The real Balto was a purebred Husky. I think the reason Universal made him a wolf dog is because they wanted younger people to understand that no matter who you are, especially if you're in the same situation as Balto, where you're always bullied and ridiculed, you can still make a difference and prove yourself, like he did.
He wasn't purebred. He was an Alaskan Husky, this is the title and 'breedname' used for all sorts of randomly bred sleddogs. It's really a class more than a breed. Similar to Draft Horses being a class. EDIT: Also refered to as the Alaskan-type Husky, to further make a difference between a breed and a classification/type. /EDIT They are related to Huskies but multiple other breeds as well who keep getting crossed back in, but they are not a breed really. Similar to X-Mechelaar or in horses XYZ Sporthorse. It's essentially working animals crossed with some purebred breed and ANYTHING else that enhances the working abilities. Abilities matter more than looks, hence why they never got to be a breed. Which is honestly for the better. :) The real Balto was a typical sleddog of his time; bred for capability not looks. And I think even that would have worked well with this storyline: Purebred bullies vs mutt hero. His real story was much more tragic since he had such a shitty life after the run had ended. So I think changing the story a bit was fine for movie purposes. It IS a grand story after all, even if it's just loosely related to reality.
@@Managable_Mayhemno offense and yes I considered all dogs and humans being heroes who did the run but the true hero is Togo and his owner. They went through hell and almost getting killed by getting the medicine. And Togo and his owner were the first to get the medicine. The musher of Togo gave the medicine to the other musher and Balto, because Togo wasn’t doing well because Togo is old. And that musher and Balto became heroes and been in the newspaper instead of Togo and his owner. Togo owner is furious about it. That why Disney made that movie about Togo so people will know who the true hero is. And yes like I said all of the mushers and sled dogs are heroes.
Imagine insulting the idea of someone's mother being a creature as majestic as a _wolf_ Steel probably wishes he could be as fierce as one of those, but he's just a big puppy :p
The way Steele is animated is so brilliant. Also notice Steele didn't really try to fight Balto here. He knew he had much more to lose if he lost that fight to Balto and just relied on his buddies to help make fun of him and hope he'd bail.
In real life a wolfdog would beat an Alaskan malamutte, but in this movie Balto would not 've beaten Steel, just look at the musculature and size of each one. And even if a wolf or half-wolf is strong, if it hasn't lived a wild life it would not survive against anyone.
I like how Steele's "friends" play along with his actions as he berated and harassed Balto, but when Steele left the scene, they all immediately bad-mouthed him. It definitely shows that the rest of the dogsled team does not approve of Steele's treatment towards Balto to some extent.
Actually, they still don't like Balto with all their sincerity before near the ending because of his heritage, but they also are aware of how obnoxious Steele can be and they fear him.
Deep down Steele is just a jealous coward who knows Balto’s wolf heritage makes him have noble qualities. He tries to hide his cowardness by bullying, much like human bullies do in real life.
This film was my childhood! Together Nikki, Kaltag and Star were my favorite characters. I always thought Star looked like the hyenas from the Lion King. Same colour, similar pattern across his back, has his tongue out half the time and acts a lot like them too. According to the wiki however when Steele left the other three, I originally thought they were saying shit about Balto, but they were actually referring to Steele!
@DJKO12X Even though we as the audience knew how much of an asshole Steele was, I'd feel horrible for his owner. If something like that happened to my dog, I don't know what I'd do.
Of the four dogs that bullied Balto even though Starr is the "special ed/mentally challenged dog, but he actually is the smartest of the entire bunch. Think about it. Later in the movie there were two things that Starr said that were smart and didn't get hit by Kaltag or Nikki. Starr 1. Why is Steele fighting Balto. All he wants to do his help. 2. They should build a statue of him. If you don't remember watch the movie again or if you havent watch it anyway.
similar to how gaston angrily tried to kill beast while he was defenseless, but the moment beast picks him up in a chokehold gaston starts begging for his life
I just want to make clear some moments in the film: 1. People believe that "Steele mocks on Balto, 'cause Balto is half-wolf, 'cause Balto is different, and Steele is arrogant". NO IT'S NOT. Steele mocked on Balto 'cause of envy - 'cause Balto is faster than Steele, and 'cause Jenna likes Balto and hates Steele. Steele felt in Balto the rival, who is better than him and is attractive for Jenna. That's it. That's why Steele started to tease Balto. He's a sadist, who found Balto's weakness - that people don't trust Balto 'cause of his wolf heritage, and that Balto himself is very meek and denies his wolf half, so Steele could use this against Balto. That's it. Steele doesn't hate wolves or half-breeds, he just tries to get rid of the rival. If Balto was a full-blood dog, Steele still would find the way to mock on him. 2. People for some reason think that Steele's insulting howling somehow implies "Balto's mom is a wolf" thing and use this moment as a smoking gun or whatever. I never understood, why they think so. There's absolutely NO indications for this. Steele and his gang mocked only on Balto, the context of scene is "Hey, Balto, you're half-wolf! You should know the wolf language! Translate for us some messages!". That's it, nothing more. Steele knew nothing about Balto, he knew only that Balto is a half-wolf. Plus, the director of the original film even stated that Balto's dad was a wolf, so Steele's teasing actually has a traits of dirty joke ("Your mommy's tastes run more toward the wolf!" or whatever). And that exlains Balto's anger, when Steele and his dogs howled as a wolf pack before starting the "translate the howling" game.
Now this makes me question balto 2 bc in that movie balto's mother was the same white wolf from the first movie. And balto himself in that movie says his dad was a pure bred Alaskan husky but his mom was a wolf.. Ik they were made by different companies but it now seems confusing to me.
@@NightScaped Sorry, if I wrote too late. I forgot about this comment and had no notification from here. In the original film Balto's father was a wolf and Balto's mother was a working husky, while the white wolf is a male and is a symbol of Balto's wolf side, his true self and self-acceptance. The sequel, well, was created by different crew, who got no information about this aspect (especially about the white wolf), so the writer of Balto-2 liked the white wolf and decided to turn this character into Balto's mother. Plus, according to the writer, Aniu is the Great Mother of all wolves, i.e. the wolf deity, symbolizing call of the wild and helping to find true identity. Now about Balto's father in the sequel - he's not a pure-bred husky. According to the writer, Balto's father was never developed, but was intended to be just a random stray dog, who mates and then never even knows about possible offspring.
I felt the same way, I watched this movie when I was young and it was heartbroken to me as I cry and felt angry for them as a young kid that I wish I want to attack them but I wouldn't. I would relate to him in most ways since we're good people that are smart, had something in our dna of who we are, had our passions together (mine was to make a rockband and pursue my dreams as well as the wolf dog/husky purebred did with the medicine) and had been bullied. I was bullied a lot in my childhood because of my disability and my looks with it. I relate to this guy because those huskies known to be bullies of him became friends except for this bully, it would relate to me if there's bullies to hunt me down with mean things they say and the threats they pull. They call me ugly, weirdo, etc. That's where I came from related to this, they judged me before they get to know me same thing with Balto or any other cartoon characters did.
@@damongomez8220 I am fully aware of that, but what I’m saying is that dogs howl just as much as wolves do so in my personal opinion, a different form of mockery would have been more appropriate…
@@sleepyninja7712 I think it was more hurtful because Balto denies or wants to deny being a wolf, and having it constantly shoved in his face like that. Yes dogs howl, but when we think of wolves, we think of them as more associated with howling and I guess that’s what Steele was trying to get across.
Steele is a malamute and Balto’s father was a Siberian husky which were known to be short at that time Balto also takes after his father and inherited the majority of his genes.
I don't really understand why they would be bullying Balto because he's half-wolf. I mean, all dogs descended from wolves, right? It doesn't make sense.
many white people who hate black people or indigenous americans ironically sometimes turn out to have (very little) african or indigenous ancestry themselves, so it kind of makes sense when you apply it to humans too
@@badpasters I very much agree, and I think this applies to the opposite end of the spectrum as well. Ironically, some black people who are the most spiteful of white people tend to have some or even a lot of white ancestry themselves.
I'm still curious what the character dynamics are truly like in this movie. Star, Kaltag and Nikki only act in support of Steele when he's around, otherwise they are quite normal tbh. So I wonder just how this dynamic came to be. Steele DOES have anger issues and some sorta complex, but I wonder if he'd actually harm other dogs just for personal reasons. Even teammates that make his team as superior as it is. We saw him try to bite another dog mid-run to gain an advantage, so if Nikki, Kaltag and Star suddenly didn't act like his buddies, who knows if he'll hurt them too. Given the movies original ending for Steele, he might have just been that kinda bad person. (Glad they scratched that scene tho, it was too heavy for my tastes given the rest of the movie wasn't so dark in tone and made that a great choice for getting rid of Steele.)
Riolu (Balto) riolu and his bullies Cast: Riolu the blue cat as Balto Sagwa as Jenna Mack Mallard (Migration) as boris Scar as steele Shere Khan as Kaltag Makucha as Nikki Nuka as Star
I know about jim Cummings he's the voice of many cartoon characters including boss tick from tiny toons adventures, box more from ok ko let's be heroes, Ray the firefly from the princess 👸 and the frog 🐸, kaa the snake 🐍, colonel Hati the elephant 🐘 and mc monkey 🐒 from the the jungle book 2 2003, king James from pocahontas 2 journey to a new world, Jacques from Scooby-Doo on zombie 🧟♂️ Island 🏝, captain razoul from aladdin, cat from catdog, captain Pete from mickey, Donald and goofy the three musketeers, pooh and Tigger from Winnie the pooh and the Tigger movie, darkwing duck from darkwing duck, bonkers from bonkers d bobcat, security guard 💂♂️ from amphibia, steele from balto 1995, bering the raccoon from brother bear 🐻 2 2006, tantor the elephant 🐘 from the legend of tarzan series 2001, scar in simba's dream from the lion 🦁 king 🤴 2 simba's pride 1998, dirty Dawson from 101 dalmatians 2 patch's london adventure 2003, nessus from hercules 1997 and he also voice ed the hyena from the lion 🦁 king 🤴 1994.
Still wondered why he never went with the wolves since they like auto-accepted him. I guess it'd make the story way to short and maybe lose the meaning and love interest but still.
@@aliostrowski1935 Out of the three Star probably became Balto’s best friend. He seemed to never have a problem with Balto in the first place. He was the only one to question Steele’s leadership. When the team got lost and Balto came to their aid, he was the first to become overjoyed for Balto finding them. Also he suggested they listen to Balto, which meant he trusted Balto’s leadership over Steele’s. He also pointed out Balto was only trying to help when Steele was attacking him and Star helped Balto into tue harness after Steele fell.
@@alexafitch3402 after they ditched Steele completely I'd agree Balto: Star became my best friend because he saw me for what I was before the other dogs. He didn't have any actual issue with me. He tried to help me in a few ways thats why the little guy is my best friend
@@overpricedhealthcare i know and lobo means Mexican wolf. What I mean by mestizo is that he’s mixed. Mestizo is what I am, half Native American and half white European. I’m not not Mexican/indigenous enough but also not white enough either. Like Balto not being wolf enough or dog enough.
