each day, Bolt and Penny spend some time alone in a trailer located inside the studio. Aside from the recording, this is seemingly the only time the two get to have together. Penny is forced to leave Bolt every night, alone in the trailer, as the directors are very keen to keep Bolt isolated from reality out of fear it would have on his performance, but she aspires to one day take him home with her and let him enjoy the life as a real dog.

After a recording session, the two have some time on their own, but the dog is too worried and triggered to play or even eat. Instead, he persistently guards the door against the potential evils he is convinced might still be outside. Penny seems worried and tries to connect with Bolt by getting him to play or calm him down but soon must give up when her pink cell phone rings, reminding her that it is time to leave Bolt alone. Bolt, obviously knowing from earlier experience what the ringtone means, looks insistently at Penny and tries to block the door with his body, trying to keep her from leaving. Penny sighs saying, "You know I have to go" and hugs Bolt before leaving, who stands by the door after that she left, whining uneasily.

During the night, two cats from the TV show visit Bolt's trailer to mock him and harshly and inconsiderately play on the fact that he thinks it is all real. Bolt does not realize that the cats are making fun of him and gets extremely frustrated when the cats ignore his threats and attempted intimidation. The cats leave him barking crazily.

When the ratings are dropping, the directors decide to make a "cliff-hanger" as a comeback with Bolt not getting to rescue Penny, who knows Bolt's condition will get even worse, at the end of the shooting. Instead, he is restrained and dragged to his trailer where they try to lock him in. Thinking that Penny needs to be rescued, he effortlessly tricks the guard and escapes the trailer. Spotting some props from the TV set outside a window, he throws himself against the hard surface, convinced that he will be able to break through. Instead, he knocks himself unconscious and falls backward into a box stuffed with packing Styrofoam which is then sealed and Bolt is shipped cross-country to New York without anyone knowing where he really is.

Confused in New York
Alone, lost, and worried in the streets of New York, Bolt tries to find Penny while running down the crowded streets, convinced that she is still in danger. He tries to perform several of the stunts he used to do in his TV series. He first tries to knock out a man wearing a suit, thinking he's Doctor Calico, but he fails. He then tries to jump over a road construction ditch but falls down the hole in a most anticlimactic manner. Upon crawling back up, he spots a truck carrying a portable toilet that looks like the container in which Penny was captured. He runs up in front of the truck and readies to smash his head into it, but the driver, fortunately, spots him and stops just before hitting him, saving his life. Bolt doesn't find Penny in the portable toilet but he meets a few dogs down the street, which he refers to as "brothers" suggesting that his career at the TV series has left him with a view of all dogs as allies. However, he quickly becomes frustrated as the dogs seem entirely clueless rather than answering any of his questions, and he runs away when a concerned dog walker tries to put a leash on him.

In the next scene, Bolt accidentally gets his head stuck in a fence. He tries to bend the bars and rock himself free, but to no avail. Whilst stuck, three pigeons arrive and advise him to turn his head in order to break free. Bolt is too frustrated to listen, growling that he needs to find his person. He eventually calms down and listens to the pigeons, and actually manages to break free when following their instructions. Desperate to find Penny, he is led to a sassy alley cat named Mittens who bullies pigeons out of their food.

Since Calico has a thing for cats, Bolt believes Mittens is one of his agents and threatens her by holding her off a bridge over heavy traffic to tell him where Penny is. Deciding to play along after seeing Bolt's tags, Mittens directs him to Hollywood, but Bolt brings her along against her will.

Self-Realization
Along the way, Bolt notices his "powers" aren't working, but he brushes it off as a side-effect of the Styrofoam from the box he was shipped. He thinks that it's his kryptonite (weakness). After jumping from the moving van he was using to get back to Hollywood, he also experiences pain and hunger for the first time. To sate his hunger and lower any more risks from his delusion, Mittens trains him to use "the dog face" to beg for food when they end up at an RV park. While persuading people out of their food, they meet a TV-obsessed hamster named Rhino who is a huge fan of Bolt's show and (like Bolt) believes that it's all real. He convinces Bolt to let him tag along and leads them to a bridge over a railroad after Bolt states they'll "need a fast set of wheels." When Rhino mentions a "magic box", Mittens finally realizes Bolt is a TV star but is unable to explain to him before they end up almost killed on the train. Fearing her life, Mittens climbs a tree to escape him and tries to convince him he's an actor. His repeated attempts to use his superbark draw attention and they're eventually captured by animal control. Bolt breaks free but it turns out Rhino let him out of the truck's cage. The lightning bolt on his fur smudges (having splashed in a puddle during his escape), which finally knocks the truth into Bolt, much to his depression. His spirits are lifted just high enough after a brief pep talk from Rhino (who still has yet to realize the truth himself) to give Bolt the will to save Mittens from the pound. The dog, cat, and hamster escape the shelter in the distraction from an explosion.

Cross-Country Journey and Training
They hitch a ride on a truck to continue, but Bolt is still hopelessly depressed and confused about his existence. She cheers him up at by letting him in on a "little-known cat secret" that cats hate dogs because they want to be dogs and she explains that being a dog is having the "greatest gig in the world". Mittens teach Bolt the meaning of being a real dog and how to act like one; like playing fetch, sticking his head out a car window, etc..

Acquiring a map, the trio resumes their journey across the USA with better accuracy. As the days go by, Bolt is brought into true reality with an entirely new outlook on life, something he never had in the studio. Soon, his superhero persona (and lightning mark) fades as he develops ordinary canine behavior and a friendship with his companions.

Bolt's Broken Heart
Towards the end of the trip, the trio finds themselves in Las Vegas, where they enjoy ample leftovers from buffets and beautiful fireworks. But Mittens refuses to continue on and tries to convince Bolt that Penny is just an actress and only pretends to love him. Bolt refuses to believe this and, in a rant, Mittens reveals that she had owners who abandoned her, declawed when they moved. Bolt tries to convince Mittens that Penny is different but she bitterly pushes him away and tells him to leave. Bolt says goodbye to Mittens and wishes her the best, and continues on alone.

With the help of pigeons, he's guided back to his old studio. Hearing Penny, Bolt heads towards her to play like regular dogs do with their owners. His joy turns to shock when he sees Penny hugging a replacement of himself and leaves with a broken heart, believing Mittens had been right. But what he didn't know was that that was a scene Penny was acting.

Bolt to the REAL rescue
Outside the studio, he runs into Mittens, having been convinced to follow by Rhino. She explains to him she observed how upset Penny was and tells Bolt that Penny truly loves him as her own dog and misses him dearly. But this is cut short when Bolt then suddenly hears something and senses something's wrong and realizes that Penny is in actual danger. He, Mittens, and Rhino rush back to the studio, which is on fire due to his lookalike panicking and knocking over some torches. With Rhino's help, Bolt just barely makes it inside. He locates Penny and they share a heartwarming reunion which is cut short because they need to get out as soon as possible. Bolt leads Penny to an air-vent but she begins to succumb to smoke asphyxiation. Penny tells Bolt to save himself but he refuses to leave her side. Bolt realizes the sound echoes out through the vent and (recalling how Rhino did an echo) releases a loud bark through to alert the firefighters of their location before passing out. They're rescued just in time and sent to the hospital. When their agent believes they can exploit the incident for publicity, Penny's disgusted mother informs him that she, Penny and Bolt quit after angrily kicking him out of the ambulance.

A New Life
Three days later, Bolt's show jumps the shark with an alien abduction plotline with his lookalike, and a new Penny starring in the show (the show explaining the new Penny's different appearance as a result of facial-reconstruction surgery) while the recovered Bolt and Penny have moved to a rural home, possibly Kansas, and neighborhood with Mittens and Rhino, who Penny has adopted. With this new lifestyle, the four and Penny's mother have a happier life.

Descendants: Rotten To The Core
Bolt debuts in Chapter 2 as a main character in the story and one of the heroes introduced in this first book not previously in the movie (the others being Mickey, Rapunzel, Aurora and Phillip and Snow White as they were just background characters in the film given bigger roles here). Here he is the brand new Auradon Prep Campus Mutt/Mascot after Dude retired for unknown reasons. He's first scene when in the morning where he meets the VKS, introduces himself and shows them around the school and generally is their support guide throughout the year. He also becomes personal friends with them as well. This all going down similar to how The VKS met Doug where it starts just as a helpful guide turning into a good friend. He also stands up for them whenever they are publicly shunned for being VKS by mostly Mackenzie and Allison.