As you may or may not know, the U.S. DVD (region 1) was released in a full frame (4/3) aspect ratio. This is a really bad format because the picture has been modified to fit the American TV screen. The European DVD, however, (region 2) was released in widescreen (16/9), which is much more accurate to the film's original aspect ratio.



Also, the European DVD contains a pretty interesting documentary about the film and Balto's history. This documentary was supposed to be on the U.S. DVD, but didn't make it for an unknown reason.

Some of you may be interested in getting the European DVD for the sake of having a widescreen version of the film.  However, because of region locking, you may not be able to play DVD from another region on your American dvd player. There are tricks to be able to play DVDs from different regions (some home DVD players can play region 2 DVDs, some need a mod chip). The best solution would be to get the Brazilian dvd, if you can find it,  because it isn't region locked. If you have a way to play PAL region DVDs, then I would suggest getting ahold of a region 2 DVD. You can find them for sale on Ebay and Amazon.

This article was modified on 9/24/16