Balto: Wolf Quest

This was a must see during my Balto obsession phase back in high school. Yes, it's crudely drawn TV animation and not one single person from the original Balto (that I am aware of) bothered to work on this movie released by Universal Toons as an attempt to copy off Disney's lack of originality. (Note: They ALMOST got Kevin Bacon to come back, ALMOST)

Any the movie...the one thing I remember was that I though it was terrible as soon as we heard Jenna I went nuts. (Why Jodie Benson? She's done terrible renditions of Anita (101 Dalmations 2) and Lady (Lady and the Tramp 2). Why Jenna?! Why couldn't they find someone who was much much closer to the personality of Bridget Fonda's character. Jodie Benson was great as Ariel and that is what she should stay. You know you're watching a video sequel when you hear Jodie Benson destroying an important female character and pushing her into the background. That's all Jenna, Boris, Muk and Luk were. They were gone before the second half of the movie and never returned. Actually this was a good thing because I could remember not being able to handle the torture of hearing and looking at these poorly done old characters.

My only other complaint was the CGI. I know it's kinda cool in the dream sequences but geez, couldn't these animators at least bother to make it more blendable with the animation?! Are they taking us Balto fans for suckers or just the kids?!

There are good things to like. As I said the movie for me actually got better and recovered from our character dissapointments. Aleu is voiced by Lacey Chabert who is also doomed to doing nothing but DTV sequels but I believe this character fitted her. (Yeah I know, Aleu should still be a puppy if only a year passed right? Oh well) And we cant forget how much of this plot was taking hmm lemme go down the list: Little Mermaid II, Lady and the Tramp II, 101 Dalmations II, and the big daddy: Lion King II. Yes the overprotective father and his rebellious daughter returns but don't worry folks, Balto's character isn't destroyed like Simba's was in the sequel. But some of the acting was lame. "Finding yourself," blah blah blah. Who cares?

OK the plot seems kinda pointless until we get to the wolves. now it all comes together and we actually have a plot. Niju's henchman however were unnecessary. I felt as though I was watching a Saturday morning cartoon with these guys. The wolves needed more character than comic relief. I say this is a different type of DTV sequel because well, check out the end...it's not your average DTV ending.

Last but not least songs, wow the songs. They're actually good. Still a bit DTV cheesy but still memorable. Someone needs to get on phone with Universal and say "Come on people! If Disney can chug out pointless soundtracks to their crappy DTV sequels, so can you!" This is really soundtrack worthy if there's four really good songs to consider.

So that's it. Here's to hoping that Balto 3 has the same, if not better beauty of Balto 2, but I doubt it.