My Review of Balto · 3:22pm April 13th
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, folks. This is Mr. J back with another movie review for you all today. This morning, I will be reviewing Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures’ 1995 animated film “Balto”. Now, I remember watching this movie a long time ago as a kid, and I didn’t remember too much from it until recently. Just a few days ago, I was able to re-watch the movie for the first time in years to see if it holds up.
To be honest, it is not a good of a movie I remember it being. I mean, it is still a decent film, but there are a number of things therein that just makes it hard to sit through.
This movie is based on a true story of a dog—half-wolf, half-dog—who saved the lives of children infected with diphtheria in the 1925 serum run to Nome.
I can see why the filmmakers wanted to make a predominantly animated movie about this hybrid dog because dogs will go through many lengths to help people if trained properly. It’s one of the many reasons why they are considered to be man’s best friend.
I do admit that there is a lot of stuff I like about this movie. The animation looks great, and the emotional element is perfectly executed. It makes you root for Balto to get the medicine in time and safely retrieve it for all the infected children during the harsh winter.
Even the film’s main antagonist was quite ruthless. Steele is one of the most despicable and dangerous villains I’ve ever seen in animation. Never mind the fact he’s self-centered and a short-tempered narcissist; he’s also heartless as he deliberately caused his team to get lost so the children wouldn’t get the cure for their disease.
Basically, he was willing to let those kids die and be the only one to survive the winter of 1925 for the purpose of portraying himself as a hero who did what he could to “save” them. While I like how he was exposed as a liar at the end and was left with no fans, I still wished he suffered a more cruel fate for his actions.
He is just that horrible of a person…or dog. And I completely forgot Jim Cummings voiced him. Man, he did so well!
Those are the only things I like about this movie. Unfortunately, there are more things to dislike about it than what I listed. The voice acting was alright for the most part, but Kevin Bacon’s voice performance as Balto feels flat and unconvincing.
His character as a whole is likewise boring to watch. It’s the typical story of an outcast who wants to join in but is bullied or scorned until he does something exceptional. It’s a fun idea, but the execution feels sloppy.
Balto barely has any personality due to the lackluster voice acting. So I didn’t care about his adventures or his struggles that much. He also doesn’t have any flaws or issues of his own. He’s…too good of a character.
The other characters aren’t that good either. They are either annoying or unnecessary because the film relied too heavily on slapstick humor. In fact, that’s the main element I hate about this film: slapstick humor. It was very distracting compared to its story…especially a story that involves children lying at death’s door. It just feels out of place.
Jenna is another character who is practically just as interesting as a cardboard box. “Hey, look, here’s a cliche love interest of the protagonist, and we’re not gonna do anything with her at all. Hooray!”
But if there’s one character who was remotely decent, it would be Boris the Goose. He has some really good lines such as, “I’m not wishing you luck! I’m wishing you sense!” and “A dog cannot make this journey alone but…maybe a wolf can.” The late Bob Hoskins was the second cast member I enjoyed listening to.
Lastly, it was nice seeing Rosy live long enough to tell the story as a granny and seeing her narrate the story in a live-action setting in NYC. It was nice and wholesome to watch her retell the story of her hero.
So overall, it was a decent re-watch, but…I don’t think I’ll ever watch this again. This makes me less interested in watching the sequels because I can tell for a fact they’re of the same quality…or even worse. Therefore, it gets a 6/10.
Peace.
Cummings’ casting as Steele has quite an interesting story, really.
Prior to its release, the film’s director, Simon Wells, was initially going to cast Brendan Fraser for the role. But, Steven Spielberg, who was executive producer of the film, recommended recasting the role with Cummings because he wanted to feel a clearer sense of Steele’s “inherent evil”. Wells would also go on to state that Cummings "did a fantastic job, and totally made the character live, so I don't regret the choice."
Buy what information I found though about this event that it happened but a little differently in the fact that there was a dog who did the longest part of trip, Balto did a much more shorter part. There's life action movie on that dog and the trip. Forgot the name of the dog.
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Togo.
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Correct!
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Yay. “TOGO” is an amazing movie. I deeply hope Disney considers releasing the film on home video and other streaming services at some point, mainly on the grounds that it deserves to be seen through more than just Disney+.