Balto II: Aventura en la tierra de hielo

There are some really beautiful scenes in Balto: Wolf Quest, and the film overall exceeded my expectations, but it still has its problems. Let's start with the good stuff.

Visually, the film is actually quite pleasing to the eye with dramatic angles and quickly moving in Balto's really cool dream sequence and with vibrant colours in his daughter's self-discovery.

And the not that good stuff.

Balto: Wolf Quest is not grounded in reality like its predecessor and didn't have much originality to the story, but it had its moments of decent voice acting from new characters like the soft and firm Nava and the menacing Niju. Aside from that we have to deal with new voices for the recurring characters, and it shows.

Boris is the most noticeable, and even if Charles Fleischer did a decent job, I found him too loud and not funny. I wasn't that keen of Muk and Luk in the original, but they seemed pointless here. Jodi Benson did the best performance as Jenna, I'll give her credit for that.

The story, while not original, had a spiritual theme to it and I would have liked that to be explored more, because it was shown so many times right from the start and especially in this beautiful scene when Balto's daughter is in a cave. It could have been so interesting.

I'm sure Balto: Wolf Quest will entertain on its own, and I was entertained, too. I feel it could have been better, but Even though it is a far cry from its predecessor, it is still among the better sequels out there.

I have yet to see a DTV sequel that did not completely butcher the original and make me want to run a sledgehammer through my VCR. Balto II: Wolf Quest is no exception. I might have been able to overlook the poor animation if the plot had been decent, but we've seen it a million times. The writers decide to produce offspring from the original movie's hero, and then follow their angst plight through adolescence. The voice casting for Aleu was horrid, a stronger female voice would have done wonders for her characters. And that mouse... oy. He howled for crying out loud! I'm sorry, but that's just beyond laughable, and not in a good way. The wolves were horribly drawn, especially the three "mean" ones. Were these a tribute too the three sled dogs that always trailed after Steele? They, as well as their leader looked more like rats crossed with panthers. The animators seem to have fallen into the horrible cliché of "Wanna make a baddie? Give him an over-sized chin!" Yick.

Then there were all the overdone and overUSED Indian references. Since it's Alaska, couldn't they at least gone with Eskimo legends, since they were so intent on dumping spiritualism on us? The glowing eye effect lost it's charm... as soon as I saw it. I just wish these people will stop pumping out sequels for the sake of a dollar. Make something that's worthy of theater release, and that lives up to it's predecessor.

After seeing the commercials for this movie a bunch of times while watching TV, they only imply that this is one of those cute, kiddy, been-there-done-that film that non-Disney studios pop out once every month to combat the giant Disney empire. However, while actually watching this film, it turns out to be something completely different.

This film is *gasp* actually pretty good, and is easily better than the first!

The story, in a nutshell, is that our hero, Balto, had babies. While most of the pups look like their mother, one of them looks more like a wolf than a dog. She grows up and is unable to accept the fact she is more wolf-like than dog-like, then runs away. (She doesn't like being dominated by her father.) Meanwhile, both of them have the same dream filled with ice, a raven, caribou, and wolves. Well, both of them embark on a journey that manages to include all elements of the two dreams, then runs into a pack of wolves who must either leave the land they lived on for years or starve to death. Balto's daughter realizes her destiny is to leave her family and lead the wolves. Balto understands and lets her leave.

Yeah, I make it sound generic, but believe me, IT IS NOT! This film may be one of many that feature the "journey to find oneself" theme, but it succeeds extremely well! The message is deep, and the presentation is haunting with a little bit of comedy mixed in (the comedy is quite ordinary, so that may explain why the commercial makes the movie look so generic.) Add a great voice acting with talents such as Mark Hamill, Rob Paulsen, Jodi Benson etc., and you've got what may be the best direct-to-video animated motion picture ever made.

I think this film, as a sequel, does a huge disservice to the original Balto - in my opinion one of the finest animated moves ever and one of the few movies ever to move me to tears.

First, I really wish we could have had Kevin Bacon and Bridget Fonda back from the original. While the voices were good, it left me feeling a bit lost as to the relation to the first. Mark Hamill's voice was also completely inappropriate for Niju - at least as he was drawn, it should have been much deeper. Second, the animation - compared to the first - is atrocious. The computer-generated parts are easily identifiable and the scenes just don't seem to mesh as well as the original Balto. The combat scenes don't seem to flow very well. And one of the things that sticks out the most in my mind from the first is gone: the complex facial expressions of the characters. Third, the plot (while good) has some holes that you could fly a 747 through. The two evil wolves (and indeed the clan) were introduced so suddenly it sent me reeling, and how did the wolf pack suddenly know Balto's name? Fourth, it tried too hard to be Lion King - and it was so visible. With Aleu hanging off that cliff, I kept seeing Simba. With Niju standing up on the rock, I kept seeing Scar preaching to the lions. Why does every movie now feel they must pay homage to the Lion King in some fashion?

Still, the movie does have many redeeming qualities. It stays interesting for most of the film and deals with some issues that can be looked at by both children and adults from both sides - when to let go. Besides the holes - and no film is perfect - the plot was good, and I truly enjoyed the Inuit references in the film - one of the truly forgotten cultures of America.

Overall, it was a good film and worth the DVD, but it could have been so much more.

Though it doesn't hold up to the wonderful original Balto, this is one of the very few animated film sequels that didn't totally make me gag. The storyline is completely different (thankfully not going the 'Oh, no! Another epidemic!' route one would expect) and the entire movie takes a Native American twist, focusing less of dog-sleds and more on the Wolf roots of both Balto and his daughter, Aleu. The songs are touching and beautiful, my favorites being "Taking You Home" and "Who You Really Are". "Taking You Home" is probably the only song I've ever heard from an animated film that has ever made me cry- and it take a lot to make me cry.

This film, combined with the original Balto film, would be a wonderful little gift pack for anyone who's a fan.