I began watching this movie with middle high expectation especially towards the characters. And it didn't disappoint! Balto is an outcast among his fellow dogs in this village because he is part wolf. He constantly mocked by this Husky called Steele who is full of himself. The humans in the village shun him claiming he is dangerous, but this little girl named Rosy is kind to him. Rosy and other children is later stricken by diphtheria and need medicine which is being delivered by sledge. And from that time on the excitement begins. Kevin Bacon, Bob Hoskins and Jim Cummings do great jobs as Balto, Boris and Steele, respectively. Some of the characters also have some clever lines here and there. One of my favorites are when a scared Boris say he "almost had people bumps". But the peak of the movie was the emotional impact the diphtheria- struck village had on me. It was really touching. I won't say more, it would ruin the experience. The animation is neat, not spectacular, but it has some good scenes and some longer passages with good coloring and backgrounds. Aside from that it is the average traditional animation. The only minor problem is Steele's co-dogs who have this mildly annoyingly formulated of talking. It is not throughout the movie, so it is just nitpicking.Balto is a great family movie and is overall highly recommendable.

People have always seemed to have a soft spot for heroic fictional dogs. Whether it's on television like 'Lassie' (1954-1973), 'Rin Tin Tin' (1954-1959), & or heart-warming family films like 'Old Yellow' (1957) & 'Benji' (1974) series. These creatures has captures our love and affection as few other things. So it's only natural, to want to hear about real-life dogs who save people for real, like Balto (1919-1933), whom help out on a supple run, to prevent a deadly epidemic from ravaging Nome, Alaska in 1925. However, I can't say, this animation film from Amblin Entertainment & Universal Pictures is historic accurate. There were a few parts in this film directed by Simon Wells that was a little far-fetched like the idea that one set of dog-sled mushers made the seven hundred miles from Nenana to Nome to stop an epidemic, in a few days, when it normally takes 25 days. In truth, 1925 Serum Run, also known as "Great Race of Mercy", carry out the task in five and half days, without much breaks, because they had 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs, at relay points throughout the path. If anything, it was more a relay race than a marathon. Also, Balto in real life, wasn't the dog that went through the longest and most hazardous part of the run. That honor goes to Togo, who led his team on a 91-mile journey that included crossing the perilous ice of Norton Sound. The real Balto, only got the credit, because they were the ones that arrived in Nome. This claim to fame, became a source of controversy by many historians, as many consider Togo to be the true hero & should had been immortalized with a statue in Central Park. Also, I hate the fact that the movie makes it look like the human mushers were mostly unconscious, incapacitated or inadequate, the whole time, as if it was the dogs that was leading the way. In truth, people like Gunnar Kaasen, Leonhard Seppala, Bill Shannon, Edgar Kalland, Jack Nicolai, Myles Gonangnan, Henry Ivanoff, and others, deserve credit as well. They made life threatens, decisions in the way, they travel, often changing paths. Some of them, lost dogs, and nearly lose their hands to frostbite, because of the dangerous journey. Another thing, I have to criticize about the film is it's out of place & over the top, predictable villain in Steele (Voiced by Jim Cummings) who Balto (Voiced by Kevin Bacon) have to fight with. I felt the movie didn't one. After all, man vs nature is already a very good conflict. His presence was really, jarring. I don't get, how he was able to get ahead of the race team and ruin the markings of the tree, after being lost, with them, only a few minutes, earlier. It just doesn't add up. Why, don't they just use, their nose in the first place!? Not all changes that the screenwriters, Cliff Ruby, Elana Lesser, David Steven Cohen & Roger S. H. Schulman were bad. I kinda like the idea of the film portray Balto as a gray outcast street wolf-dog, rather than a pure bred Siberian husky. It adds to the idea of being isolated, because people fear him as a dangerous wild animal. I love that he is looking for a chance to fit in and proving to his peers that he is capable for compassion. I also didn't mind, all the obstacles that he had to go through on his journey; even if some of them, don't make sense, like the bear sequence. Aren't they, supposed to be hibernation? Anyways, all the action scenes were all intense and help make the film, a little more compelling than what it original could had been. I also didn't mind, the illogical, weird editing of live action modern-day narrative with the animation flashbacks sequences; as it adds to the tone, of a parent reading their children, a kid friendly's fairy tale version of real-events. Even the dialogue scenes with the dogs talking, while the humans not understanding the animals, wasn't much of a problem for me; as the dogs don't really say much. Plus, I saw this, play out, in many traditional dog related Disney animation films before, such as 1955's 'Lady & the Tramp' & 1961's '101 Dalmatians'. In truth, the voice acting for the dogs weren't that bad. The voice acting for the other animals were little more questionable, like Bob Hoskins as Boris, the goose and singer Phil Collins, as sidekicks Polar Bears, Muk & Luk. They could be a bit annoying, at times. Still, for the most part, they were there for some good laughs, which, they delivered on. I also dig, the music from composer, James Horner. Overall: I wish more people went to go see 'Balto' at the time. While not an outright bomb, it didn't turn a profit, due to new-kid-on-the-block Pixar releasing 'Toy Story'; which slaughtered this film at the box office. Some animation fans consider it to be the first sign of CGI eventually overthrowing traditional animation. It's sad, because the animation was honestly pretty good for Amblimation film. Sadly, the studio close its doors after only three films, as most of the staff would migrate over to Dreamworks Animation for 1998's 'The Prince of Egypt'. In the end, while it's not the most heart feel or entertaining, animated movie out there, Balto is still worth watching. It's engaging and very though-provoking. While, you can't teach an old dog, new tricks. You can still teach your children to grasp complex social issues, while showing them, great examples of honor, duty, self-sacrifice, humility, & dedication in the face of fear, with Balto. It's a must-watch.

I'm not exactly sure what they were aiming for with Balto. The story about one of the most famous dogs ever never seemed to pick up steam. Balto is not a bad film, it just somehow misses the mark. I'm not exactly thrilled with the voice cast. Kevin Bacon was weak as Balto. Bridget Fonda was okay as Balto's love interest. I feel that the best voices came from Bob Hoskins as Boris the Goose, and Jim Cummings as the nasty villain Steele.I didn't care much for the wolf/dog connection. I thought this was silly considering that Balto was an actual purebred Siberian Husky. The protagonist of the film was given that distinction. Not sure where they were going here.Balto has some great animation for the mid-90's, especially considering it isn't Disney. If anything, that's probably what saves it from being an absolute bottom feeder of the animation world. To me, Balto just seems rather weak in the story line. I believe they could have done better.I like but not love this movie. I am very picky about films and I have toyed with the thought of having this in my DVD collection. I will have to give it some consideration.Final verdict: Worth a shot.

Title: Balto Directed by: Simon Wells Storyline: At first we have an old lady telling her granddaughter the story about the cold winter of 1925, this is where the live action segment finally stops and the animation begins. We're firstly introduced to the antagonist Steele, he is shown to be less than good by cheating in the sled race to get first place. Around the same time we are introduced to Balto. We're also introduced to the only 3 bitches in the whole of Nome that you'll get to see minus the cameo of 3 others. You also hear the photographer saying to musher "Look's like any dog can outrun Steele" this is wrong on many levels, dog races can go on for hundreds to a thousand miles, Balto just jumped in at the last 100 meters or so and didn't even cross the line. So I cant see how he is even remotely as good as Steele. You can see the tension between Steele and Jenna when he says "Well, maybe your taste runs more towards wolf?" this is after she turns him down for going to dig up bones (Not sure if innuendo or not) you can see the possible jealousy and resentment Steele would now hold as he's been turned down by Jenna and made to look bad by Balto. So depending on the perspective you look at it through is if you think Steele is justified in his aggression and loathing against Balto. You will see him dealing with discrimination up until the point where he has to rescue the other sled dogs, but it does give good insight into his predicament about not fitting in with the dogs and not fitting in with the wolves either. But then all of the children are sick with diphtheria so the sled dogs how to go and collect the shipment of anti-toxin because all other methods of transport are grounded due to weather. But the sled dogs get lost and Balto has to go into the wildlands and find them before it is too late. He finds them and tries to lead them back, but Steele isn't having any of it and starts a fight with him, needless to say Balto wins and starts to lead the sled team back. But Steele goes ahead and sabotages his only way of getting back to Nome, risking the lives of the sled team along with all of the dying children all to keep his own pride in place. Steele arrives back at Nome to try and make everyone believe that Balto tried to take the medicine from the team and got them all killed in the process with only Steele's tale to tell. But needless to say Balto finds his way back and shows that Steele has been lying to them, so needless to say Steele goes from hero to zero, whereas Balto does the exact opposite and wins the girl and the town soon loves him for it. Acting: Kevin Bacon who is known for Apollo 13 and Footloose does the voice of Balto, he adds character to him. But I have to say I did not recognize his voice until I looked up who the voice actor was. Jim Cummings the voice of Shocker from Spiderman TAS and other background character from other movies plays Steele, and boy does he do a good job of it. You can really feel the vanity at some parts along with the ego. Bridget Fonda from the Godfather 3 places Jenna, the husky which falls for the wolfdog and is primarily the only reason Balto goes to find the sled dog team. I'm sure she is a good actor, but you could replace her with any other female and I wouldn't really miss anything. Characters: Balto is the main character who discriminated against because he is half wolf, although this fact doesn't get him down all the time so it is good he isn't constantly moping. Even if for the main part he is only saving the children to get Jenna to like him. Jenna feels like a female character who is just there to get Balto to do good things for people, impressive to see her try and take on the bear though so that earns her more credibility. Steele is the top dog who does not take lightly to not getting his own way. He's vain, arrogant and is willing to sacrifice all to get what he wants. He isn't really a bad guy until he sabotages Balto's chance of getting the medicine back and spreads lies about him.Animation: The animation is quite enjoyable, not Disney standard. But the best next thing you can get to it. No noticeable flaws in it, the lip syncing isn't a masterpiece, but you can't really expect them to perfectly sync it up when the main characters have muzzles not lips. Length: 80 minutes, long enough to establish the main protagonist, antagonist, secondary characters and story. But apart from that not long enough to make me care about the children. But in saying that, focus too much on the children and I would be wishing them dead sooner. Overall Feel: Extremely loosely based on a true story, chances are if it was based on a true story it would only be 10/15 minutes long compared to 80 minutes long. But regardless of that fact it is a very nice movie, it also comes from the same people who brought you 'An American Tail' and 'The Land Before Time'. Perfect film to get a child or even an adult who likes wolves/dogs but doesn't want them to die in the movie. But sadly the cast of this movie is going to get changed after the 1st movie, you may or may not notice. Doesn't really add or subtract anything from the viewing, it is just the fact that is bothers some.