Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Jesper Brun 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.

opheliabrock I used to adore this movie as a kid, and had some huge nostalgic goggles on the thing for years. But after recently watching it again, it's lost most of it's charm. First off, the animation has a non-Disney style, which means it can be interesting. However the animators don't try to play with this advantage in the least and leave the audience with plain, lazy, and boring sequences. The only times I remember even bothering to watch closely were scenes with Balto's mother, which were nice if not completely unrealistic. Which leads me to my biggest gripe, the many multitude of insults against the viewers' intelligence. Definitely a movie for kids 8 and younger. First off, Balto was not a wolfdog, he was a purebred husky and a trained sled dog. I'm not sure why he needed the underdog edge, considering he was already an outcast for his poor sledding capabilities. And the studio didn't bother incorporating ANY common sense into the move. Like how wolves are smaller than huskies, dogs howl, and bears are not bigger than houses. And thirdly, if you know ANYTHING about what really happened during and after that relay, this movie kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Steele, the antagonist actually represents the only other existing character, which is Togo. The sled dog that was a natural born leader, extremely successful and beloved, and quite worthy of his own movie. He carried the medicine over the largest and most dangerous stretch before being switched out with Balto, to give him a break at the very end. Togo would receive all other awards and medals, but Balto and his statue were publicity darlings. This all ends after Balto's owner finally finishes milking his fame for all its worth on tours and drops them off at a circus, where they were discovered years later covered in their own filth and starving. Balto and his team were later rescued and lived their lives out at a zoo, while Togo would remain with his owner before finally retiring. Beside the historic flops, the characters are uninteresting, clichéd, and unsympathetic. The action is fair if ridiculous, the music is forgettable, and the acting and animation is lazy. The reason I'm so harsh on this movie is because I really did love it as a kid, and find myself completely frustrated over its failures. It could have been so much more, and animated retelling of the relay was not unwelcome. But the delivery was stale, clichéd, and completely uninterested in actually telling the story itself.

Angels_Review The story of Balto is a tale that is old as ever. It is a legend up in Alaska. He was a Siberian Husky who led a sled dog team transporting medicine from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. He was a hero, saving many of people who would have died without that medicine and saved his team, staying on a trail through near whiteout conditions. Although he was only one of the many dogs that took place in the serum run, he is by far one of the most famous. Because of this, a statue was placed in Central Park, New York City in dedication to him. Now the story about Balto never once talked about him being part wolf or being a outcast among the people until the run but the movie has a heart all its own. I feel that the version they have in the movie is a bit more fantastic then the original story but isn't that just it with a legend? They will keep saying it over and over again until the fact is twisted and turned around, making it much more amazing then what really happened. I fell in love with the whimsy of Balto when I was young, the year when it first came out and as with some of the shows I fell in love with, I would watch it constantly, watching till the tape was well beyond playable. The legend of Balto was one of the first real legends that I learned and though at the time I thought that all that I saw in the movie was true, it got me into wanting to know more about legends.The story opens in Nome, well the cartoon part. It is basically played as though a grandmother is telling this tale to her granddaughter in the middle of Central Park as they look for the true statue made in honor of Balto. We have Balto, his love interest Jenna, and Steele (the antagonist). We also have a Russian goose who is Balto's adoptive father and two polar bears that are like his siblings… and this is where I must remind you that when I was thinking this was real, I was about 7 years old or so. Anyway, the personalities are as followed; The outcast longing to be one of the others, the lovely and popular love interest, the macho jock who wants love interest and hates outcast, the overprotective father, and the comedy relief. It's at this point that you may point out that almost every show has this when it is based for children and I would say yes and that it why I liked it and still like it. As much as the new age shows make me want them to change tactics, I fell in love with the older shows because that was it. It was simple to pick out who the villain was and who the person we had to cast our votes for to get the girl. It's nostalgia I guess.The animation is very nice for the time. I would think it was probably even better then the time in some aspects as I would probably put it up in the same lines as Disney with its beautiful bright colors and clean look. One of the only problems that I had was that Boris, a goose mind you, has teeth. Seriously, even in a child's movie, why would you give a goose teeth? Oh well, its only one thing out of the show I don't really get. The rest is so well done that I fell in love with it.The voices are simple for the most part and yet I fell in love with them. Years after first watching the show, I looked up who voiced Balto and to my surprise, it was Kevin Bacon. I would never of guessed it would be him who voiced my favorite character from the show as must of the movies I see him in are a bit over rated. I love how we have a rather English speaking Polar bear with a 'mute' one. It makes me laugh a bit more which is what they are supposed to do.

kdnor2011 I think it's obvious to see why Balto was ignored during it's theater release, coming out not to long after Toy Story (which is a better film). But I'm glad to see that it's popularity has grown in the 16 years since it's release.Balto is a half wolf, half dog that is basically an outcast in his town of Nome Alaska. When the children of the town develop a fatal disease, a sled team must go and receive medacine. Unfortunattly the team get's lost and now Balto must go find them and help them get the medicine back to Nome.I'm not going to lie and say the movie is flawless, the story is nothing new, the characters are kinda bland and the comedy reliefs are a little more annoying than funny, thankfully they don't follow Balto throughout his journey.With nice animation, a good cast, and a solid story, Balto is worth picking up.