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Okay, before I'll write something, let me explain. I have no special dislike for this sequel. The only thing I hate and consider non-canonical — the view of Phil Weinstein about Balto's parents, especially because he hadn't seen the original movie, when he worked on the sequel (firstly, personally, I prefer the opinion of Simon Wells and his answers in three questions in an interview: "The white wolf", "Who was a wolf in Balto's family?" and "Balto and Boris" — probably and mostly a wolf-father and a dog-mother, because Wells is the author of the original film and knows this movie much closer and better; secondly, the mouse-spirit from WQ talked that when a new being born, with him a guardian spirit stays and sings the songs and points him the true way — so it's much more correct and preferable to imagine Aniu the wolf as Balto's the spirit guardian, but not as the mother from nowhere and, in fact, a disembodied ghost without any hint or proofs that it ever existed and somehow died, because all the wolves never told that Aniu ever existed as a living wolf or that she died; maybe I'll write some arguments about this). In other points, the movie is OK.

But let's get back. You ever wondered, why do those wolverines symbolize the fear of Balto? We know that Balto tried to find his daughter and worried for her. We know that Aniu the she-wolf and the three wolverines are actually the totem spirits (however, once I had a theory about this one sprit — in fact, it is some kind of the shape-shifter with a thousand faces).
But why wolverine? Much more sense would be if a grizzly bear was a symbol of fear that exists in the cartoon only as easter eggs (or tribute to the first film??). Strong, mighty, fearsome master of the forest. The animal from which you really feel the threat and danger. Wolverines, of course, are also quite fearless, aggressive and powerful animals, they can repel anyone.
Wait a second... Wild animals... the Fears... the Animals... I have an assumption, which more or less could explain such a choice. In this case, no matter who was the mother of the main character — a wild wolf or the sled husky. What was the reason for the separation (by the way, accidentally separation) of Balto with his family? It could not be a hunter or any man, because in this case Balto would have been killed too, or our protagonist would have become the sled dog or a fighting dog. Maybe it was a wild animal. The bear or the wolverines. The wolverines could kill Balto's siblings and kill (too) or seriously hurt Balto's mom (I'm not mentioning Balto's father for two reasons: first, in the WQ Balto does not give any descriptions or some details about his father, and secondly, in the WoC Balto tells about Boris the goose: "He is a dad, I never had"; in this case, we have a female wolf or a dog as an unwed mother, whose "mate or partner" is generally unknown, so I see no reason to assert that the father of the protagonist was a dog; moreover, Balto in WQ said about Boris:"Boris found and raised me as his own. It's amazing that I bark instead of honk". This implies that Balto was just a little puppy that is fed on mother's milk or something like that, so that he could not remember who was his mother, Balto could probably only remember the white color of her belly, chest and paws, and could hear her warm and gentle voice. But a chance meeting with the White Wolf, which is an inner voice of our hero, could generate a random image based on Balto's fragmentary memories about his mom.)


I'm not asking you to agree with my opinion and my theory. I just tried to find an explanation for this choice about the wolverine as the fears of our protagonist. However, some detail can still be true. Thanks for reading.

I'm not really clear on what any of that theory has to do with the wolverines representing fear, but real wolverines are some scary animals. They can take down deer several times their size and have even been known to take on grizzlies. Even the Native Americans - who tended to be much kinder in their appraisals of animals than Europeans - called them "devils." Not only are they powerful, but smart too; they were notorious in the old days, when trapping was more common - for setting off traps and stealing the bait, and also had a nasty habit of breaking into sheds and barns, eating or otherwise destroying whatever they could, and spraying skunk-like musk all over everything else.

So I don't think it's a big mystery why wolverines were chose to represent fear.

Jake Razor, thanks for this information (however, I knew some details about the wolverines in mithology), but I prefer more realistic and reasonable point of their role. Well, their possible relation to the main character (maybe a psychological side) or something like this. Because, firstly, not all people know or interest in miths and, secondly, it could be cool detail in the story.

Well let's not forget that mythology was basically the very fabric of Balto 2 from start to finish. Besides, what is mythology if not a manifestation of psychological processes?

Anyway, I don't think it's a myth that wolverines are freaking dangerous animals.