Acanis

Simon

Thank you for your time in reading and answering these fan questions. I have been a fan since the movie was first released and even today it still means a lot to me.

I understand that there were a few scenes that were cut from the final movie and in some cases it would appear that they were even animated as unfamiliar frames from the movie appear on some of the official movie merchandise items such as story books and sticker albums (for example Rosie's father chasing Balto out of the Hardware store). In addition I have been fortunate enough to acquire some of the original artwork from some of these scenes such as the "Barrel Sequence". Other cut scenes/moments include Star ripping Steele's collar off and an alternative Balto/Jenna first encounter.

Sadly it seems unlikely that we will ever see a Director's Cut or Special Edition Blu-ray so could you please give us an insight into some of the scenes that were not included in the final version?

In addition do you know if any of the footage still exists?

Karlamon

Here is Simon's reply:

"Yeah, there were a number of bits that were in earlier versions of the story that we chose to cut down to streamline and clarify the story intent. Merchandising is often put into work before the final version of the story is nailed down, which is why episodes that are not in the film sometimes show up in these ancillary elements.

Ultimately, we felt that things like Balto being shoo'd away from the store was taking a long time to deliver an idea that we could deliver much more efficiently in Rosie's dad's reaction to Balto after the race.

Whereas in live action films the whole script is shot and then the edit is a cut-down of the material available, in animation the script is being written and reworked simultaneously with the storyboarding. So I think some of these things were discarded ideas that were replaced in the development process.

The film that we released was, in effect, the 'director's cut' in that there was no material that I wanted in the movie that wasn't there; I was not forced to cut anything out. And if you did put some of that material back (it only ever existed as storyboards, never finished animation), you'd find that there were repeated beats and the continuity would no longer make sense."

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Karlamon	December 29, 2015
	Questions mod
	Slack Pack

Here is Simon's reply: "Yeah, there were a number of bits that were in earlier versions of the story that we chose to cut down to streamline and clarify the story intent. Merchandising is often put into work before the final version of the story is nailed down, which is why episodes that are not in the film sometimes show up in these ancillary elements. Ultimately, we felt that things like Balto being shoo'd away from the store was taking a long time to deliver an idea that we could deliver much more efficiently in Rosie's dad's reaction to Balto after the race. Whereas in live action films the whole script is shot and then the edit is a cut-down of the material available, in animation the script is being written and reworked simultaneously with the storyboarding. So I think some of these things were discarded ideas that were replaced in the development process. The film that we released was, in effect, the 'director's cut' in that there was no material that I wanted in the movie that wasn't there; I was not forced to cut anything out. And if you did put some of that material back (it only ever existed as storyboards, never finished animation), you'd find that there were repeated beats and the continuity would no longer make sense."

BaltoSep pala	July 22, 2015
	O' Cap'n My Cap'n!

There we go. Awesome! And a great question!

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