Animation Source Forums

I like the character designs in the original film the best. I think Amblimation's styles are better than the Universal Studio's styles.

Since the first movie is my favorite movie ever, I prefer his figure in the first movie over the others. There were a few instances in Balto 2 and 3 where I thought he looked strange in the way his figure was designed.

Here are some examples:






Plus, since there were new animators and a cheaper budget for both movies, his figure looked completely different in WQ and WoC than it did in the first movie, which I'm more used to. I sometimes find myself asking "Why does he look like that?" at some points.

The only problem i can see here is how in the first two pics Baltos eyeballs are not yellow, as they are in the 1st and 3rd movie. How they drew Aleus eyes with the yellow in them and not Baltos I can sense some laziness on the art departments part here. As for how hes looking I think its perfectly fine.

I just feel that there were a little too many differences in his character build in the sequels that caused him to look very different than he did in the first movie. Plus, the postures and positions he's in in the attached pics seem a little strange compared to the positions he was in in the first movie. When you start having a character's features and design looking different, there's obviously going to be people that won't exactly love the new design, and I'm one of those people. If the same animations and drawings from the first movie were used to design him in the sequels, he would have maintained more of his original figure.

He may not be as thin as he was in the first movie. I believe the expressions he has on his face were the animators/designers way to show how he felt about those situations.

I didn't really mind either 'version' of Balto. I could still tell who it was, and that was okay with me.
There was one thing that still bothers me to this day: When they show Balto running in the beginning of WQ, it looked like he was going sideways. That's always bugged me.

What bugs me, in WoC in the scene where he is running down the street, and Stella flies up beside him, his running motion doesnt line up with how fast the buildings are moving, and the street looks huge, even though its not supposed to be that big.


@thread
and I dont prefer one or the other so long as its Balto......

The musical numbers bug me in WQ and WoC (I often find myself fast-forwarding through those parts). Maybe the movies wouldve been more epic if that was the case. Universal, Balto isnt a Disney franchise, no need to imitate musical numbers, okay? I believe the shot was tilted sideways in WQ to help add suspense.

As for the thread, the first will always have a place over the other two.

Again, it depends on which version of Balto we're talking about.
Balto needs to be defined as a character before we can decide which appearance suits him best. He has three different personalities (perhaps two if you pair WQ and WoC together), and one appearance does not work for the other(s).

If by Figure you mean both appearance and personality, I liked how he evolved in both regards.
I wasn't expecting a straight-to-video sequel to get his appearance perfectly right like some other people.
I also don't get angry at a low-budget film's animation errors; it's kind of greedy to hate a film for not having enough money to have the right tools and resources to conform to what you want. I'm sure they would have liked more to work with too.

The "camera" was tilted--the motion of the ground didn't line up with the way Balto was facing when he ran.

I noticed that too. WQ's Balto figure was very strange but, hey, what can you do?