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Since it's now forever in-character for Kodi to be easily swayed or mislead, I have to agree that Dusty is the smartest on the team. I'm not saying that because she's a girl, I mean cuz nothing she does can be deemed as stupid.

Maybe the dumbest thing she's done was jinx the team. But other than that, suggesting that Balto and Kodi want to help the enemy isn't a dumb thing to think. The team was right for accusing Duke of stealing their jobs. Because he was, despite his intentions. Whatever his intentions, all the dogs know is that he's the reason they were almost homeless.

The entire team shared the same opinions at the same time, and even changed them at the same time. But I have to say, Dusty is only smarter by comparison. Ralph and Kirby think before they speak and doesn't really redeem them. I don't think either are idiots, but they do have moments.

Really? i didn't look well enough into Dusty. I need to re-review.

I didn't see that sort of implication from that glance. I really don't think Kirby would have hurt Kodi simply because he disagreed. That look was nothing more than a peer-pressure sort of glance...the same thing Kirby said later "you're either with us or against us". And yet, when Kodi puts the pressure back on each of the teammates (well, the three speaking characters anyway...we never seem to see the two wheel dogs except when the team is hitched), did you notice the the look of sad, shameful guilt Kirby offered up? Doesn't seem like the same character that would "hurt" Kodi simply for disagreeing with him.


That's you, and that's your interpretation. While that's fine, not everyone is the same, dude. I might get mad at my father (especially when I was a teenager) whenever he confronted me in front of my friends (which wasn't much), but I certainly wouldn't dislike him for that. He's my father. We're family. Family comes first...always.


As I said, he did that only after he got an earful from his mother. Before that, he was walking around with the team (even immediately before that) as if the matter were settled in that discussion in the boiler room. I think that's pretty evident.


Whomever said that everybody's perfect? Certainly I didn't. In fact, it seems to me that I was agreeing with a percentage of those who felt that Kodi is far from perfect. Do I dislike the character? No. But under the parameters of this topic of yours, the way I see it, Dusty trumps him.


I would refer you back to my reply above, concerning Jenna's reprimand of Kodi.


I have no intentions of changing my mind. I think that, if someone votes and/or indicates their reasoning, that should be left to stand as-is and respected. There should be no attempts to sway anyone. If, during the course of the conversation, they make that decision on their own, that is one thing. But to ask someone (me, in this case) if they have changed their minds, or intend to (and thus, intend to change their vote) is wrong.

Well, this is difficult to do, especially since the team didn't really have as much focal time as I wished they would. Unfortunately, one must grade each dog individually and figure it out from there... so here I go again...!

And I apologize. I like linking to TV Tropes when describing Balto characters. It makes commenting FUN, darn it.



Kodi [Kodiak]: He's the town hero's son, following in Balto's paws by wanting to become lead dog. He's young, but I agree that he does take his job seriously, knowing that it's important for the dogs [it's their jobs, duh.] and to the people that own and care for them [See above pic - this little shot of the boy hugging Kodi during "Everything Flies" seems to clench it for me.]. However, the race win against the bush plane made him seem cocky... at least until Balto and Jenna knocked him down a peg and made him think. At first, he was being pressured by his peers to not believe his father... but soon, he stands up for the true meaning of his job, not what the others think about it. That serious turning point makes him a fast learner, both in the harness and out. Definitely The Hero of the team in the long haul.

And the others... at least the important ones that speak:


Kirby: He's a know-it-all - that's how I see him. From some of the lines he says, it seems almost like he's rather stuck-up and has way too much pride for himself. He may be a co-leader on the team, but Kodi's got more smarts than he'll ever have. Sadly, he's The Lancer of the team - not truly worthy of being The Smart Guy... or even the Leader.

[Note: I will always believe that The Leader is Balto's position, even though he's not a permanent part of the team. He's a good mix of Type III and IV in the link.]

Dusty: The only girl of the team... obviously The Chick. I will agree with how intelligent she can be. Being the first to realize that Kodi may be right [by how she reacted to his walking-out] did it for me, even though she thought he was switching sides earlier in the scene. At least she changed her mind quickly.

Ralph: The Big Guy in the team. He seems to be a loveable sort of dumb, but even he's a part of the Kirby-group. He's self-centered, thinking of himself a lot.

The Wheel Dogs: They have no name, but they also never voice their opinions. Maybe they are the dumbest for not even bothering to follow the others in the team. Obvious Tagalong Kids with no real purpose except to make the team bigger and run smoother. The original Balto film did that too with the rest of Steele's team [other than Star, Kaltag and Nikki].

So yeah... Kodi and Dusty, in my opinion, are the closest to being the smartest. It's nice to see a smart girl for a change, and Kodi is learning, but smart to a point. Is one smarter than the other? I haven't a clue... Had the movie been more about the team and their problems, I'm sure the personalities would have been further developed and things may have been a different outcome.

- Juuchan17

I have to wonder whether intelligence was really the point of the story. But if intelligence can be evaluated by one's ability to see a problem and solve it by reason, then I would say Kodi. He was the first one to conclude that being on the team was about more than getting from Point A to Point B and back. Of course, one might consider his upbringing a factor in that equation, but let's face it: that's a factor in any IQ test anyway.

But... he didn't solve it by reason xD He thought up reasons AFTER both parents nagged at him. Yes, he's a teenager, but it's been established that teenagers aren't smart. And if being against Duke is considered "stupid" then you might want to reform an opinion on the entire team altogether. And are we talking academically smart here or street smart? Because comparing to Dusty, who said nor did anything stupid to tally up next to the boys, Kodi would still be technically lacking in both.

Academic smarts would allow him to see the problem for himself rationally without having to be nagged at. Street smarts would give him better reasoning to be against Duke other than "WAAHHH MY JOB".

Forgive me if we're working from different dictionaries, as it were. As I understand the term of academic smarts, that would be the ability to accquire and organize knowledge. I was thinking of this in ters of how it reflected in his work ethic - he knew people relied on the mail, and perhaps he knew that there was competition for the job (not from the plane just yet, but from other sled teams), and therefore it was necessary to do a good job. And street smarts, I believe, could fairly be defined as the ability to figure out how to get what one wants; how to turn a situation to one's own advantage (if I may use classical literature as a guide, think of Tom Sawyer tricking the other kids into whitewashing the fence for him).

Thus, in a matter of strict "academic" intelligence, he would have to be considered ahead of the rest of his team; unless they or their musher were under some kind of contract, they would have had to know that there was danger of losing their jobs if they didn't measure up. And even if they had been under contract, contracts expire, and one must perform appropriately while under them to ensure their renewal. Thus Dusty's remark, "What are they going to do, fire us?" and the rest of the team's agreement shows either blatant ignorance or the inability to process info that was readily available. Either way, Kodi was way ahead of the rest.

As for street smarts, if the definition of knowing how to turn a situation to one's own benefit stands, then any kind of selflessness would fly in the face of it anyway. The only way that helping Duke would have been "street smart" would have been based on the expectation of a reward, which is not selflessness.

Jinxing the team was probably the dumbest thing Dusty did.

But I suppose a solitary moment of ignorance would be stupider than being easily swayed by your peers, openly mocking your father's views in front of your friends, and disregarding your parents wishes would completely wipe out any redeeming qualities in one's intelligence.

There's a difference between morality and intelligence. There have been some downright brilliant criminals, even terrorists and serial killers, and there are any number of well-meaning people who are downright foolish. And while it's a valid point that surrendering to peer pressure is at best a hindrence to real intelligence (because really all one learns that way is how to parrot), it's also worth pointing out that since intelligent people are noted for breaking the mold of their forerunners, it's a fallacy of logic to say that rejecting what one's parents say in favor of what one's peers say is, in and of itself, stupid. After all, Galileo's parents probably told him that the sun orbited the earth. The real basis upon which one might attack his choice to side against Duke (initially) would be moral, not intellectual. Having said that, the times when he was the most like himself - the honest, sincere sled dog who wanted more than anything else to be the best he could - was when he used his head, used reason in other words, and stood up to his team. His finest moments, in other words, were when he excercised intelligence backed by morality. But his argument to his team would not have been nearly as powerful if he had not used intelligence to point out their faulty position.

I don't really understand how Kirby and Ralph is the smartest. If there was a poll on who on Kodi's team is the most ignorant, then Kirby and Ralph would make sense. I seriously don't know between Kodi and Dusty, but I'm leanng more toward Kodi.

*Yawn* If intelligence was based on peoples' morals, we'd have alot more stupid people in the world than what's already accounted for.

You seem to have missed the point of my post. My point is that you are calling Kodi stupid based on decisions he made that were moral (or amoral) in nature, regardless of their intellectual sensibility.

Cat- Hey! That's MY opinion!

Kodi is the only one that is serious about the job. Kirby is the ironic one in the group. Ralph is the loudest, and he's a little bit meaner than the others. Dusty is the most open and understanding in the group.