We’ve talked a lot about Pixar — for example, here. And why not? They produce one hit movie after another and, as a writer, you have to love their creative philosophy: It’s all about the story.

The website Coming Soon has an exclusive interview with Pixar chief John Lasseter, where he discusses his involvement as E.P. on the new Disney animated movie Bolt. Notice how much importance Lasseter gives to the emotional connection to the characters and subject matter:

I was so excited about the potential of this from the standpoint of the emotion that I know that we could get with the main character. Telling the story of this dog that’s the star of this action TV show and that he thinks this is all real, and then he gets separated from the show and he has to learn what it means to be a real dog, and he’s taught that by a cat. But then even deeper than that, it’s just this amazing story of loyalty and friendship that I think had such tremendous opportunity for heart, so I got very excited about it.

Later on in the interview, Lasseter offers another nod to character:

We’ve in the past, we had Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, who were stars, and Owen Wilson and so on. We’ve worked with big stars, but whether you use a big star or not, the number one thing is to develop a character that is so believable and appealing to the audience so when the lights dim, and the movie starts, the audience gets swept away by the story and they just fall in love with the characters.

Lasseter offers an important reminder: That characters are ‘vehicles’ through which a movie viewer enters into the story world. And the degree to which we feel an emotional connection to the primary characters, especially the Protagonist, oftentimes determine just how far into the story we can ‘drive’ script readers.

I just saw Bolt with my eight year-old son this afternoon – he thought it was just okay, which I found curious. The movie has what seems like everything going for it: Strong high concept, great 3D animation, classic Hero’s adventure even to the point of starting and ending at home (the “cosmogonic cycle”), clever inside jokes about Hollywood to satisfy adults, lots of action, and a pair of catchy Miley Cyrus songs (by the way, her voice work for the Penny character is great).

SPOILER ALERT: General discussion of Protagonist transformation arc.

I also noticed that the Protagonist character Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) followed the Disunity-Deconstruction-Reconstruction-Unity throughline:

Disunity (Act One): Bolt has been trained to believe that the make-believe TV world in which he ‘lives’ is a real one, along with his supposed superpowers, and as a result he has not been allowed to be a normal dog.

Deconstruction (Act Two / First Half): Once he enters the extraordinary world of adventure, events ‘assault’ Bolt’s belief that he is a superdog, putting him through a downward emotional arc as he realizes the truth.

Reconstruction (Act Two / Second Half): With the help of the story’s Trickster character, an alley cat named Mittens, Bolt learns the ways of a normal dog. Combined with the zealous support of the story’s Mentor character, a hamster named Rhino, who has comprehensive ‘wisdom’ of the Bolt the Superdog storyline, Bolt moves toward combining his two ‘selves.’

Unity (Act Three): Bolt uses his normal dog powers along with some of his Bolt the Superdog attitude to save the day and be reunited with Penny.

Even though Lasseter was involved, the movie just doesn’t have that Pixar sheen to it. And for whatever reason, my son didn’t connect emotionally with the Bolt character nearly in the way he did, for example, with Wall*E. Perhaps that is reflected in the opening night’s box office: Box Office Mojo is reporting that on Friday, 11/21, Bolt accumulated just $7.1M on more than 3,600 screens, placing it in 3rd place behind Twilight (which did a staggering $35M in one day) and the 2nd weekend of Quantum of Solace.

UPDATE: Bolt finishes #3 for the weekend B.O. barking up $27M. Good, not great.