American Dog

Some footage I digged up from “American Dog” which eventually became “Bolt”.

American Dog was written and directed by Chris Sanders. The film’s plot told the story of a dog named Henry, a famous TV star, who one day finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert with a testy, one-eyed cat and an oversized, radioactive rabbit who are themselves searching for new homes, all the while believing he is still on television. In 2006, after becoming Chief Creative Officer at Disney, John Lasseter along with other directors from Pixar and Disney viewed a couple of early cuts of the film and gave Chris Sanders notes on how to improve the story.

Sanders was eventually kicked from the project for not following the advice given, and was replaced by Chris Williams and Byron Howard to direct and release the film by 2008. They had half the time they would normally finish the film, after rewriting it completely.. we eventually got “Bolt”. According to Lasseter, Chris Sanders was replaced because he resisted the changes that Lasseter and the other directors had suggested. Lasseter was quoted as saying “Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn’t take it to the place it had to be.”

I followed this production for quite a while (I’m a big Sanders fan) and was gutted when it fell to pieces. What a movie it could have been!