We may never truly know the answer to that, but Bolt does a great job of showing how it could be confusing to a pet and lead them to misinterpret what’s real and fake in their day-to-day lives.
Honestly, that’s pretty deep for a Disney movie, though the movie keeps things light enough that a theme will go right over a kid’s head.
Bolt may be one of the most underrated dog movies Disney has ever made, merely because it tackles a unique subject most people would never think of or experience: do the dogs trained for television shows realize they’re on a television show?