Famous Olympian Dog Names

Ok so maybe Bolt isn’t a real dog but he’s surely important to mention considering the amount of fandom that followed him after the self-titled film release in 2008, and for good reason. 

Although at heart, Bolt is simply a character from a movie primarily aimed at children, the themes he helps to demonstrate go far behind his cute animated figure. For anyone unfamiliar, Bolt’s story is as follows: Bolt is adopted as a puppy by his soon-to-be human best friend, Penny. Unbeknownst to him, he has been set up his entire life to be an actor on the set of a show along with her. In the show, Bolt has superpowers, namely his “superbark”, that he employs to overcome the villainous Dr. Calico. What he doesn’t know, however, is that everything in his life is staged to generate a more genuine response from him for the sake of the show, leaving him unable to delineate real life from the fictional series.

Eventually, Bolt is convinced he must rescue Penny (which he believes to be in real life), escapes his trailer and ends up in New York, meeting other animals and trying to work his way back to Penny, which (spoilers) he eventually does with their help. Throughout his journey, he has to confront the delusions and conflicting elements of his life, such as whether he really has superpowers and whether Penny actually loves him, along with a few other more minor considerations. 

At its core, the film is able to discuss complexities that few other movies of this type have been able to explore, most importantly, the depths of trust, loyalty, ability, the sense of self, dedication, and love, all of which seem to intertwine at one point or another throughout the story. And of course, they’re all told through the eyes of a dog, which was touched upon by the film’s director, Byron Howard, in an excellent summary of why the canine lead was so perfect: “A dog is so pure. A dog is loving, loyal and practically nothing else.” He also went on to say that the central theme to Bolt’s perspective of “I love my owner and she loves me” is “just so *dog*”, which is impossible to deny for anyone who does or has owned one themselves. 

So while Bolt may not be a real dog that was able to achieve some kind of recognition for his talents, his character proved to be an example of the duality of self, love, and dog-ownership in all their complexities. For after all, it wasn’t Bolt’s superpowers that made him a true super dog, it was that he was able to examine himself and test the limits of his actual abilities to really prove his ultimate worth, just like the “superhuman” athletes we see compete in the Olympics, who have to face the very same truths every time they enter the stadium.