Balto is a 1995 American animated adventure film directed by Simon Wells, produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is loosely based on a true story about the dog of the same name who helped save children from the diphtheria epidemic in the 1925 serum run to Nome. The film was the animated feature produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio. Though primarily an animated film, it uses a live-action framing device that takes place in New York City's Central Park and features Miriam Margolyes. Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Bonne Radford acted as executive producers on the film. Although the film's theatrical run was overshadowed by the success of the competing Pixar film Toy Story, its subsequent strong sales on home video led to two direct-to-video sequels: Balto II: Wolf Quest (2002) and Balto III: Wings of Change (2004). This was the third and final film to be produced by Amblimation before its closure in 1997. And Also Is the last theatrically released fully animated film from Universal Pictures until Curious George (2006) 11 years later.
Plot[]
In New York City, an elderly woman and her granddaughter are walking through Central Park, looking for a memorial statue. As they seat themselves for a rest, the grandmother tells a story about Nome, Alaska back in 1925, which shifts to the main animation part of the film.
Balto, a wolfdog hybrid, lives on the outskirts of Nome with his adoptive father, a snow goose named Boris, and two polar bears, Muk and Luk. Being half-breed, Balto is ridiculed by dogs and humans alike. His only friend in town is a red husky named Jenna whom Balto has a crush on and her owner, Rosy. He is later challenged by the town's favorite sled dog, Steele, a fierce and arrogant Alaskan Malamute.
That night, all the children, including Rosy, fall ill with diphtheria and the doctor is out of antitoxin. The local wireless operator relays news of the outbreak, and word travels to the territory capital at Juneau, where the governor orders antitoxin to be sent to Nome. However, severe winter weather conditions prevent medicine from being brought by sea or air, and the closest rail line from Juneau ends at Nenana, 600 miles east of Nome. A dog race is held to determine the best-fit dogs for a sled dog team to get the medicine. Balto enter and wins, but Steele exposes his wolf-dog heritage, resulting in him being disqualified. The team departs that night with Steele in the lead and later picks up the medicine successfully, but on the way back, conditions deteriorate and the disoriented team ends up stranded at the base of a steep mountainside slope with the musher knocked unconscious.
When the word reaches Nome that the sled team is missing, the town prepares for the worst. Balto sets out in search of the sled team, along with Boris, Muk and Luk. On the way, they are attacked by a huge grizzly bear, but Jenna, who followed their mark tracks, intervenes. The bear pursues Balto out onto a frozen lake, where it falls through the ice and drowns, while Muk and Luk dive in to save Balto from a similar fate. However, Jenna got injured and cannot continue on. Balto instructs Boris and the polar bears to take her back home while he continues on alone; Jenna gives him her bandanna and Boris gives him some advice. Balto eventually finds the team, but Steele does not want his help and attacks him until he loses his balance and falls off a cliff. Balto takes charge of the team. Steele, refusing to concede defeat, throws them off the trail and they lose their way again. While attempting to save the medicine from falling down a cliff, Balto himself falls.
Back in Nome, Jenna is explaining Balto's mission to the other dogs, but they don't believe her. When Steele returns, he claims the entire team, including Balto, is dead, he uses Jenna's bandanna as supposed proof. However, Jenna sees through his lies and assures Balto will return with the medicine, but the others remain skeptical. Using a trick Balto showed her earlier, she places broken colored glass bottles on the outskirts of town and shine a lantern on them to simulate the lights of an aurora, hoping it will help guide Balto home. When Balto regains consciousness, he is ready to give up hope, but when a large, white wolf appears and he notice the medicine crate still intact nearby, he realizes that his part-wolf heritage is a strength, not a weakness, and drags the medicine back up the cliff to the waiting team. Using his advanced senses, Balto is able to filter out the false markers Steele created.
After encountering further challenges, and losing only one vial, Balto and the sled team finally make it back to Nome. A pity-playing Steele is exposed as a liar and abandoned by the other dogs, ruining his reputation. Reunited with Jenna and his friends, Balto earns respect from both the dogs and the townspeople. He visits a cured Rosy, who thanks him for saving her.
Back in the present day, the elderly woman and her granddaughter finally find the memorial commemorating Balto, and she explains that the Iditarod trail covers the same path that Balto and his team took from Nenana to Nome. The woman, who is revealed to be Rosy, repeats the same line, "Thank you, Balto. I would have been lost without you," before walking off to join her granddaughter and her Siberian Husky, Blaze. The film ends with the Balto statue standing proudly in the sunlight.
Cast and characters[]
- Kevin Bacon as Balto, a young adult male wolf dog, being half-husky and half-wolf. Jeffrey James Varab and Dick Zondag served as the supervising animators for Balto.
- Bob Hoskins as Boris, a russian snow goose and Balto's caretaker and sidekick. Kristof Serrand served as the supervising animator for Boris.
- Bridget Fonda as Jenna, a female husky and Rosy's pet as well as Balto's love interest. Robert Stevenhagen served as the supervising animator for Jenna.
- Juliette Brewer as Rosy, Jenna's owner and a kind excitable girl who was the only human in Nome who is kind to Balto. She falls ill, but Balto brings the medicine to save her and the other children. David Bowers served as the supervising animator for Rosy.
- Miriam Margolyes as a woman in the live-action framing device sequences who tells her story to her granddaughter.
- Jim Cummings as Steele, an alaskan malamute and Balto's rival who also has a crush on Jenna. Sahin Ersoz served as the supervising animator for Steele.
- Phil Collins as Muk & Luk, a pair of polar bears. Nicolas Marlet served as the supervising animator for Muk and Luk.
- Jack Angel, Danny Mann and Robbie Rist as Nikki, Kaltag and Star, respectively. the only three prominent members of Steele's team who later abandoned him for Balto. William Salazar served as the supervising animator for the team.
- Sandra Dickinson as Dixie, a female pomeranian and one of Jenna's friends who adores Steele until his lies are exposed. Dickinson also voices Sylvie, a female afghan hound who is Jenna's friend as well, and Rosy's mother. Patrick Mate served as the supervising animator for Sylvie and Dixie.
- Lola Bates-Campbell as Rosy's granddaughter, who appears in the live-action sequences and is accompanied by her dog Blaze, purebred siberian husky.
- William Roberts as Rosy's father
- Doanld Sinden as Doc, and old saint bernard.
- Bill Bailey as a butcher
- Garrick Hagon as a telegraph operator
Trivia[]
- This film marked the last time James Horner composed the music for an animated film, as he died in a plane crash on June 22, 2015.
- As of June 13, 2017, this is currently Universal's only animated film still presented in the pan-and-scan format only on a Region 1 DVD.
- This is the only Amblimation film not to have any songs (except for the end credits).
- Julie Kavner, Michelle Pfeiffer, Carrie Fisher, and Nicole Kidman were all considered for the role of Jenna. Before Bridget Fonda was Cast.
- J.K. Simmons, John Goodman, Brendan Fraser, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Harry Shearer were all considered for the role of Steele. Before Jim Cummings was Cast.
- Brendan Fraser was originally hired to provide the voice of Steele, the evil dog. He did record his part, but his voice-over was subsequently discarded, and the role went to experienced voice actor Jim Cummings. In an interview, director Simon Wells revealed that this was because Steven Spielberg wanted a clearer sense of Steele's "inherent evil", in contrast to Wells' original idea that Steele would be a more restrained high school jock type, which he felt Fraser was well-suited to. However,which he felt Fraser was well-suited to. However, on a Tumblr post, DeviantArt user Waeirfaahl indicated that even though all of Fraser's voice work as Steele was meant to be replaced, in the finished film, Steele's line "Hi, mom!" during the bullying scene is by Fraser. The user further confirmed this by comparing it to a clip of pencil test footage published on YouTube by one of the film's supervising animators, William Salazar, which is dated February 18, 1994, and features Steele speaking with Fraser's voice fully intact. The single line from Fraser being intact in the finished film indicates either a error made while ADR-spotting for Cummings' session, or a deliberate attempt by the sound people to conceal it during the final mixing stage, likely in the hopes that since the line is spoken off-screen, people would assume that either Nikki or Kaltag said it (though it is too high to match Nikki's voice, and Kaltag's is raspier).
- Jim Carrey, Peter Dinklage, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Alexander, Edward Asner, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Danny DeVito, Eugene Levy, Mark Hamill, Nathan Lane, Anthony Hopkins, Tommy Lee Jones, Bill Murray, Ian McKellen, and Sylvester Stallone were all considered for the role of Boris Goosinov before Bob Hoskins was Cast, However. Hamill would've Selected in Balto II: Wolf Quest Wich Was Voiced Niju.
- This is the first Universal's animated film to use the live-action sequences.
- The only Balto film to use the Universal Pictures logo from 1990 to 1997.
- The film took three years to be produced; preproduction (research, designing, storyboarding and voice-recording) lasted a year (mid-1992 to July/August 1993), principal animation took another year (July/August 1993 to July/August 1994), and then it took around eight to nine months (July/August 1994 to March/April/May 1995) for all of the in-house departments at Amblimation (ink-and-paint, digital implementation and processing, animation checking, compositing and picture editing) to finish their work on the film, and at least three to four months (March/April/May 1995 to July/August/September 1995) for post-production (sound effects design, music writing, recording and editing, final sound mixing, color grading, negative cutting and distribution preparation). Though each department would wind down as the next began, the only department that was active throughout the entire production of the film was the editing department, which was responsible for adding and changing visual and sound elements in the leica reel, gradually updating the film from the earliest storyboard sketch compilation, all the way up to the final mix.
- this Art Style of This Movie most notably in the character designs such as Jenna. Boris. Aleu. Kodi. Nava. Muk & Luk. Nikki. Kaltag. Star and Steele and Balto's two-tone gray fur in this movie would later be reused in Mateus Cunha Animation Productions Sing The Movie known as The Koala Bunch's Midias.
Gallery[]
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