Balto is a 1995 animated adventure film directed by Simon Wells, produced by Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is loosely based on the true story of the dog Balto, who helped save children infected with diphtheria in the 1925 serum run to Nome. The film stars voice actors Kevin Bacon, Bridget Fonda, Phil Collins, and Bob Hoskins. Though primarily an animated film, it uses a live-action framing device that takes place in New York City's Central Park and features Miriam Margolyes as an older version of one of the children. This is the third and final film to be produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, before the studio's closure in 1997.
Released theatrically in the United States on December 22, 1995, the film was a financial failure due to being overshadowed by the release of Toy Story, but its subsequent sales on home video led to two direct-to-video sequels: Balto II: Wolf Quest (2002) and Balto III: Wings of Change (2004).
Plot In New York City, an elderly woman and her granddaughter are walking through Central Park, looking for a memorial statue. While they rest, the grandmother recounts a story about Nome, Alaska.
In 1925, a wolfdog named Balto lives on the outskirts of Nome with his adoptive goose father Boris alongside two polar bears named Muk and Luk. Balto is ridiculed by dogs and humans alike for his half-breed heritage. His only friends in town are a young girl named Rosy and her red husky Jenna whom Balto has a crush on. He is challenged by the town's favorite sled dog Steele, a fierce and arrogant Alaskan Malamute.
That night, Rosy and all the children in Nome are stricken with diphtheria. Severe winter weather conditions prevent medicine from being brought by air or sea from Anchorage, and the closest rail line ends in Nenana. After authorization to transport the antitoxin by rail is given by the Governor of Alaska, a dog race is held to determine the best-fit dogs for a sled dog team to get the medicine. Balto enters and wins, but is disqualified after Steele exposes his wolf-dog heritage. The team departs that night with Steele in the lead and picks up the medicine successfully. On return, deteriorating conditions leave the disoriented team stranded at the base of a steep slope with the musher knocked unconscious.
When the news reaches Nome, Balto sets out in search of them with Boris, Muk, and Luk . On the way, a huge grizzly bear attacks them, but Jenna, who followed their tracks, intervenes. The bear pursues Balto out onto a frozen lake, where it falls through the ice and drowns. With Jenna injured and unable to continue, Balto instructs Boris and the polar bears to take her back home while he continues alone. Balto eventually finds the team, but Steele refuses his help and attacks him until he loses his balance and falls off a cliff. Balto takes charge of the team, but they lose their way again since Steele had sabotaged the trail as revenge. Balto falls while attempting to save the medicine from falling down a cliff.
Back in Nome, Jenna explains Balto's mission to the other dogs as Steele returns, lying that the team, including Balto, is dead. Jenna sees through his deception and creates an aurora-like signal on the outskirts of town, hoping it will help guide Balto home. When Balto regains consciousness, he is ready to lose hope, until a white wolf appears. Encouraged by the wolf, he drags the medicine back up the cliff to the waiting team. Balto's advanced senses filter out the false markers Steele had created.
After encountering further challenges, Balto and the sled team finally return to Nome with the medicine (losing one vial along the way), allowing the doctors to cure the children. A pity-playing Steele is abandoned by the other dogs after his lies are exposed. Reunited with Jenna and his friends, Balto earns respect from both the dogs and the humans. He visits a cured Rosy, who thanks him for saving her.
Back in the present, the elderly woman and her granddaughter finally find the statue of Balto. The woman, who is actually Rosy, once again thanks Balto for saving her.
Cast
Kevin Bacon as Balto, a brown-and-grey wolfdog; being a Siberian Husky-Arctic wolf hybrid. Jeffrey James Varab and Dick Zondag served as the supervising animators for Balto. Bacon is succeeded by Maurice LaMarche in the direct-to-video sequels, Balto II: Wolf Quest and Balto III: Wings of Change. Bob Hoskins as Boris Goosinov, a Russian snow goose and Balto's caretaker, mentor, adoptive father, and sidekick. Kristof Serrand served as the supervising animator for Boris. Hoskins is succeeded by his Who Framed Roger Rabbit co-star, Charles Fleischer in the sequels. Bridget Fonda as Jenna, a female copper-and-white Siberian Husky, Rosy's pet, and Balto's love interest. Her facial design is based on actress Audrey Hepburn. Robert Stevenhagen served as the supervising animator for Jenna. Fonda is succeeded by Jodi Benson in the sequels. Jim Cummings as Steele, a fierce-looking black-and-white Alaskan Malamute who bullies Balto over his part-wolf heritage and also has a crush on Jenna. Sahin Ersöz served as the supervising animator for Steele. Brendan Fraser was originally cast to voice Steele before being replaced by Cummings. Phil Collins as Muk and Luk, a pair of polar bears, Boris's adoptive nephews, and Balto's adoptive cousins. Nicolas Marlet designed and served as the supervising animator for Muk and Luk. Collins is succeeded by Kevin Schon in the sequels. Juliette Brewer as Rosy, a kind, excitable girl and Jenna's owner who was the only human in Nome who was kind to Balto before his epic journey. David Bowers served as the supervising animator for Rosy. Rosy makes a brief cameo in Balto III: Wings of Change. Miriam Margolyes as old Rosy in the live-action sequences who narrates her story to her granddaughter at the beginning of the film. Jack Angel, Danny Mann, and Robbie Rist as Nikki, Kaltag, and Star, respectively. Nikki is a reddish-brown Chow Chow, Kaltag is a honey-yellow Chinook, and Star is a mauve-and-cream Siberian Husky. William Salazar was the supervising animator for the team. Nikki, Kaltag, and Star make brief cameos in Balto III: Wings of Change. Sandra Dickinson as Dixie, a female Pomeranian and one of Jenna's friends who adores Steele until his lies about Balto are exposed by Balto returning with the medicine needed to cure the children. Dickinson also voices Sylvie, a female Afghan Hound who is also Jenna's friend; and Rosy's mother. Patrick Mate designed and served as the supervising animator for Sylvie and Dixie, and all the principal human characters. Sylvie makes a brief cameo in Balto III: Wings of Change. Lola Bates-Campbell as Rosy's granddaughter who appears in the live-action sequences and is accompanied by her dog Blaze, a purebred Siberian Husky. William Roberts as Rosy's father Donald Sinden as Doc, an old St. Bernard. Doc makes a brief cameo in Balto III: Wings of Change. Garrick Hagon as a telegraph operator Bill Bailey as a butcher
Production Development Screenwriter Elana Lesser recalled first hearing the story of Balto from her grandfather as a child, and as an adult, decided that it would make an excellent animated and live-action film. She and her husband, fellow screenwriter Cliff Ruby, pitched a screenplay to Amblin Entertainment in Universal City, California, and executives Douglas Wood and Bonne Radford relayed it to co-directors Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells at Amblin's London-based animation studio, Amblimation. Steven Spielberg agreed that the story had potential, but he was initially concerned that such a film would not be colorful enough. To reassure Spielberg, Wells showed him several color studies by production designer Hans Bacher, which showed that the film would not simply depict black and white dogs against desolate scenery. Nibbelink and Wells had initially developed Balto together, before Nibbelink left to continue working on We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), and screenwriters Roger S. H. Schulman and David Steven Cohen, and several uncredited writers, further developed the script.
Animation Balto was officially put into production in March 1993, under the working title Snowballs. To source the dogs' character animation, the filmmakers set up special drawing classes with about seven Siberian Huskies and videotaped them walking around the studio, while the animators studied their movements and anatomy. During these classes, Kristof Serrand, who was assigned to supervise the animation on Boris, gave a lecture on the locomotion of dogs. Former Disney animator Jeffrey J. Varab, who had trained under Eric Larson and joined Amblimation during production on We're Back!, was assigned to co-supervise the animation on Balto alongside Dick Zondag. At Wells's behest, Varab lectured about dog anatomy and Balto's drawings, based on his work on The Fox and the Hound (1981), and citing preliminary character sketches drawn by character designer Carlos Grangel and original model sheets of Tramp from Lady and the Tramp (1955). Prior to his departure from the project, Nibbelink lectured on applying spacing and weight to the dog animation, using the "bouncing ball" animation exercise he had learned from Frank Thomas while working as an animator at Disney alongside Varab. Wells and several other crew members took special trips to Finland to study dog sledding.
Budget constraints necessitated many difficult decisions. It was calculated that in most shots, the effects animators must choose either footprints or shadows. To achieve the snow colors and textures that Bacher's production design mandated, the background artists needed to use oil paint, instead of the gouache or watercolor in most animated films. Because oil paint dries more slowly than gouache, the filmmakers scheduled extra days for each background to dry before shooting scenes. According to producer Steve Hickner, an advantage of this was that the artists could "work back into their art" days later, while the paint was still wet.
Principal animation lasted from 1993 to 1994, with each animator completing five seconds of animation a week on average; Ken Keys, one of the animators on Steele, stated that he was "throwing away nine drawings to keep one". The film is mainly hand-drawn, but with considerable computer animation in more challenging visual elements; all of the falling snow was animated using an early CGI particle system. All of the ink-and-paint work is the first use in film of the 2D animation software program Toonz, which was still in development and needing intense interactivity with its developers. Additional animation was provided by the Danish studio A. Film Production. Each shot was composited digitally and transferred to film through a "Solitaire" film recorder, before being spliced into the leica reel.
Casting Wells stated that the casting process was easy, explaining "Basically, you pick your dream [actors] and see if you can get them." Because the characters were designed before the voices were cast, the actors were given several inspirational character sketches to look at before each recording session, in order to get a sense of the characters they were portraying. Initially, it was reported that Kevin Anderson had been cast as Balto. Anderson had finished all of his voice-over work and the animation had been done around his performance, but late into production, Universal Pictures insisted on having a bigger name in the role, so he was replaced by Kevin Bacon, who had been filming Apollo 13 (1995) at Universal around the same time. Because of the completed animation, Bacon had to precisely match his timing to Balto's mouth movement. According to Bacon, "It was very hard. I didn't like it. They would play his dialogue in the way that he had said it in my head right before I'd say my line." Wells said he "did a terrific job and was really enthusiastic".