Balto (1995)

It’s winter and man, was it extremely cold last week.  Also, I have plans to go see the international dog sled races in a few weeks. So what better time to pick to see this.

Director: Simon Wells

Voices: Kevin Bacon, Bridget Fonda, Bob Hoskins, Jim Cummings, Phil Collins

Based on the true story behind a American hero, as the box and posters for this animation says.  Its about the amazing story of Balto (Kevin Bacon), a half wolf who lives in Nome, Alaska in 1925.  In this animation, which my guess is loosely based since his companions are a goose who doesn’t fly south called Boris (Bob Hoskins) and two polar bears who can’t swim called Muk and Luk (both by Phil Collins).  When the children of Nome, Alaska start getting hit be an epidemic during a snow storm, they run out of medicine and the closest they could get the medicine delivered was to Nenana, Alaska.  With the brutal weather, the train could not bring it and the planes could not fly it out to them.  They only way was to send out their best dog sled team to go get the medicine.  In Nome, the best dog was pretentious Steele (Jim Cummings) who was the champion dog.  Steele, along with his pack of dogs tried every way possible to stop Balto from not only getting the girl dog, Jenna (Bridget Fonda) but also to stop him from overshadowing him.  When the team finally sets out, Steele gets the team lost coming back to Nome and after an accident, he ends up getting stranded in a lower landing.  Knowing this, Balto ignores the hatred from the other dogs and the humans in the town and goes to find the lost team in the storm in order to get back the medicine in time to save Rosy (who is the owner of Jenna) and the other sick children.

I saw this movie when I was younger and I even owned the VHS of it. This movie holds a lot of nostalgia for me.  When I upgraded it to DVD, this animation still held high up.  Its a very touching story filled with a lot of fun and funny dialogue.  Muk and Luk is the entertaining clowns of this show.  Boris being the responsible but sometimes hot-tempered role but also the one that looks out for Balto and sometimes acts as a mentor to remind him of the important things.  The voice work here is pretty above average.  They are all very vibrant and really fun throughout the whole animation.  The story may be loosely based on a true story but it does bring out how a dog can be loyal and faithful to the people and the place he belongs to.

This animation is a great one for some family fun.  Balto is a very meaningful story and for that, its worth a viewing.  He even has a statue in Central Park, which I did try to find last time I went in 2008, but unfortunately, we got lost so never found it.  Hopefully one day, I’ll eventually get there.

I know this is an older animation and I don’t hear people talking about it much.  I just wonder if a lot of people have seen it.

Have you seen it? Did you like it?