Yes, I know I didn't tell you about this, but some time ago I asked Phil Weinstein if he would be available for answering a few questions.
I've sent him a little interview yesturday, and today he answered me.
Quite some surprises in there!
> - How did you get the prestigious directing place of
> the films?I was just finishing up directing on the Hercules TV series and
interviewed for the job.
I don't know who else interviewed for the position but it is usually a
question of being a good fit for the show and also being available when they were ready to start. I was very lucky.
> - What was concretly your job in the production of the
> Balto sequels?The script was written before I was hired, so my job was to hire and
direct the
artists in creating the show.
> - Were there any deleted scenes? Any interesting
> changes between the original scripts and the final
> cuts?The original Balto 2 script was a little bit longer, so we trimmed some
scenes for time, but otherwise it changed very little.
For Balto 3 Kodi do not help rescue his dad in the orginal script. I
pitched the idea of Steele being the one who volunteers to go help
Balto on the rescue since in the original draft Kodi wouldn't go. I
thought it would be interesting for Balto and Steele
to be out alone together, you would always be wondering if Steele would
betray Balto!
The dog alert was added and the flashbacks to Kodi as a puppy were
added in Jenna's song.
The opening song visuals originally told more of the story of Kodi,
getting promoted from the dog in the back to the front, and also the opening began with a postman
addressing a letter, we follow the letter as it gets sorted, then
bagged in a sack, then placed on a sled to get delivered. There are
some elements of this in the final. The close up of the letter
stamped airmail at the end of the movie was really just a pay off for
what was set up in the beginning.
The ice bridge sequence was added too.
> - What was the real reason for the voice actors
> change? Low budget?>
Budget and availability of certain actors.
> - Was Aniu meant to be the White Wolf from the
> original Balto? Was it a new character, or was she
> already planned by the team working on the original
> Balto?Yes, she was the White wolf from the first movie.
>
> - Why did Balto eyes turned white in Balto 2?
That was a mistake on the character model. There are so many things to
keep track of on a movie production that sometimes the most obvious things
get overlooked.
We fixed that in Balto 3!
> - Does Dusty have a crush on Kodi or Ralph in Balto 3?
> Many fans say that Dusty looks a lot like Aleu, was it
> intended?Well, there was an implied relationship between Dusty and Ralph in one
scene.
I'd always hoped we could work on more of that in the story, but there
wasn't time.
Yeah, I guess Dusty does look a little bit like Aleu, but it was not
intentional.
>
> - Do you have any idea about what pushed Universal to
> make sequels?No, I'm sorry I don't.
>
> - What were the budgets of the sequels? If you're not
> allowed to tell, was the budget for Balto 3 higher
> than for Balto 2?I'm sorry, but I cannot share with you this information.
>
> - Maybe you know already, but Universal isn't planning
> to make another sequel; in answer to our petition,
> they said that "not enough people bought the last one
> to make it attractive to produce another". What is
> your feeling about this?I don't know what the sales figures were exactly. I have some idea,
but I don't know what Universal considers enough of a success to
warrant a sequel.
I really love the Balto movies, I wish they would make more!
>
> - Partly due to that answer, some of us are trying to
> make a Balto 4...Of course not a whole film, only a
> trailer of a few minutes, and without any budget. No
> budget...isn't that what you're trying to do with your
> current project? So, how does things go? Is it really
> possible nowadays to make a film with nearly no
> budget?Yes, much easier to make a film with no budget nowadays. Cameras are
much cheaper,
and you can do most of the production work on a home computer.
By the way, we have changed
servers, you might have noticed that projectnolight.com is down. If
you go to
http://www.projectnolight.org you will be redirected to my company web site,
I'm currently
reposting the old podcasts.
Phil
That answered alot of OUR questions....I wish you would have asked him about the mysterious dog in the first film. I've always wanted to know who that was! 
now we finaly got our answer about is Anius the white wolf 
