Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Balto Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson December 21, 2020

It isn't often that a feature alternates between live-action and animation but Balto bridges both forms. Granted, it uses the classical method of having a grandmother (Miriam Margolyes) narrate the tale of a legendary canine to her granddaughter (Lola Bates-Campbell) as the two take a stroll through New York's Central Park in search of a statue. Screenwriter William Goldman and director Rob Reiner use a similar framing device in The Princess Bride (1987) for the opposite gender. It's the grandfather (Peter Falk) reading a fairy tale to his grandson (Fred Savage). Director Simon Wells employs this device in Balto to tell the adventurous yarn of sled dogs in search of a special serum. The live action (ca. 1995) dissolves from a shot of the grandma to an animated snowscape in Nome, Alaska in 1925. The titular Balto (voiced by Kevin Bacon) is an outcast because he's a half-breed Siberian husky/wolf and isn't trusted by the other dogs. His only friends are a Russian snow goose named Boris (voiced by Bob Hoskins) and polar bears, Muk and Luk (Phil Collins voices both). Balto enters a race for the fastest dog and wins but is cheated out by the treacherous Steele (voiced by Jim Cum­mings). The township of Nome is facing a diphtheria epidemic and with a brutal January snowstorm prohibiting the travel of automobiles, ships, and airplanes from delivering the antitoxin serum, there are hardly any options. The nearest supply is 674 miles away at the Nenana railway terminal. Balto is supposed to be the musher but Steele schemes his way to the front of the sledders. The film's scribes introduce the caramel husky, Jenna (voiced by Bridget Fonda), as a competing love interest for Balto and Steele. Additionally, Jenna’s owner, the young girl Rosy (voiced by Juliette Brewer), has diphtheria so Jenna's trek with the other dogs serves as integral plot point.

Jenna and Balto reach for the light.

The first part of Balto features more traditional 2D animation with backgrounds that resemble static matte paintings. The style is more dynamic in the middle and the rest of the film when there's different fusions of light and a greater diversity of colors. If Balto doesn't reach the artistic heights of Don Bluth's animated features, it's perhaps just a step below them. It was one of the last pen-drawn animated films and part of a dying breed.

Balto received mostly favorable reviews even after being released some weeks after the great success of Pixar's Toy Story. The headline that ran in The Clarion (MS) Ledger atop Jack Garner's review read: "Balto worthy competitor of Toy Story." Allen Barra, a reviewer for Newhouse News Service, observed that Balto "doesn’t look like anything that’s been out on the kids’ market for the last few years." Marc Horton of the Edmonton Journal declared it "probably the best animated fea­ture to come from Steven Spiel­berg’s Amblin Entertainment group."

Note: the London Observer announced in January 1995 that Balto was the final film to be made at Spielberg's Amblimation studio in Acton, west London, before it moved operations to the US.

Balto Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Universal has released Balto on an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. Appearing in its originally composited ratio of 1.85:1, the film looks authentic to its intended theatrical presentation. There is a textured grain present throughout the picture. It snows often in the movie and Universal's technical authors have been very careful to not apply too many noise-reduction tools. I noticed some white specks amid the snow but artifacts are rare. How did the film look in the theatrical prints? Malcolm Johnson of the Hartford (CT) Courant notes that Hans Bacher's production de­signs "make the best of a limited palette, greens, blues and lots of white, with warmer colors in Nome." Those same colors and tones are prevalent on this transfer. The aurora borealis skies shine. Universal has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 27901 kbps.

Universal gives the 78-minute movie eight chapters.

Balto Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (2744 kbps, 24-bit) and five language dubs, each in lossy DTS 2.0 stereo. Spoken words delivered by the voice actors are clear and crisp. F/x primarily reach the surround channels during action scenes.

James Horner's music is the most pronounced part of the lossless mix I heard along the rears. It's presence also stuck out to the movie's original reviewers. David Elliot of the Copley News Service quipped that Horner's score "does make you think Nome is the first Alaskan town to be wired for Dolby." At a likely press screening, Variety's Brian Lowry described the music as "blaring."

Balto was the eighth and last score that Horner composed for an animated feature. He previously wrote the music for An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), Once Upon a Forest (1993), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), The Pagemaster (1994), and Casper (1995). His score for Balto is heavy on strings (briskly played), French horns, and trumpet fanfare for the sled dog scenes. In the liner notes to the expanded Intrada soundtrack album of Balto, composer Frank K. DeWald writes that the main theme goes from minor to major on the semitone scale that has a pattern of 3-2-1-2-3-4-5. Horner incorporates theme and variation with this one and only theme through different pitches, rhythms, and harmonies that I heard on the Blu-ray mix and the album.

Universal provides optional English SDH and subtitle options in German, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Balto Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray contains no extras. The Region 1 DVD includes production notes and a theatrical trailer. The PAL discs contain a 27-minute making-of featurette on the real Balto, who was also the subject of a 1925 documentary short entitled Balto's Race to Nome.

Balto Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While Balto is not up to par with the then-groundbreaking computer animation Pixar produced in the mid '90s and the Disney productions of yesteryear, it's entertaining and competently made. It will appeal to those who grew up watching All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) but I'd argue that it's superior. The film's pairing of Jenna and Balto draws inspiration from Lady and the Tramp (1955). One subplot that Balto doesn't resolve is the friction and conflicts Steele causes with the other sled dogs. It doesn't know what to do with Steele. The movie had four screenwriters so one would think it could give deliver some resolution! Universal's bare-bones BD-25 boasts a very good transfer and a pretty sterling English audio track. Unfortunately, there are no supplements but I'm so glad it finally reached the States. RECOMMENDED.