Animation Source Forums

The first one, because;

*It was made by Amblimation
*It has Steele in it
*It has Star in it
*Balto was voiced by Kevin Bacon
*There were no singing animals

Though that is just my personal opinion.

I like all three of them, but Balto 1 is still my favorite.

I put in Baltos 1 and 2, they're my favorite and a cut above Wings of Change.

On a side note, I really don't understand peoples' problem with musical numbers in animated films.
If they're included, it actually means that the creators put a little more effort into the film with writing the music and words for the songs, as well as getting performers to do them and record them. This also means that they had to set the animation to the music.
(I'm predicting someone's rebuttal to this will include "maybe they should have spent more time on the animation rather than the songs.)

Now I understand where you're coming from in a way, as the first Balto did not have music numbers in it, but the addition of them in the straight-to-video sequels really should not be that big of a deal to some people.

The issue with songs in movies is that something makes the producers think, "Oh, this is a kids' movie, so let's put songs in to make it a musical." That's not the case. Balto 1 was very "mature" for being a kids' movie, and one of the factors there was the lack of songs. I understand Disney movies and others, but is there really a need for a character to just randomly start singing when there are more important points at hand?

The only songs that seemed out of place in WQ were Taking You Home and The Grand Design. (Muru's, as cheesy as they were, were acceptable considering that he was essentially a spirit, and the Alaskan mythology related to spirits often include songs). Taking You Home, as much as it fit the scene, didn't really need to have lyrics because the background music did enough to complement the scene. On the other hand, The Grand Design was pointless. Have the wolves argue--you can still get a G rating.

The same with WOC: the songs were pointless. I understand that they needed to give an introduction to Stella's relationship with Boris, but really? Penguins? In ALASKA?? We already know that she likes him and he's crushing on her. Don't shove a horrible song in our faces. And You Don't Have To Be A Hero, while it was admittedly pretty nice, was also unnecessary. Change the plot a bit, make Jenna inspire Balto like she did in the first movie. She (or Rosy, depending on the point of view) inspired him to go out to find the serum, and this is pretty much the same thing besides being hundreds of miles shorter.

So your problem with it is that it takes away a sense of seriousness in the story?
Well I can tell you that Wings of Change didn't need the help of musical numbers to not be serious.

There is literally only one or two serious scenes in the film: the first being when Balto is pleading for the sled dogs to help him rescue Duke and the other when Balto is saved by them.
When Balto discovers where Duke is from Muk and Luk, he doesn't race out into the wilderness to rescue him because the pilot is dying, oh no. He takes his ***** sweet time going to ask others to help and then just having a pleasant adventure along the way, all of it in a joking fashion. You'd think he would keep a serious demeanor and pressure the others along after his clash with Kodi beforehand, but no.
The film completely lacks any sense of peril, consequence, or a stress for time in the film. There's barely a mention of a "we need to hurry, he's going to die if we don't find him soon". Notice that none of this even came into play anywhere near a musical number, or in other words the musical numbers weren't placed where things were meant to be serious in the first place.

At least Wolf Quest was dramatic for a far greater span of time than Wings of Change, and strangely enough when characters were in more and less immediate danger than Duke.
Plus the musical numbers fit a lot better than those of Wings of Change, I don't know what your problem is with them.

So you're saying it wasn't serious when Balto almost gives up hope of racing and Jenna has to convince him to be strong for Kodi? Anyway, I never said the songs in WQ didn't fit the scene. They fit very nicely--they were just unnecessary.

The producers made the movie less serious because it was supposed to apply to a younget audience (namely little kids). And when was the last time you saw a kid sit through something like Apollo 13 without losing boredom halfway through? They needed to keep the kids' attention, and the best way to do that is to cut back on the amount of "serious" scenes.

And he didn't rush out immediately because he needed help in the first place. It would be better if he arrived just in time to save him than if he came hours in advance, was too weak to pull Duke, and lost consciousness and they both died anyway. You've seen the movie, I assume--he and Duke would have fallen off the cliff if Kodi hadn't come when he did. So both Duke's and Balto's lives were saved because he took that extra time to try to get help. It just took that much time for Kodi to get it through his thick skull that he needed to help his father and that his job wasn't that important.
So he carries the mail, so what? Maybe now he can be a medical dog once the plane takes over the mail!!

The saying, "You can't beat the classics" applies to this for me. Balto I is my favorite film of them all

The first one is the best one. The first movie is always the best movie.

In your opinion. That is not a statement of fact. It depends upon the individual viewer's tastes. Clarify that next time.

Couldn't agree more, on very rare occasions are sequels equal or better than the original.

I agree with the two of you. I feel like this happens because most people will watch a sequel of a movie if they really liked the first one, so it's up to the sequel to equally as good if not better, and most of the time, it does not live up to the hype!

In order of how I like them, Balto 1, Balto 3, Balto 2.