Balto (film)

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Balto

Directed by	Simon Wells
Produced by	Steve Hickner
Written by	David Cohen Elana Lesser Cliff Ruby Roger Schulman
Starring	Kevin Bacon Bob Hoskins Bridget Fonda Jim Cummings Phil Collins
Music by	James Horner (also song) Barry Mann (song) Steve Winwood (song)
Cinematography	Jan Richter-Friis
Editing by	Sim Evan-Jones Nick Fletcher
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	December 22, 1995
Running time	78 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$11,348,324 (domestic)^[1]
Followed by	Balto II: Wolf Quest
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Balto is a 1995 animated film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, distributed by Universal Pictures, and originally released to movie theatres in 1995. Balto is based on a true story about the dog, Balto (voiced by Kevin Bacon), who helped save children from the diphtheria epidemic in the 1925 serum run to Nome.

Balto is the final animated feature produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, before Spielberg co-founded DreamWorks with David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg; most of the Amblimation staff was re-located to DreamWorks Animation. Universal Pictures would not release another feature-length animated film to theaters for over a decade, until Curious George in 2006. Similarly, it would be over a decade until Amblin Entertainment would produce another theatrically released animated film, which was 2006's Columbia Pictures computer-animated feature film Monster House.

1 Plot
2 Reception and disestablishment of Amblimation
3 Cast and characters
4 Historical Differences
5 Soundtrack
- 5.1 Soundtrack album track listing
6 Sequels
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Plot

The story opens with a live-action segment in Central Park, New York City. A grandmother (Miriam Margolyes), her granddaughter (Lola Bates-Campbell), and Blaze, their pet husky, search for the Balto memorial statue. The granddaughter hands her grandmother a musher's hat, and the grandmother begins telling the story of Balto.

The movie fades to a dogsled race Nome, Alaska, where two sled teams are racing to the finishing line in the town itself. In this race a dog named Steele, the leader of one of the teams, openly uses force to gain the upper hand on his rivals. In the town, waiting for the racing teams to arrive are Balto, an outcast half-wolf half-husky, and his best friend and Russian-accented goose Boris.

As they await the oncoming team, Balto sees a young girl named Rosy and Rosy's female husky named Jenna waiting among the audience. When Rosy's hat falls on to the path of Steele's oncoming sled team, Balto enters the racing line to retrieve the hat, incurring Steele's wrath when Balto manages to outrun him. Rosy is thankful for Balto's kindness but Rosy's father is quick to dismiss him because of his part-wolf bloodline. Steele's hate for Balto is worsened when Jenna turns down Steele's romantic offer, and Steele suspects that Jenna is in love with Balto.

Later, Rosy is growing ill. When Jenna watches the doctor examine Rosy through a window, Balto arrives and helps her enter the space beneath the floorboards of the doctor's office, where they learn that Rosy is afflicted with diphtheria, and the doctor is out of antitoxin.

In the telegraph office, the operator contacts Anchorage requesting the diphtheria antitoxin. All routes to Nome are blocked, the planes cannot get there in the bad weather, and the nearest train line runs only to Nenana. A decision is made to have a sled team pick up the medicine from the Nenana train station and take it to Nome.

A race is held to determine who will be on the team to fetch the anti-toxin. Balto, who wants to help Rosy, enters the race and manages to win, but he is not allowed to enter the team due to Steele, who stands on Balto's paw, making Balto growl. The team, lead by Steele, travel to Nenana where they pick up the medicine. However, on the way back Steele and his team gets lost in a blizzard and slide down a bank. The musher is knocked unconscious and the team have no way of making it home.

When the news reaches Nome, Balto decides to go out to find the sled team with Boris, Muk, and Luk. On the way, they are attacked by a large grizzly bear which tries to crush Balto, and is about to kill him when, much to Balto's surprise, Jenna comes to the rescue. The bear eventually falls in a frozen lake and Jenna is mildly injured. Balto tells his friends to take Jenna back to Nome while he heads on alone.

Balto manages to find the sled team, but Steele does not want his help. After a brief struggle started by Steele, Steele falls down a cliff, but is still alive when he reaches the bottom. Balto helps the musher onto the sled and leads the team, but soon finds himself lost when the markings he'd placed on trees to show the way have been ruined by Steele. Balto falls down a cliff with the medicine, where he encounters a white wolf. Finding renewed strength in embracing his wolf heritage, Balto drags the medicine back up the cliff to the team and successfully leads them back to Nome.

Jenna, Boris, Muk and Luk are overjoyed to be reunited with Balto, who received a hero's welcome. Although he was previously shunned, Balto is now embraced by the people of Nome, and is led to Rosy's in the clinic where she tells him, "I would have been lost without you."

The movie fades back into the live-action sequence in Central Park. At the end, the grandmother says, "Thank you, Balto. I would have been lost without you.", and then the girl calls the grandmother "Grandma Rosy", thus revealing that she is Rosy.

[edit] Reception and disestablishment of Amblimation

Balto holds a mixed rating of 46% by critics at Rotten Tomatoes, though only 11 reviews are counted. The film's release was vastly overshadowed by the performance of Disney/Pixar's Toy Story, and, at best, did modest box office. This led to the closure and disestablishment of Amblimation. Strong video sales lead to the release of two sequels: Balto II: Wolf Quest and Balto III: Wings of Change.

[edit] Cast and characters

Balto, voiced by Kevin Bacon, is a young adult male wolfdog, a mix of Siberian Husky and Arctic Wolf. He is much despised by almost everyone in town because of his wolf heritage. All he wants is to fit in, but he is not accepted by the dogs, as well as humans, who hate and fear him. The only ones who accept him for who he really is are Muk and Luk, Boris, Jenna, and Rosy. Balto loves dogsled racing, leading to a frequent opinion in fanfiction that his father was a sled dog, possibly a lead dog. When a diphtheria epidemic hits Nome and the sled team gets lost while bringing in the only available antitoxin, he goes out to find them and help get the medicine through.
Boris, voiced by Bob Hoskins, is a somewhat grumpy Russian snow goose. He is typically somewhat of a coward, but when it is necessary he can display great courage. His main contribution, though, is his insight. He seems to consider himself Balto's caretaker, telling him that, "I'm staying here until I'm sure you can stand on your own four feet." However, when Balto must continue on alone to search for the missing sled team, Boris encourages him: "A dog cannot make this journey alone. But maybe a wolf can." Frequently bothered by the affectionate Muk and Luk, who call him "Uncle Boris."
Jenna, voiced by Bridget Fonda, is a beautiful purebred young adult female husky, Jenna is perhaps the only dog in Nome who gives any thought to Balto (except for Steele, who seems to spend much of his time seeking out and bullying him). She is the unwilling object of Steele's lustful interests, seeming from the start to show more interest in Balto. She helps Balto on his journey by following him into the wilderness to tell him that Eagle Pass is blocked, and ultimately intervenes at the crucial moment during a fight with a bear. The end of the movie leaves little doubt that the two of them are very much in love. She was even ready to sacrifice her life to defend Balto from a bear.
Rosy, voiced by Juliette Brewer, is Jenna's owner. In a town that hates and fears Balto, Rosy is possibly the only human in Nome to see anything in him other than a mangy stray half-breed. Rosy is a cheerful and kindhearted child, and when she comes down with diphtheria, Balto is quick to do everything in his power to help save her and the other children.
Steele, voiced by Jim Cummings, is the lead dog of Nome's championship sled dog team and Balto's enemy. He is egotistical, rude, and willing to do anything to achieve his goals. He often picks on Balto about being a wolfdog and frequently shows affection to Jenna. Steele is seemingly quite a bit older than both Jenna and Balto, referring to voice tones. Because of Steele's height and large bones, he is mostly likely to be an Alaskan Malamute.
Muk and Luk, both voiced by Phil Collins, are a pair of polar bears who are outcasts similar to Balto, who is their friend, and Boris, who they call "Uncle Boris" and treat as a cherished relative, although Boris dosen't really like it. Muk and Luk are afraid of water and believe that they cannot swim, but over the course of the movie discover that they can swim when it counts. Luk only makes vocal sounds but does not "talk"; his sounds are translated by Muk and can later also be understood by Boris.
Nikki, voiced by Jack Angel, Kaltag, voiced by Danny Mann and Star, voiced by Robbie Rist, are a trio of dogs in Steele's team. They are initially his followers, although they do not approve of Steele's bullying ways. A running gag throughout the film has Nikki and Kaltag heaping praises on their leader (either Steele or, later, Balto) but when Star joins in with a foolishly obvious comment ("That's good!" or "You won!") Kaltag promptly hits him. In the end, when the three of them (and the whole town) are praising Balto, Star's comment is "They should make a statue of him!" This time, Kaltag (after appearing as though he's about to hit Star) simply smiles and tells him: "You said it!"
Dixie, voiced by Sandra Dickenson, is a female dog and one of Jenna's friends. She has a huge crush on Steele, shown when trying to impress him with her new collar. When she and the other dogs discovered Steele's treachery they turn their backs on him.
Sylvie, voiced by Sandra Dickenson, is a female dog and is also one of Jenna's friends. She admires Steele, until she, along with all the other dogs, found out about his treachery.

[edit] Historical Differences

The sled run to get the medicine was actually a relay, and Balto was only the leader of the last team to carry the medicine to Nome. The longest and most hazardous distance was traveled by the team led by Togo.
This film portrays Balto as a wolf hybrid. Balto was actually a purebred Siberian Husky.
Balto was never an outcast as shown by the film, but was instead born in a kennel owned by the famous musher Leonhard Seppala, where he grew up until he was deemed fit for pulling a sled. Seppala was also the owner of Togo, whom he personally used during the relay, Balto was instead used by one of his workers, Gunnar Kaasen.

[edit] Soundtrack

Cover for the Balto soundtrack CD

The soundtrack was composed by James Horner.

[edit] Soundtrack album track listing

In the original United States version, this CD had the following tracks:

"Reach For The Light (Theme from Balto)" - performed by Steve Winwood (4:24)
"Main Title/Balto's Story Unfolds" (4:40)
"The Dogsled Race" (1:41)
"Rosy Goes To The Doctor" (4:05)
"Boris & Balto" (1:29)
"The Journey Begins" (5:06)
"Grizzly Bear" (5:23)
"Jenna/Telegraphing The News" (2:22)
"Steele's Treachery" (4:38)
"The Epidemic's Toll" (3:29)
"Heritage Of The Wolf" (5:54)
"Balto Brings The Medicine!" (4:53)
"Reach For The Light (Theme from Balto) (Long Version)" - performed by Steve Winwood (5:27)

Total length: 49:15 min

[edit] Sequels

Two direct-to-video sequels were made by the Universal Cartoon Studios. The first, Balto II: Wolf Quest was released in 2002. This film followed the adventures of Balto and Jenna's pups, mainly Aleu who sets off to discover her wolf heritage.

The third film, Balto III: Wings of Change was released in 2005. The storyline followed the same litter of pups from Balto 2 but with the focus on another of Balto's pups named Kodi.

In both sequels the voice of Balto was provided by Maurice LaMarche, and the voice of Jenna was provided by Jodi Benson. Neither film took any historical references from the true story of Balto (although Balto 3 does make a few references to the time and setting of the story).

There is some controversy if there will be any further sequels; the main reason for that is that Balto III was fairly more successful than the previous movie. In addition, Universal released a DVD pack containing An American Tail, Balto, and The Land Before Time on November 6, 2007 (see the BaltoSource site for more information).