Byanca, look...here is what all fans now acknowledge as fact and canon:

- the white wolf in the first movie is, so far, just a white wolf. What it SPECIFICALLY is, either a spirit, a real wolf, and/or Balto's mom is something that only Simon or another production person involved in the first movie can answer with any certainty;

- Nava called Balto "brother" in the same way that a member of a tribe would call someone a "brother" or "sister". It's not a literal brother-brother relationship...it was a term of racial affiliation;

- Aniu was already acknowledged by Phil Weinstein, the director of Balto 2 and Balto 3, as the literal mother of Balto. And, as I said, she called him "my son", and he called her "mother" during Balto 2, and told Aleu that he had a mother who was a wolf, whose fur was white as snow;

These things are indisputable. You have to accept these facts. Every fan has. The only remaining question is who or what the white wolf in the first movie was.

Well, Nava calls him "my brother". And what? And all the wolves calls this she-wolf as "The Great Aniu" (nobody tells that she died or someting like this -- she is the Spirit Guardian for Balto, she's one of the spirits from totem, I tell it myself -- without some fanfics, where Aniu "resurrected "; Balto is an orphan). I respect your opinions (an, yep, maybe I don't accept WQ -- but who knows), but I'm full sure -- Aniu isn't Balto's mom. And, again, in the original film Balto didn't tell about this. So, it's just my opinion. But everywhere we can see truth or false.

But Aniu is Balto's mom... And she certainly isn't a "deity." Despite the description Balto gave in Balto II about his mother, we can't exactly pin point how old Balto was when he was separated from her.

Aniu and the White Wolf are TWO completely different characters. I think that's something a lot of fans are confused about. But until we hear from Simon, the White Wolf remains a mystery.

Aniu is not actually a deity of any kind. She's taken her spirit form, and is changeable because she is a spirit. But she specifically calls Balto "my son" during the movie, and he calls her "mother". She is definitely his mother...that's a matter of canon now.

JerseyCaptain, I agree with you. However, I never seen WQ, so when I was a child, I through that White Wolf is a female and that it's the spirit (illusion or vision before cold death) and simbolic character for Balto. Well, Aniu can't be Balto's mom, because she is a deity of the wolves (and Balto was blind puppy, so he could not see this -- he remember only a sweet voice and white fur on mother's chest and nothing more). So it doesn't matter -- Aniu and the White Wolf is the same character or not. But thank you so much.

Exactly. He's teasing Balto. But in answer to the question of the mother thing, it was established in Balto 2: Wolfquest that Balto's mother was indeed a white wolf. The question for Simon to answer is what the intention of adding the white wolf in the first movie was. Whether or not it was an unspoken nod to his maternal ancestry, or just some "spirit of the wolf" urging him on, or even a real wolf, off by itself, stumbling upon Balto by chance and then trying to communicate with him, that's the mystery we all hope Simon can solve for us.

JerseyCaptain, thank you! So this phrase is just a random (like another his phrase "I've a letter for your mother" -- it dosn't mean that Balto's mother can be a wolf -- it's like a joke as "Your mom is fat").

Byanca, Steele was probably just teasing and baiting Balto by purposefully creating a name like that. It's a common teasing tactic by bullies. Certainly if Simon Wells wants to answer this he can, but that was clearly the intent of the character. There is very likely no back story to it beyond that.