#balto trilogy

[waeirfaahl]

Scrapped Dream Sequence in Balto

Small bonus to this post. According to Hans Bacher, in very early stages of production Balto should have a dream on his search for the lost sled team. I.e. chronologically it would happen a bit after the reveal with the coffins and before bringing Boris to the hospital with sick Rosie and other children on the early morning. Hans Bacher added this idea and compared this scene with the dancing elephants from Dambo 1941. Hans Bacher chose the Inuit style for visualizing and he made these awesome drawings. They depict owl, bears, wolves, fox, goose (most likely Boris), reindeers, also some forest segments, where the one such drawing gives impression of "pup's POV from its den, looking at distant mountain and snow winds". And certain drawings also give impression of a hunt and dangers in wilderness.

Too bad it was scrapped, because the producers thought it would make the pacing slower. How Hans Bacher mentioned, if it was approved, they'd develop this idea further, so it would show Balto's backstory, fears and joys.

[waeirfaahl]

Her tastes run more to wolf

Once I told in details about how the original movie hints Balto's mother as a husky and Balto's father as a wolf. Simon Wells, the director of the original film, says in 2015 interview that he always considered Balto's mother as a husky and Balto's father as a wolf, and that Boris found Balto in Nome as an outcast pup and adopted him: "I think the idea was that Boris had found Balto as an outcast pup, and had stayed in Nome to look after him, so not flown South with the other geese. There is a little indication of Boris being a bit of an outcast too in the small scene on the boat where they see the geese flying overhead, and Balto asks him about it [...] I always kinda assumed that Balto's father was a wolf, and that his mother had been a working sled dog. (There's probably a Romeo and Juliet-style prequel in that.)"

Looking at this information (and certain details we'll reach later), Balto's husky mother was from Nome. She was born in Nome and lived in Nome. And looking at this information, Balto himself was born in Nome and never lived among wolves. He never had a father, who was unknown wolf. Probably, she returned to Nome due to the death of her wolf mate and then gave birth to Balto, but after some time she herself died, so orphaned Balto was alone until Boris adopted him and stayed in Nome with him, living in the ship and raising this stray half-breed puppy as his own son. I had my own thoughts on what story could stay behind it. Plus, since Balto's mother was a working sled dog, she wasn't fast enough for running in sled races, but still fast and strong enough for transporting mail or supplies to Nome. In some senses it can be a hommage to the real Balto, who was a working sled dog and never participated in races, who was considered slow specifically in contrast to champion race dogs, but still was strong and fast enough, and he became the leader of the team for the first time only in serum run of 1925 and successfully led his team through deadly areas in blinding snowstorm at night. I would even argue that exactly she inspired Balto to run in sled teams, she supported young Balto and taught and trained him to run in the same way how Balto will support and teach Kodi later to run fast. But, unfortunately, Balto spent little time with her, so his only parent figure became Boris, who also was the dad he never had in his life.

Here I told in details about how Steele's taunting is actually a dirty joke toward Balto's husky mother for her love to a wolf, and thematically it is the same insulting about "tastes toward wolf" he told to Jenna after she rejected him. And I told about this for like 13+ years, even way before the first interview with Simon Wells. And what's a surprise! In recent 2025 interview (starts on 3:25:12) Simon Wells mentioned the intention of Steele's line about "message for your mother" as exactly about Balto's husky mom that fell in love with a wolf: "That was the sort of intention of that line is that Balto's mother obviously got out and... not to mix metaphor, but catted about with some wolf out there. So, yes, the line "I've got message for your mother" and then howling like a wolf are clearly meant to impugn Balto's parentage."

And these aspects gave me certain thoughts. First of all, Balto is the son of exactly a working sled dog husky, not a race sled dog, i.e. not some purebred champion with tons of medals and prizes. And the movie demonstrates exactly sled races as the most prestigious, popular and worshipped ones, hence sled dog driver champions are popular and adored. And their dogs, who run in races and win, are worshipped and adored by others as well, by both humans and other dogs. Especially Steele is at the top of this prestigious, popular and worshipped sport, so he already wins 4 years and boasts with his golden champion collars, he is obsessed with this, with tropheys, with popularity, with being adored and being viewed as the purebred, fastest and perfect champion. Simply saying, Steele's arrogance toward Balto and his mother can be not only due the fact of Balto's talents and nobility and Balto's wolf heritage, but also in social status — Steele's ancestors and parents are most likely champions of sled races, purebred and rich in a sense, while Balto's father is unknown wild animal and Balto's mother is just a working sled dog, i.e. not fast enough for running in races and hence not purebred enough for making some legacy, she's a "slow scrub dog", whose only place is in "lower ranked workers, who just bring food, goods, supplies or mail", and who is also a "harlot with tastes toward wolves", but in fact Balto's husky mother and all working freigh sled dogs deserve much more respect and appreciation, because they actually do important for citizens of Nome in contrast to champion race dogs, who get exhausted by their owners just for fun and rivalry, for prizes and joy. And Steele's musher spoils Steele and at the same time he subtly abuses him, if Steele doesn't jump to his highest standarts and expectations, what also parallels with Seppala, who didn't respect freigh and working sled dogs, but was only interested in fastest sled dogs for sled races and for creating perfect breed.

Second, in the original movie we don't see female huskies and malamutes in sled teams. There were only males in sled teams, while females are either strays or pets. And females, who show interest toward wolves, are being shamed for this, what we could see on Jenna's example. But Jenna is a badass, so she shut up both Steele and her two female friends.

But in Balto 3: Wings of Changes, i.e. after Balto's heroic deed, we see Dusty in a sled team, and although she is in the working sled team, which brings mail, she and her team participate in race against Duke and his plane, i.e. she participates in a race for fast dogs. With these details we can notice interesting implication — as if after Balto's husky mom had a pup with a wolf, humans stopped to use females in sled races and even working teams for preventing a birth of wolf-hybrids. So, there's also some kind of a layer about, how certain group forbids women to participate in certain jobs for "allegedly their safety", but in fact for "preventing affair with men of different race, hence to prevent ruining purity and decency, to prevent a pure blood from becoming mixed, dirty and unholy, hence to prevent a lady becoming not innocent and pure" or whatever.

And recalling the metaphorical White Wolf in the original movie, he becomes the perfect symbol on many deep layers. First, the White Wolf is a symbol of Balto's father, who is a wolf, and from who Balto inherited his wolf blood, the paternal side of Balto's family Balto rejected, denied in himself and was ashamed of and scorned for, but now embraced and became proud of. Second, the White Wolf is a symbol of Balto's true self, his wolf self, self-discovery and self-acceptance, the realization and embracing own putiry, innocence and nobility. All his life Balto thought he is a dog, he wanted to be a dog, and all his life Balto lived with view of himself as some worthless abomination. But now he finally sees the light, the nobility and purity in himself, in the fact that he is a wolf, he finally learned to love himself. The White Wolf is Balto himself, the one Balto ran away from and didn't see inside of himself. Third, the White Wolf is a symbol of the pure union and love between the husky and the wolf. All humans and dogs viewed Balto as a mangy creature of shame, but now he realizes that he is the innocent and kind result of a pure love, the child of two worlds. Fourth, the White Wolf is a symbol of Balto's mother, who is a sled dog husky by birth and by blood, but a wolf by spirit. She is a dog with a soul of a wolf, who fell in love with a wolf. Some kind of a metaphor also for free will and free, brave and strong spirit.

So, finding and accepting his true self, his wolf self, and also rescuing Rosie and kids through his journey, Balto not only becomes a hero, but also restores the honor of his parents, especially his husky mother. And also he, himself being a wolf, also falls in love with a kind, open-minded and brave purebred husky dog against all prejustice.

He changes everything in Nome, he changes the views of dogs and humans toward him and toward wolves.

[waeirfaahl]

No Steele — no problems

Some sort of addition and logical continuation of this, this and this posts. It is something I wanted to discuss in details, so maybe there are people, who think the same, but whose voices weren't heard. There's the one very weird angle about the original film and its fans — for some reason everyone is totally okay with Balto's idiotic pacifism-passiveness to death, hits and attempts of murder and with Steele's lame, undeserved and anti-climatic "defeat", as if everythnig is fine, and there's nothing morbid. And if you dare even to doubt in it, they will look at you like at some cruel traitor and heretic and attack you like some religious fanatics, over-confidently and blindly (dogmatically) saying you're wrong and immature and stuff, and that Balto is "too good and kind to hurt someone, he is saint or whatever" (excuse me, but from what Care Bears creche these people went?! seriously, they all mourn on how "poor Balto gets beaten by horrible Steele", but once you point out that the protagonist should dodge attacks and kick his ass, they are like "Whaaat?! No way! You are bad for saying so!"). I don't know, it is some form of gaslighting or some similar crap for sure. Am I only one, who sees that there's something wrong?!

Seriously, what's wrong with people, who fanatically defend the antitoxine fight scene (and Balto's stupid behavior beyond comprehension) and Steele, and what's wrong with Balto here, so he allows Steele to harm and to kill him and wants to befriend with this psychopath?! Every excuse I heard from such people doesn't stand up to any criticism or logic. I can easily debunk this nonsense in order the most loud ones: 1. "Balto wanted to keep his strength and to not be exhausted" — nonsense. Balto would keep it, if he at least dodged the attacks, exhausting Steele. With all Steele's attacks and hits he was more exhausted and weakened. 2. "Balto didn't want to get wounds, he wanted to survive just like wild animals do, avoiding fights and making peace in a pack." — nonsense. Balto got wounds and hits, when Steele bit him, and it happened exactly because Balto allowed him to do this. Even animals, if there's no other way to resolve the conflict and avoid a fight, brutally put their aggressive pack member in his place and either banish or kill. 3. "Balto didn't want to slow down the rescue operation, so if he fought, he'd make things worse" — nonsense with shade of victimblaming. Exactly Steele already severely slowed it down way before Balto's arrival and now continues to do this, also killing his owner and teammates with cold and hunger. 4. "Balto wanted to prove to the dogs he is kind and good and can be trusted" — nonsense. These idiots were betting and sadistically giggled, when Steele kicked him. And Balto saw and knew what they did, earlier they participated in bullying and bullied him as well. 5. "Balto wanted to remind them about the serious duty aka saving lifes of sick children" — nonsense. Balto stated clearly that he needs exactly the medicine for saving Rosie and others, to help the team is a secondary thing in fact — it was their wish to go with him or to stay. 6. "Balto wanted to awake the dogs' nobility, so they will see his goodness and Steele's badness" — for f*ck's sake, they all knew Steele's monstrous nature all along! These hypocrites knew Steele's a monster way before Balto and before the beginning of the movie! They hated him all along! Both Steele's own team and the rival team he kicked from the race and harmed earlier! And looking at the boiler room near the finale of the film, they easily kicked him! All this time they could put Steele on his place, but tolerated and swallowed his crap, participating in bullying, until they found out he's a liar *applausing*, and none of them begged Balto for forgiveness!

No wonder, why his mother chose to love a wolf... And Balto isn't smart, if he craved to be accepted by these scumbags... 7. "Balto wasn't brave and confident enough to fight Steele, he was afraid of Steele" — nonsense. Balto was ready to fight Steele in the alley twice (firstly for protecting Boris, later against Steele and his gang after they mocked on his mother for mating with a wolf), in the boiler room and near the finish line, he wasn't afraid of Steele. His line "Just leave him out of this, Steele!" blatantly states Balto isn't afraid of him and is ready to fight, he challenges Steele for a fight.

8. "Balto didn't want to escalate the conflict, because Steele could order to the dogs to attack Balto, so Balto had no chances against several dogs" — nonsense. First of all, the movie gives no visual or verbal hints of Steele's potential order for attack or any desire from the dogs' side to tear Balto apart at the first bark of Steele. Second, at best only Nikki and Kaltag would participate in the fight. Third, in the alley scene Balto demonstrated he was ready to fight four dogs, implying, he would easily defeat Steele and his three lackeys, he was fearless, and he's faster than all of them. And he is f*cking half-wolf, so he is obviously stronger than all of them. And Balto wasn't afraid to attack the grizzly bear with high risk to get fatal wounds into chest and stomach from the bear's big and sharp claws.

9. "But the main thing is to save the children, not to defeat some villains! They're just obstacles on the hero's path! Balto wanted only to save Rosie and the kids, the ending is great in that! That's the victory of Balto, not over Steele!" — so what?! For saving lifes you are not allowed to defend yourself, your own life, and to defeat and punish those, who try to take away those lifes?! If Balto wants to save Rosie and the kids, he himself has to be alive and healthy, hence he should never allow Steele to attack and to hurt him, he should never allow Steele to attack the medicine box. If Balto died and the box was destroyed, then everything would be lost. And why to add a villain in the first place?! Wild animals, deadly epidemy and hazardous cold weather are enough for this, there's no need in a villain, a villain (especially such type like Steele) has no reason to exist by this logic. 10. "But keeping the villain alive and abandoned by others makes the movie less cliched and more family-friendly and warming especially near the end! And it makes the protagonist kind and good, since he didn't hurt anyone! This scene shows Balto's true kind nature and selfless care for others and Steele's bad nature and egocentrism!" — extremely stupid argument. First of all, the movie is already the drama about kids deaths in epidemy and xenophoby/speciecism. Second, the antagonist commits atrocities through entire movie. Third, a main character doesn't become worse or "less good/kind/nice", if he/she defends own life and health and fights evil for protecting others and punishing this evil. Fourth, by this logic let's change the TLK 1994 ending for more "family-friendly vibe in the end", let's not allow Simba to fight Scar and keep him "saint pacifist" in the same way Balto was, let's not kill Scar, but just collectively leave him in his cave to sit and think on his bad behavior like planning and then murdering his brother, attempt of murdering his nephew, usurping power and also using lies, propaganda and revanchism for using hyenas as his weapons for keeping this power, tyranny etc. WTF?! Do you understand how stupid this is?! Seems to me, such Steele defenders are either "I can fix him, I am for all good against of all evil, we don't have to stop evil by evil, or there will be more evil" thinkers or bullies themselves, who don't want for their kind to get some punishment for their atrocities, or just "high ground moral" hypocrites, which always ignore pain and suffering of victims, but start to yell and punish these victims, when they finally brutally punish their tormentors and bullies (and for a victim it is totally justified — horrible people absolutely deserve this, I see nothing wrong with brutal beating, mental and physical breaking and smashing various abusers, tormentors, bullies etc, because these critters understand only own language), saying "But you are a good boy/girl! You don't have to be like them! You have to overgrow and forgive them! You are higher than them! You're bigger person! They are just playing! It is the problem in you, they rightfully call out your sins! How dare you to defend yourself and fight back! How dare you to show negative emotions! Or else you are bad just like them or even worse! To be nice is not a being weak!" and all other disgusting crap, full of double standards. Remember once and for all — you don't become like an abuser/bully/tormentor, when you brutally smack and punish such bully/abuser/tormentor, protecting and defending yourself and/or innocents. You become like a bully/abuser/tormentor or even worse, when you bully, abuse, hurt other innocents. Period.

The only more or less interesting argument is that "It is cooler that the villain becomes the reason of own demise or defeat, and it is funny how Steele digs grave for himself without even realizing that". In some aspects it kinda makes sense, because if he accepted Balto's help, either running with him in pair like two lead dogs or just following him, humans still would consider exactly Steele as the main hero simply because he is the older and more experienced lead dog that ran in many races before in contrast to younger and inexperienced Balto. Plus, well, his musher would praise exactly him, because he didn't see, who actually led the team. Same for the version, if Balto ran in the team since the beginning, i.e. if he was allowed to run after he won the run in Nome. But everything else makes zero sense. it is a bad writing, when a protagonist does nothing for self-defense or fight or opposing to evil, and where every obstacle disappears by itself, without any effort from a main character, as if he is under insulting divine plot armor. Like, then why should I relate to him, if everyone solves a problem for him, and if he swallows all crap?! And if the villain does everything for own undoing, then why the movie isn't called Steele, which by this logic is the main character with arc of falling into madness and lack of morality?!

But I tell that again. There should be no suicidal empathy, there should be no tolerance to evil. If someone hurts you or tries to take away your life, if someone torments and hurts others physically and with really serious verbal insultings, you are fully allowed to defend yourself and punish such person, smash their faces etc. You have no moral obligation to be kind to those, who tries and wants to hurt and to destroy you. Simply saying — goodness has to be with fists. Not everyone deserves your kindness, and not everyone can change and admit own mistakes. And Steele is exactly this irredeemable abomination, which deserves the most brutal beating and even death. He always was this abomination. And he should be killed without any mercy. But we'll talk about it in details later. Speaking about the interviews with the director. One of his depictions of Steele was "Never having had to try very hard, he is not ready for adversity when it confronts him, and his grip on right and wrong goes away as soon as he is rattled." Actually, even before the infamous antitoxine scene Steele already demonstrated the behavior of a very dangerous and unhinged sadist and psychopath with tendencies to hurt with risk of death, and certain his acts toward Balto can be considered as an attempt of murder, not just verbal and physical bullying or abuse. 1. The opening scene with sled races fully demonstrates and even cements already in the beginning Steele's evil nature, confirming, he was always evil — for getting all glory and victory, for staying the adored champion and hero to his death, Steele will hurt and even kill every potential rival. Seriously, although at first glance it looks like just an attempt to frighten and intimidate, but it is pretty clear that Steele was ready to bite and hence to injury the dog from the rival team, the dog dodged by luck, but still was scared.

Really, look at this. He was aiming specifically to bite his paw. The dog dodged it just by a miracle.

And, well, due to this bite trick the rival team, the dogs and their musher, they stumble, get tangled in the harness, fall at high speed, crash and knock each other down, including overturning the sled with the musher, which could cause them all to get fractures and injuries even from the runners of the sled.

And the rival musher saw it, and looking at his reaction, Steele does it not the first time, he did that before. 2. Later Steele uses the same bite trick near Balto in the Rosie's hat scene.

Balto's fast reaction saved Balto's life and health, so he perfectly dodged Steele's attack, jumping toward Rosie's head (where this friggin reaction was in the grizzly bear scene and in the antitoxine fight scene, I ask?!), or else Steele would bite him and hence made serious wound on Balto's paw, Balto would fall and possibly crash into something (humans or boxes), getting serious wounds.

Wow, at this time Steele was aiming to bite in neck or head/face...

In fact, if Steele bit him, Balto could fall under paws of Steele and his dogs and also under the sled itself, so Balto really had the risk to die.

As well as Steele's team could be injured as well. 3. In the alley scene Steele throws a rock into Balto's head, so Balto also gets thrown away to those planks and beams.

It could cause a serious wound of especially head for sure. 4. And then the smashing paw scene. By doing that, Steele literally puts Balto in grave danger, because after Balto's unintentional growl (well, for some reason, the moron musher heard a growl instead of a whine and didn't notice Steele's aggressiveness and malice) at the human all townfolks of Nome would decide to shoot Balto.

"He can't be trusted! He is half-wolf! You saw his teeth! He could turn on me!" = "Let's shoot this dangerous wild animal for showing aggression toward not only a dog, but to a human!" 5. Then this jump. If Balto didn't dodge, Steele would jump on him and hurt him, not just break the tree.

So, yes, Steele made attempts of murder even before the infamous antitoxine scene. 6. Then this infamous antitoxine fight scene I so hate. These two hits and one bite (I remind, before this Balto got powerful hits from the bear with risk of deep and fatal wounds from big and sharp claws and then the bear almost crushed his chest = risk for broken bones and ribs etc, and he wasn't afraid of it, and now Steele hits him into these same body places the bear hit him previously).

And here we go! At first the attacking the medicine box

and then the two confident, clear and blatant attempts of murder he doesn't even hide anymore! Both the throwing Balto to the ice rock, so he gets head injury and gets knocked out for a while, and then pulling Balto to the edge of the cliff for throwing him away to his death (and only Jenna's friggin bandana like deus ex machina saves the day and Balto). And when Balto lied moveless, Steele sadistically laughed, thinking Balto is dead. I repeat it again, already two open attempts of murder!

What was in the heads of the filmmakers, if they forbid Balto to fight or at least to dodge these attacks in such conditions?! What was in their heads, so they force Balto to act like a holy idiot, who would be ready not only to turn his other cheek for another punch, but even to open his own butt for Steele by this logic, so he apparently has a crush on Steele, not Jenna?! And what's in heads of those fans, which defend Steele and this scene, as if everything is right?! Am I only one, who sees how morbid and f*cked up this is?! What's in heads of those, who find Steele not being brutally punished and killed as a good story decision?! No one living soul will give even a glimpse of normal explanation! Inhale and exhale...

Like, the only thing that comes to my mind is that in the antitoxine scene Balto took too seriously the words of Boris from the alley scene "Don't look at him. Don't listen to him. Live your own life." and hence surprised and confused Steele with the lack of any reaction at Steele's bites and hits. Like, some sort of "Don't react at provocation, or else you'll make things worse, because a bully wants exactly a reaction from you for own joy. Just ignore it, let it go, leave it in past, don't waste your emotions at them, everything will be fine, they'll destroy themselves", and the movie tried to hint that in the scenes, how Balto reacts at Steele's provocation with wrong name, Steele's harrassing toward Boris and insultings toward Balto's mother, and after Balto's anger at this the bullying becomes worse, then the provocation in the finish line after Balto's victory in the running and Balto's words to Steele about being the fastest dog that won, and because Balto made Steele to notice him, things became worse. However, it doesn't work. Like, even if Balto ignored Steele's teasings in the alley scene, Steele with his gang would follow Balto and Boris, throwing rocks and snow at them and then even ruin their ship and harrass Boris and the bear cubs, as well as in the finish scene even if Balto ignored Steele and hence was accepted by the musher into the sled team, no matter what Steele'd discover that Balto is in his team, during this day until the evening Steele and his gang would make everything for kicking Balto out from the team. In the antitoxine scene Steele literally would murder Balto, if Jenna's bandana aka deus ex machina didn't untie (also the stupidity with this, 'cause Steele would jump immediately into the abyss no matter what, he wouldn't be able to hold so long on the bandana at all). Such advice from Boris can be useful, if there's only some childish tauntings, but NOT some really serious insultings, real intentional physical harm or even clear and intentional attempts of murder. It is the horrible advice, when someone sadistically hurts you, wounds you and literally tries to murder. In the antitoxine scene Balto should fight back or at least dodge Steele's attacks, preventing any new wounds and stuff and hence exhausting Steele. Period. 7. After the antitoxine scene Steele literally attempts to murder Balto again and also tries to murder own sled team and owner and to destroy the medicine box only for preventing Balto to "steal" Steele's glory and the status of a hero. Yupp, he ruins Balto's trails to path and lures the team to the edge of the mountain, so they all will fall and die and stuff, the medicine won't arrive to Nome, the kids will die. And all this only for keeping own status of the hero and "If I don't bring the medicine, then no one will".

And the cherry on the top of the cake — Steele was there and hid near, Steele watched, how the sled team struggles to not fall, how Balto and the box fall from the mountain, so the team (the musher and the dogs) will freeze to death in snow storm.

Or else why Steele in details told in his "tragic story", how desperate for love and glory Balto grabs the medicine box and falls from the mountain and dies?! Steele planned it and watched it for being sure Balto is dead, the medicine box is destroyed, and the team is lost to cold death with no chances for anything else. Third blatant and nearly successful attempt of murder of already several characters. And all for own and sole and personal glory.

And people still defend him?! Just because he is a dog?! He deserves to be beaten like Spitz in Call of the Wild (either the book or 2020 film) at minimum. I also never understood, why Steele's death was deleted, and why his "defeat" in the final film was so childish, safe, family-friendly and anti-climatic. I always thought it is due to budget limits or whatever. Not to mention that the scene itself still had this stupidity with Balto's over-compassion toward Steele, when dogs order him to give his collar to Balto, and when Steele tries to murder Balto again and then dies, as well as the stupidity that Steele dies due to own stupidity in the comedy style of those students from Tucker and Dale VS Evil movie (for real, Steele just missed during the attack and got caught by the collar). But the answer actually exists. According to Simon Wells, it was the order of Steven Spielberg to keep Steele alive for "symbolism, how Balto and Steele switch roles in the end without very cruel and dark finale". And with all respect to the legends of animation and cinematography, but it is one of the insultingly dumbest story decisions and explanations I ever heard. The aspect I recently realized — in contrast to the deleted scene from the early script with Steele's death, in the final movie nobody among dogs knows that Steele is an attempted murderer. In the end they just conclude "Oh no, you lied to us that everyone tragically died, but you just left them, they are alive!", but that's it, nobody knows what he has done. Do you get it now? Do you finally understand now the full scale of the problem?!

I remind, he tried to murder Balto, his teammates and owner (well, I wouldn't mind, if Steele ate this d*ckhead actually) and also destroy the medicine box for sabotaging the rescue operation, killing the sick kids and getting all glory for himself. As I always told, Steele deserved brutal punishment and beating, not this childish and harmless "leaving alone" crap. And looking at how dangerous and unhinged he is, he should be killed, because even although he is "ignored and left" by all, he can escape to some other town (I mean, travelling alone many miles of wilderness to Nome, he even wasn't eaten by bears, wolves or lynxes somehow), and through lies and manipulation he can become a "king of a village" again, where he'll have followers, who really consider him as the true hero, who ran "the longest and the most hazardous part" of the relay, but was overshadowed, forgotten, robbed, betrayed and wronged, as well as he still is able to do something horrible to Balto and his friends, because, most importantly, humans don't know that Steele is the attempted murderer. Funny, but even his musher doesn't know this. That's why forbidding Balto to beat Steele and keeping Steele alive are the most idiotic decisions in the story. Basically keeping extremely dangerous terrorist with sadistic and homicidal tendencies without punishment and alive, so he can again put the characters in grave danger and return to throne.

I really don't understand bonkers, who defend Steele, the stupid antitoxine fight scene in movie version and hates the idea of his death etc. The reason, why in many Disney movies various villains die, is because they are extremely unhinged and dangerous, and they will never stop until they gain what they want, so to kill them is the only reasonable resolution. Steele is the villain of exactly this extremely dangerous type.

[waeirfaahl]

Never supposed to be white

Once I already mentioned all hints of the White Wolf being a metaphor of Balto's wolf side and self-acceptance, i.e. he wasn't real, but a symbol, in the original movie. And it was Boris the goose, Balto's adoptive father, who always supported Balto and helped him to find and embrace his true self, and exactly his words Balto recalls in the White Wolf scene and decides to find out, who he truly is. I.e. it was Boris, not the White Wolf, who helped Balto to accept his wolf nature. The White Wolf was a symbol of Balto's wolf heritage, his paternal family side and his self-acceptance.

In this post I kinda quickly want to focus on the fact that the original movie never intended Balto's wolf parent to have a white fur, and hence no way the White Wolf could ever be this parent or somehow based on him. I actually doubt that Balto's parents were ever developed in the original movie. Most likely there was only a brief mention of Balto's mother being a sled dog and hinting Balto's father being a wolf in the scripts. As I once pointed out, the original movie itself hinted Balto's mother as a husky and Balto's father as his wolf side. But I can tell for sure that Balto's wolf parent wasn't white, and it wasn't the White Wolf, whether as real/ghost/hallucination/memory. I would tell that Balto's white parent was only Boris.

First, if Balto's wolf parent was white, Balto's fur color would be very light (i.e. light-sandy, light-dusty, light-yellow, light-creamy or light-grey) with dominant white color in fur or even fully white. While his markings on face and paws would and should be dog's, not wolf's. I.e. Balto wouldn't have the mask on his face and long dark markings with short light "socks" on his paws. He'd have either a stripe on nose or fully light face Jenna, Nikki or other sled dogs had, while his markings would be similar to Jenna's, Kaltag's or other sled dogs we see in the original movie. Second, if it allegedly was the mother, then Balto immediately would recognize the White Wolf as his mother and then referred to her this way. As well as she would reveal herself to him immediately and comforted him, also speaking to him. But no, instead Balto is afraid of the White Wolf and is ashamed of himself, so he turns away. Balto doesn't know this silent and pretty indifferent white wolf. If the White Wolf was the father, then it would explain Balto's reaction, because Balto never knew him, but it wouldn't explain, why the father doesn't reveal himself to Balto as such and doesn't comfort him. Plus, if it's Balto's parent, he/she would help him with antitoxine. So, these details debunk the idea of the White Wolf being Balto's parent, whether real or ghost or Balto's hallucination/memory. Third, the script of the movie confirms the White Wolf being a male, not to mention the novel and all production materials, which also depict and state this character as a male. Fourth, in 2015 interview Simon Wells, the director of the original Balto, states the White Wolf as a male, but himself debunks the idea of the White Wolf being Balto's parent, the White Wolf was a metaphor: "Whether the White Wolf is Balto's father or some kind of ephemeral Spirit of the Wolf is deliberately unstated. [...] We wanted to keep it mystical and vague — is this a real event or is it some kind of hallucination that Balto is experiencing? [...] Perhaps the Wolf is a manifestation of Balto's inner voice, telling him to take ownership and use that part of him that he has always been ashamed of. (And by the way, if it was really his dad why didn't the old man help him drag the antitoxin up the cliff?)"

In 2025 interview Simon Wells again (starts on 1:45:30 and then on 2:16:50) points out the White Wolf as deliberately ambiguous, but still points out this character is a male and that Balto's father was a wolf, whether the White Wolf or some another unknown wolf: "[It is like a rebirth.] That was intention. And all thing about the White Wolf it was all deliberately ambiguous. You could see it as a sort of Bambi's father scene "You must get up!". He could be his father, or he could be just a spirit of a wolf that appeared to him. You know, was it a real animal or it was just his imagination. It's not important. it's more to do with Balto accepting that part of him and the strength of that part of him. The thing he's rejected all these years and been embarrassed about all these years is actually his superpower. You know, he always had these stupidly large paws and there's the reason why that's gonna be useful right now. So... is it Balto's mother or father? Is it any relation to Balto at all? is it even a real wolf? it's not important, compared to what it is in Balto's own emotion, own spirit." But I still want to make it clear. None of the scripts ever hint that the White Wolf can be Balto's father or a parent in general. Yet all scripts confirm the White Wolf being a male and hint him to be a symbol, a metaphor, neither real nor a spirit. At the same time the fact that Simon Wells made a parallel with Bambi and his father scene, it is another proof that in the original movie Balto's mother was a husky, while Balto's father was a wolf.

At the same time, for some reason Simon Wells didn't mention the friendly wolf pack Balto encounters in the beginning of the movie. In the scene with the wolf pack certain details hint the possibility of them being Balto's family, so the leader wolf can possibly be Balto's father. But who knows.

In any way, Balto's wolf parent should and would look like these regular grey wolves on the hill. Balto's wolf parent was never intended to be white in the original movie at all. And as I once told, in the original movie either Balto's backstory was never developed or Balto's wolf side came strictly from his father.

[waeirfaahl]

One body, one soul, but thousand faces

Although I made tons of posts with analyzing how morbid the canon of Balto's parents in Balto-2 is (here is the link to them with interviews as well — honestly, it is funny, how your assumptions get a confirmation after decades), I want to tell another thought I had in mind since 2017. Note: it is only about Balto-2 and its canon (ancient white wolf goddess and unknown stray mutt), since in the original Balto 1995 movie the canon was different (you know, wolf-father and working husky-mother). Since there's the ancient Great Spirit, and all other totem animal spirits are his parts, and in ancient times they were mortals, which did some noble deed, so the Great Spirit chose them to become these spirit guardians with certain roles, and in the murals we saw lots of these ancient animal spirits, including the Great Aniu... could it be that not only ancient she-wolf, but also ancient inuit dog was among these totem spirits? And could these parts of the Great Spirit have a cub with each other, being one creature all along? Like, we saw the three wolverine spirits, and they are Aniu's forms and hence the parts of the Great Spirit, so... I guess, no obstacles.

Simply saying, the idea that Balto had the one parent, which is both the mother and the father, both is a wolf and a husky.

Although, would be funny, if Balto was a wolfdog because his mother is a shapeshifter, so his half-breed nature is an accidental side-effect. Not to mention the funny idea that this "unknown father" was himself a wolfdog, but looked like a pure dog and had no idea about being part wolf, since his mother was a dog.

[waeirfaahl]

Mothers and teachers

Small addition to this, this, this, this and this posts, where I analyzed the morbid aspects of Balto-2, Aniu and the husky-father, Aniu's nature and the whole Balto's past and parents in the sequel's version, also analyzing the information from interviews with the writer. For short reminder: Aniu is very ancient white wolf deity, revered and worshipped by wolves, in ancient times she was a regular grey wolf, who loved her pack and pups, but after death she became this white totem spirit aka The Great Mother of all wolves, much later she mated with random stray mutt and left him (i.e. the stray mutt has no idea about Balto's existence and never cared about possibility of offspring), she gave birth to Balto and was with him few time until young Balto accidentally got lost and was adopted by Boris, and all it was a part of a grand design and prophecy. And, yes, Balto is a demigod, a half-spirit, and the writer of Balto-2 confirmed that Aleu inherited her abilities from Aniu, making her part-spirit as well, i.e. Aniu's death and Balto's accidental separation from her have zero connection, since Balto was her only cub and was only with her, these events are two separeate events and happened in different and distant time moments.

Here I want to focus on the small moment in the conversation between Aleu and Balto. Again, the writer of Balto-2 most likely simply didn't write a backstory of the reason for Balto accidentally getting lost (storm, avalance, flood, wild animals etc), since the writer doesn't remember and didn't give a proper answer in the movie itself.

However, what caught my attention is Balto's wide knowledge that hunters hunt and kill wild animals for meat and fur and then Aleu's sarcastic and actually disgusting question "Did the wolf teach you how to know, when a human wants to kill you?"

(I mean, did this brat think about that Balto saved her life the same way this "wild animal grandmother" potentially saved Balto's life in the past, for example?!).

(from another side, looking at this thing on the bag, the event with the hunter was planned by Aniu and the spirits for their prophecy to happen, so Aleu was safe...)

Like, yes, if to look at the context, Balto just explained to her the nature of hunters (what is weird, because he should explain it much earlier and that hunters can do the same with own sled dogs), and his such reaction was 'cause he worried about Aleu's life, while Aleu said it with emotions after being near death and due to reaction at "horrible reveal".

Plus, through the line "I was accidentally separated from her when I was young, so I never spent much time with the wolf" Balto himself debunks the idea that hunters killed his wolf-mother and even took away her fur, by this line he debunks and that she taught Balto to understand the intentions of humans this way, he debunks that humans were the reason of why Balto was separated from Aniu and hence became orphan. Or else he'd mention all this directly. He doesn't even mention that hunters could chase him and Aniu, Balto fell into something, while hunters didn't notice him etc. Not to mention that in such conditions Balto would hate humans and dogs even more than he should in the sequel, he'd never deny his wolf side, he'd never want to be a sled dog and to be accepted by humans and dogs, he'd go away with a wolf pack and would be proud of his wolf heritage. Or else he's a disgusting hypocrite.

And in this scene his facial expressions show no fear, no pain, no trauma and no grief. Just sadness that he accidentally got lost at the very young age and nearly never knew the she-wolf. In fact, if you watch the whole scene, Balto always turns away with shame and disgust, when he needs to discuss that he's part wolf and that his mother is a wolf, he even never calls her as "mother".

But let's assume for a second that hunters (or one hunter?) could be the reason of why Balto was accidentally separated from Aniu. Not death of the mother, not kidnapping of puppy Balto from the den etc, not chasing him and the mother, just the reason that led to Balto getting accidentally lost.

And even with such scenario I see nothing what could and would make impossible for young Balto and Aniu to reunite. Aniu is a spirit for centuries, she can disappear and turn into a mist or fog, hence there's nothing dangerous for her in encounter and confrontation with hunter(s), the encounter with them is deadly for exactly young Balto, so she easily could distract hunters and lead them away from Balto (and the den) for long and safe distance, then disappear, maybe merging with trees or rocks and hence hiding, and return to Balto and move him into another safer place, so no one will notice them, Aniu has no scent and no tracks just like other totem deities.

Like, Nava is still a living mortal wolf, not even a spirit, but he can avoid wounds through becoming a fog and hiding in trees, for example. That means, even as a mortal she could do that.

Plus, there's question, why Aniu made a den and raised Balto in areas with huge chances of meeting a hunter (ah, yes, grand design...). Like, Nava's pack lives far far away from humans and stuff, they started to suffer quite recently due to hunger and lack of food.

So, even in such tiny moments the sequel fails and raises tons of questions, again only confirming my thesis that the idea to make Balto's mother to be his wolf side is the worst idea and decision of the sequel, where her divine nature is the final nail in the coffin. And Aniu is the main villain of this all, she never wanted Balto, she never loved Balto, she abandoned Balto and ignored him all his life and ignored all his suffering and pain. And she erased any chances for him to find her, since she never told her name to him.

As well as I still don't understand, where the fan-theories about Aniu's death due to hunters and Aniu's death in general as the reason of Balto's being orphan come from, if both the interviews with the writer and the movie itself debunk it.

[waeirfaahl]

The origins of Balto (1995) and a few thoughts about the real story

The sources for inspiration of the original 1995 movie are widely known. Simon Wells, the director of Balto, and Elana Lesser, the writer of Balto, mentioned that she was inspired by her father's and grandfather's tales since childhood about the heroic sled dog Balto, which saved sick kids of small town Nome.

That's where the segment with old Rosie and her granddaughter comes from,

although it is interesting that this segment wasn't in the original 1992 draft, written by Lesser, which started with Steele's race and ended with the aurora borealis in the form of a howling wolf. It was added only in 1994 draft. The idea to make Balto be a half-wolf was explained by the authors' wish to make the protagonist more interesting and to give him inner conflict and arc. How he denies his wolf part in the beginning of the movie, but to the end he realizes that exactly his wolf part is his strength, so he accepts it and succeeds in the end of the movie. And the White Wolf scene was this symbol of Balto's self-acceptance, how he becomes one with his wolf nature in the form of the metaphorical and magnificent White Wolf.

Although, before the 1995 movie there were various books (for example, Race Against Death 1975 book and Five True Dog Stories 1977 book), which portrayed Balto as a wolfdog with great sense of smell (well, the real Balto really used his nose to find the way to Nome during 1925 relay), so, it can also be the source of inspiration. From another side, in these books, even as a wolfdog, Balto was a working sled dog pretty long time already.

Among fictional literature of 1970s about Balto the closest one to the movie is this 1972 book. But it is just a funny coincidence, because they still are different, the movie's crew couldn't know about it, because the book never had English release or translation. The only similar aspects are Balto being a wolfdog and taking the inspiration from the real 1925 events. The book is closer to Jack London's White Fang, I'd say. Boris the goose, Balto's friend and father figure, could be inspired by Gunnar Kaassen, who supported the real Balto and decided to make him the leader against the will of others, against Seppala's order.

Also Rosie could be some kind of hommage to Kaassen, since she was Balto's only human friend and believed in him. She was the main reason, why Balto risked to travel in cold and dangerous wilderness for finding the sled team, he wanted to save the life of the only human that was kind to him in this entire town (notice, how in the darkest moment of despair, Balto cries and whispers "Rosie..." in the beginning of the White Wolf scene, thinking that all is lost, and he won't save her), and I recommend you to remember her line "I'd be lost without you".

As I mentioned previously, gloryhound Steele and especially his ignorant and arrogant musher, the famous champions of sled races for many years, were inspired by Leonhard Seppala (well, his dark and negative side, if to tell correctly), and in some senses Steele's path from Nome to Nenana can be a hommage to Seppala's and Togo's world record with title King of Trail. And also Steele was clearly based on Togo and Fox, the sled dogs from Seppala's team of champion race dogs (although, in contrast to Steele, Togo and Fox were good dogs, the problem was in their owner).

Later I'll explain, why I think so. Plus, the creators of Balto 1995 movie understood and brilliantly showed and handled the core of the real story — how the unexperienced newcomer dog became the leader of the sled team for the first time and, leading them through extremely dangerous places, saved the day, the children of Nome and showed own talents, becoming the famous hero without desire for any glory.

And how certain people didn't believe in this dog, trusting to the legendary champion and his champion dogs, which ironically later were overshadowed by Balto and his team and started to complain that Balto and his musher are gloryhound thieves. So, now about the elephant in the room. Let's talk about the real story of the 1925 relay? I have read the historical books on this topic, so I have something to say. All photos are either from the books on this topic or from free internet. "If it wasn't for Balto, I wouldn't be alive today" (c) Gunnar Kaassen Yes, that's what he told even after many decades to his niece about the small, stocky and heroic black dog, the mix of various sled dogs breeds (real Balto's ancestry contains Siberian Huskies, Samoyed dogs, Greenland dogs, Alaskan Malamutes and Sakhalin Huskies — and no wolves), which became the leader of the sled team for the first time, led the team in one of the deadliest Alaska areas in blinding and severe blizzard and successfully delivered the medicine to sick kids of Nome.

Despite the fact that several sled teams participated in the relay, where some dogs either died or were seriously injured, as well as their mushers, all dogs and drivers of this relay are heroes, Balto deserved the statue, glory, credit and the status of the hero. Not only because he did very well, running two parts of the relay and using his nose for finding the right path in the area he never was before, but also because if something happened with the sled team and the medicine box on this last part of the relay, all what previous teams did, risking their lifes, would be pointless. Balto saved the effort of the previous teams. Unfortunately, certain people denied to believe in Balto's accomplishments and maliciously tried to deprive him from either being a sole leader of the team or the leader in fact. And they even tried to demonize Balto and Kaassen, marking them as some "gloryhound villains", who stole glory from "the true heroes" and later were punished by "fair, good, rightful, divine Seppala and Togo". And this crap became stronger after the Disney released 2019 movie about Togo. And I hated this movie (despite awesome Willem Dafoe and beautiful sled dogs and the touching sequences with puppy Togo). And after reading the historical books about these events (The Race to Nome 1963 and The Cruellest Miles 2003, for example), including Seppala's memoirs (The Alaskan Dog Driver 1930), and after watching this documentary, I can confidently tell that I am not on the side of people, who mark Togo and Seppala as some forgotten true heroes, whose rightful glory was stolen. And, honestly, I am tired from all those, who push Togo and Fox into every hole. So, using the information from the books, I will kinda debunk some claims that are pretty common and strong among people especially after the 2019 movie. The problem is in public perception, because people enjoy stories about some forgotten true heroes, whose glory was stolen, and after some time they reclaim it. But the real story is way more complex and nuanced. And in some senses it is my hardest post, because I usually avoid making some historical-themed posts due to tons of nuances, layers and details. 1. How many dogs were in Balto's sled team? Both The Race To Nome and The Cruellest Miles confidently state that in Balto's team there were 13 dogs. However, for some reason certain books (Adventures of Balto 2006, for example) mentioned 12 dogs, and I can not for the life of me understand, why and where they got this information, if they used as the source the 1963 book. Plus, in his memoirs Seppala mentions... suddenly 14 dogs, so for other books it would make more sense to mention 14 dogs, right? Well, actually, no. Since the memoirs were made and published 5 years after the relay, Seppala could have bad memory about this (well, at this moment he cared about travelling with his sled dog team and reaching for the medicine and delivering it to Nome), not to mention that thirteen and fourteen sound pretty similar, so it could also be some mistake from editors or whatever. Another moment — Kaassen's arrival to Nome with the medicine. The video of their arriving was actually made a little bit after their arriving, but at the same day, i.e. in the morning of 2nd February. I re-watched the sequence of their arrival for like 300+ times, my eyes were a bit hurted due to low quality of the video, but they survived, and after this I can confidently say that exactly 13 dogs were in Gunnar's team. Neither 14 nor 12, but exactly 13. In Balto's team there were 13 dogs.

Really, exactly 13 dogs, not 14 or 12 or whatever. 2. Who was the true leader of Kaassen's team? Many people (especially after 2019 movie) started to insist that Balto is a fake, that Balto ran in pair with Fox, and exactly Fox was the leader of Kaassen's team and the true hero, but he had regular and confusing name, so reporters decided to call Balto as the leader and the hero due to his unusual name, and Balto got the fame due to the stupid and undeserved luck. Well... that's not true.

First of all, before how we dive into this rabbit hole, can someone tell me, how the hell Fox looked like? The Cruellest Miles described Fox as a brown-and-black husky, but that's it, no photos. Is that Fox? And I doubt they are in pair, here it's pretty hard to tell. And this video was made way after the relay.

Or this dog is Fox? In the first photo the black-and-white husky is right behind Balto and in pair with another dog. Second photo was made waaay later, in USA, and presumably there are only 8-10 dogs.

Or maybe this dog is Fox? But this dog is not in pair with Balto, this dog is in pair with another black-and-white dog behind the man, and you can notice its paws.

And most likely exactly this same dog is on this photo, just looks at the dogs behind.

I think, what confused people, this exact documentary video, which, due to low quality, can give impression that Balto allegedly runs in pair with this big dog. But if you look closer, you'll notice that Balto runs as a sole leader. You can notice long harness behind him on the snow, he just runs here pretty slow and calmly, as well as other dogs, i.e. they run not in full speed. They just run very close to each other, while the light-fur dog (presumably Fox) runs right behind Balto with another black (or dark-grey) dog, and both Fox and the dark-furred dog and others are on the short harnesses. "Fox" and another dark dog in this case are swing dogs, they run behind the leader (in this case Balto), keeping the discipline in the sled team and helping during the run especially with turns. I.e. after Balto, the leader and the main dog, Fox and his partner in pair are the most important and responsible dogs in the team.

Plus, maybe it will be surprise for someone, but Seppala NEVER claimed that Balto ran in pair with Fox. At some time he insisted on Fox being the real leader, but later he changed his mind. In his memoirs 1930 he himself said, acknowledging Balto as the leader: "As to the leader, it was up to the driver who happened to be selected to choose any dog he liked, and he chose Balto". So, how the idea of either Fox being a sole leader or Balto co-leading the team with Fox came to be? The idea with "running in pair" was a speculation from reporters, born due to misinterpretation of Seppala's words and later from his memoirs. Hence now let's dive deeper. The confusion comes from Seppala's words he told to reporters in USA in early-1927. He insisted that Fox was the true leader of the team, not Balto, and he wanted more credit for Fox. The thing is that Fox was one of Seppala's best and fastest race dogs from Togo's team, and he left Fox as a temporary leader for the team of the working slow dogs for Kaassen, if there will be any need to use them especially for transporting the medicine box (Seppala mentioned that in his memoirs). Seppala adviced to Kaassen to use Fox as the leader for this team, Fox initially was planned to be the leader of this team, but Kaassen ignored Seppala's order and chose Balto as the leader of this team, because he liked Balto and trusted to Balto, he wanted to give Balto chance in contrast to Seppala. That is it. That's the answer and the explanation. Plus, Kaassen always praised exactly Balto both after the arriving with the antitoxin in 1925 and after many decades he praised exactly Balto, pointing out that this dog saved his life. While Seppala simply thought that Fox still ran as the leader, but reporters chose Balto due to unusual name, 'cause in his eyes Balto was just a slow stocky scrub dog without any talents. And having experience with Togo, which was born small, weak and sick and rejected puppy, but grew up into one of the best, the fastest and the most loyal to the one specific owner dogs, becoming Seppala's favourite and the embodiment of the perfect sled race dog and Siberian husky, Seppala should know that a dog can open its abilities to a certain human. So, in this case, Balto wasn't as fast as Seppala's champion race dogs, but he still was fast and tough enough and opened own abilities to Gunnar Kaassen in the relay. Kaassen gave the chance to Balto and believed in him. Kaassen was timid and calm man, tender to his family, and he didn't like to be on public or on stage, he just did his work without desire to be famous, even after becoming hero he praised Balto and also other dog drivers.

And yes, you get it right. Seppala wasn't in Nome during Kaassen's arrival with the medicine box, hence he couldn't see and know, he mentions nobody who could tell him about this. He was pretty okay with Kaassen travelling in USA with Balto and the team. But after Balto got the statue, Seppala was pissed off and then sold Balto and his team (yes, he himself confirms that in his memoirs, he sold the team, not Kaassen — and I have no idea, why The Cruellest Miles failed to mention that), while Kaassen was ordered to leave the dogs here and to return to Nome, i.e. Kaassen had no idea, what horrible things the dogs will experience, and he couldn't take away at least only Balto. The thing is that Seppala was embittered and jealous, because Balto got the statue instead of Seppala's favourite champion Togo, and only after this and getting rid of Balto he started to insist on Fox and pretty much after this he arrived with Togo for getting medals and tourne in 50+ cities etc, where he boasted to other people, portraying Togo's bad health as some kind of sacrifice for the sake of children. Keep in mind, Seppala was also a dog breeder, he also used Togo for breeding, and Fox was from Seppala's champion team, hence Fox most likely wasn't neutered in contrast to Balto and his working sled dog team, and hence Fox was used for breeding too. I don't want to speculate, but... it seems Seppala was outrageous also because of unability to get more money from "the pups of the heroic champion dog he raised and trained".

Simply saying, Balto was the leader of his team, Balto was the sole leader of his team. Fox was the swing dog that ran behind Balto. The confusion and stupid controversy started due to Seppala and his resentment that his favourite champion didn't get the statue, so he made everything to ruin Balto and his reputation. Yes, years after he acknowledged Balto as the leader and distanced himself from these stupid accusations, telling that he doesn't want to devalue the huge effort of all mushers and dogs in this 1925 relay, but it will never excuse the controversy he created and his decision to sell Balto and his team. Seppala could get the glory as the owner of both Balto and Togo and other dogs, as the legendary dog driver, The King of Trail, who made sled dog races popular, and as a dog breeder, who raised such heroes and who made Siberian Huskies the breed, with tons of awesome accomplishments he did before this relay. But he was too petty and gloryhound to think about it. That's very sad. 3. Balto's accomplishments. Like, some people unironically think and tell that Balto's path was very easy and without any problems or hard areas. In reality, Balto used his nose for finding the path to Nome in blinding blizzard and at night. He led the team in a large plateau with deep snow, where strong winds shifted, blew away and even overturned sleds, and where the medicine box was almost lost forever, crossed slippery lagoons etc. At night, Balto saved Kaassen and the team from drowning in Topkok river and, using his nose, led them in Topkok mountain, which is the one of the deadliest places during the night and snowstorm — in 1914 Seppala himself was near death in Topkok mountain during his sled race from Nulato to Nome. 4. The case with Ed Rohn. Some people unironically think that Gunnar Kaassen wanted to get the all glory and intentionally bypassed Ed Rohn, who should run the final part of the relay to Nome. And it is again pure nonsense. The nonsense from jealous people for most part, I guess. Kaasen ran the two last of the relay, he didn't know that the relay was stopped for a day due to the severe snowstorm that became worse and worse, he didn't get the message about it, he already accidentally outran Solomon, where he should wait the last musher (plus, due to deteriorating weather the telephone connections were worsened, so people worried, whether he got the message or not — Kaassen didn't get the message as I explained earlier), nobody waited him, another (the last) musher Ed Rohn slept, 'cause he got a message and thought that Gunnar will wait him in Solomon. Kaassen ran the last part of the relay, 'cause he knew that there will be lot of time for harnessing dogs etc. Kaassen risked and moved to Nome, bringing the medicine successfully. So, now about Togo and Seppala. The entire premise "Togo is the true hero and deserves credit and statue, because he ran the longest and the deadliest part" is the pure manipulation and stretch. For many reasons. Seppala and Togo were very experienced, they many times ran in Norton Sound before, they many times travelled and crossed Norton Sound before, they explored all Alaska and had lots of awesome accomplishments (various records, tons of winnings in sled races, making sled races popular, dog breeding, help to police in catching a criminal, outrunning a train). As well as they many times ran from Nome to Nulato and back to Nome, and they many times ran from Nome to Nenana and back, their record in Nome-to-Nenana was 13 days, so Seppala became The King of Trail. So, their run in the relay of 1925 wasn't something extraordinary or unique in contrast to what they did before.

From one side, Seppala and Togo's team initially should run solely from Nome to Nulato, get the medicine from the musher, who initially should run from Nenana to Nulato, and return to Nome solely with the medicine. It made sense, because Seppala was the fastest and the most experienced dog driver, who made long distances for short time, but since the weather became worse and worse, the several mushers were added as well — honestly, the organizers should do this from the beginning instead of choosing the two mushers (and since they decided to do it, they should pay to them more money compensation). Yep, you get it right — if not for the weather, it would end this way, and Seppala and Togo would become famous heroes with tons medals, statue, movies etc. From another side, the Norton Sound aka Norton Bay, for which Seppala will boast as "a true hero, who made the most hazardous part of the relay and has to get the credit for" later. Yes, Seppala just crossed the Norton Sound twice without any problems. First time at the morning without the medicine box and the second time at the afternoon with the medicine box. The thing is that it wasn't planned to be, it wasn't something Seppala was ordered to do, forced to do or discussed to do. It was HIS and ONLY HIS decision. Seppala didn't notify about this anybody. Seppala himself decided to cross the Norton Sound, nobody knew about it, nobody asked him to do this, he himself risked, it was solely his decision. And okay, he crossed it one time in the relay, he's lucky that he's alive, but no, he decided WITH THE MEDICINE BOX to cross this place AGAIN. And after this stupid and deadly risk that could kill him, Togo and his team and also ruin the relay with loss of the box he will boast that he is the hero and that his exhausted Togo is the hero, who sacrificed own health for the sake of sick kids, and deserves the statue.

I just applause to this guy. With tons of awesome archievements and accomplishments, records and respect he is a biased and gloryhound guy, who was jealous and embittered that he wasn't that hero, whose dog got the statue and large fame. And now about certain moments, portrayed in the 2019 movie as the ones, which happened to Togo's team in the relay of 1925. First of all, the movie shows how Togo saved Seppala and the team from falling at the edge of Topkok mountain, the movie portrays that as the event, happened exactly in 1925 during the relay. That's not true.

This event happened with Seppala in 1914 during his race from Nulato to Nome, he was near death in Topkok mountain, but the husky-malamute mix named Suggen, who was the leader of this team and also Togo's father, saved Seppala. And Seppala confirms Suggen's heroic deed in his memoirs, later The Cruellest Miles book states that as well. Second, the swimming on the ice floe, and how Togo saves the team, pulling the rope with the ice floe to the beach. The movie portrays this event, as if it happened during the relay of 1925, when they delivered the medicine box.

That's not true. The dangerous adventure on the ice floe, and how Togo saves Seppala and the team, happened way BEFORE 1925 serum relay. Seppala himself mentioned in his memoirs that this event happened a few years before the 1925 serum run, same thing with The Cruellest Miles (The Race to Nome never mentions this event at all, it describes only how Seppala and Togo's team crossed Norton Sound twice without problems).

So, yes, 2019 movie tried really hard to make Seppala and Togo some divine perfect awesome heroes, who were forgotten, and whose credit and glory were maliciously stolen. In reality we have the example, how the popular and legendary champion guy, respected by others for years due to certain cool (and really awesome) archievements and hence initially seen as the hero, in fact was gloryhound and embittered person, while some calm worker (both the man and the dog) acted like the hero and became the hero, not wanting the fame and just doing his job for saving the children. Despite 1995 movie is fully fictional story about the underdog-outcast "From zero to hero" with talking animals, inspired by the real events and told as a fable from the perspective of the grandmother to her child about her own childhood, there's tons of parallels with the real story, so in own way the 1995 movie is very close and faithful to it, it understood and showed the core and the theme of the real events. It understands the material and shows the important.

The real story is way more complex and nuanced, there's tons of details, it was interesting and immersive journey and diving into this, as well as discussing it with friends. And than more I dived into this, than more I became furious at 2019 movie's creators and current public perception of these events. As I said once, all dogs and mushers of this deadly relay are heroes and should be remembered, because, surprise, the main and the most important thing is that they saved the families and especially the children of Nome from death. While Balto and Kaassen saved their effort, these two had the huge responsibility and, crossing the deadliest lands of storming Alaska, they succeeded, so after arriving Kaassen even said "All credit is Balto's. Damn fine dog.". As well as he mentioned other mushers of this relay.

IMHO, the statue should depict either the whole sled dog team, hence every sled team is immortalized here, or only Balto, and how the names of all dogs and mushers, who participated in the relay, were engraved on his harness, i.e. Balto is both a hero and the symbol of all the heroes of this relay. P.S. It's funny to imagine, how Steele tries to claim that he's the true hero just because he is way older than Balto and ran the longest part of Nenana-Nome path...

As well as funny to imagine, how his injured musher is in total "WTF?" after getting medical help, since he probably didn't realize that he said "Good boy" to Balto.

But who knows. I hope, Steele's musher learned the lesson and was grateful to Balto.

[waeirfaahl]

He will survive

Thematical addition to especially this and this posts (for whole picture with the summary and compilation on the topic with all links to interviews and posts on the topic and analyzing all elements here). Since Balto-2 made huge and the worst mistake, making Balto's mother as his wolf side and stating that young Balto accidentally got lost, it birthed tons of contradictions and questions. One of them — if Balto's mother was a wolf, Balto would never deny his wolf nature, instead Balto would leave Nome and crave to find his lost mother, joining a friendly wolf pack, he'd never crave to run in sled and to sacrifice own life for humans and dogs, which rejected him all his life.

As well as the idea of Balto's mother being a wolf (for now for a second excluding the morbid nature of divine Aniu and whole Balto-2 thing, but partially including stupid fan theories like "wolf-mother died due to humans and dogs") just makes Balto hypocritical and disgusting character in first and then second films. However, in attempt to defend this "wolf-momma" concept and the sequel some people kinda tried to excuse, why Balto didn't leave Nome all this time — allegedly he stayed in Nome and tolerated abuse, bullying and cruelty, because "there is much warmer in Nome, in Nome he has better feeding, there's no threats, there's much safer, there's no dangerous animals"... Really?! Let's debunk, I guess: 1. Warmer? Until the finale of the original film Balto lived in outskirts of Nome since deep puppyhood. Balto lived on a heavily ventilated, leaky old ship, in this brown old rag and near the ocean in the open air.

Interesting, these ones are warmer or not? Hmmm... probably, Rosie's family gave him this blue blanket as a better replacement (the beginning of Balto-2 happens 3-4 months after the original film)...

...While Balto-3 happens 3 years after the original film, so the blue one could be not suitable anymore, so they gave to Balto this new one, the red blanket, knowing, he often likes to chill here. (or it is still the one from the original film, just... washed, sewn up, fixed and improved?)

And near the water it is always colder, especially during the northern winter with severely cold and powerful blizzards.

Not that different from a den in woods, probably even colder. 2. In Nome there's not much safer for Balto. All along Balto could be killed by dogs and/or humans as a pup, he had tons of chances to be shot by humans all this time, especially due to Steele's malice and many attempts of murder.

Not to mention that some wild animal like a hungry polar bear or a moose or a hungry wolf/wolves could go near the town (interesting to watch, how Balto would fight them, if they decided to attack and eat Boris and the polar bear cubs). 3. The case with food is actually pretty complicated and raises lots of questions. Shortly, no. Balto is not well fed in contrast to dogs, in Nome Balto was in much worse conditions than domestic dogs in this case, so this aspect is also already debunked, but I want to dive a bit deeper. In the first and the third films we once see Balto drinking water.

Interesting, what happened to the previous (metal) dish during these 3+ years? Or maybe there are two dishes, one for water, one for food, but both dishes can be used for both?

If during late autumn, entire winter and early spring there's no problems with water (Balto can eat snow, or Boris could put snow into his dish, so it melts into a water), in spring, summer and autumn there're problems with getting water, when there's no rain — like, Balto lives near ocean, hence he needs to visit Nome and drink normal water from, I guess, barrels and buckets, because it is much closer than woods with rivers.

With food the things are even more bizarre. I can assume Rosie fed him sometimes, but it is not enough. Logically, Balto would eat scraps from garbage dumps, but with such poor food he wouldn't become such enduring, fast and strong, with normal senses, bones, fur, body etc, he wouldn't be healthy. Or Balto could even steal some meat from the butcher's storage, but it seems unlikely due to his personality. Another version (the most plausible, since we briefly see a big bone) is

that Balto ate various beached sea animals like seals and cetaceans and also Balto hunted, catched and ate coastal fish, crustaceans, rodents and wild birds (interesting, what did Boris think about it?) — it makes a lot of sense, but it means that Balto fought and took away someone's life (not just ate carrion/corpses), hence he shouldn't and wouldn't allow Steele to attack him, Balto would prevent it immediately, Balto wouldn't behave like a pacifistic idiot near the grizzly bear and Steele, Balto would never care about their feelings and lifes (if it was ever the case).

Anyway, there's zero reasons for Balto to stay in Nome, if he is from wilderness, and if exactly the maternal side of his family was the wolf one. Especially in the context of the story in the original film and the sequel with fond memories about the wolf parent and the wolf parent being the only parent Balto ever had.