jerseycaptain

Simon,

Thank you for your patience with my questions, and please understand that each is given with respect and deference to your professionalism and your expertise!

One final question from me, if that's okay.

Why did the story writers and the production team decide against featuring the many other teams which took part in the actual 1925 Nome serum run?  As we know, there were actually twenty-one teams which were intended to participate...one of which didn't, due to being bypassed by the musher of Balto's team (musher Ed Rohn, whose lead dog--interestingly enough--was named "Star"). 

I fully realize that, in a movie, you need to try and focus on a small cast of regulars and, ideally, one primary protagonist, but there are plenty of aficionados of the actual serum run who have always been bothered by the fact that dogs like Togo, Fritz, Scotty, Blackie, Star (the real one, who wasn't a Klee Kai because they didn't exist until the 1970s), etc., and people like Leonhard Seppala, Gunnar Kaasen, Emily Morgan, Curtis Welch, Scott Bone, Wild Bill Shannon, etc. were forgotten completely in the script (at best, Dr. Welch is indirectly nodded to by the unnamed doctor who is shown).

Plenty of people have long been curious about that.  And especially as concerns the lead dog Togo (who led Leonhard Seppala's team).  Togo is widely viewed as the major canine hero of the serum run even if each dog which participated did its part very well.

Thoughts?  Thanks!

Karlamon

Here is Simon's reply:

"Yes, I read a lot of the contemporary news articles about the real serum run, so I am aware that the original plan had been for Seppala to do the whole round-trip, and it was only after he had set out from Nome that the relay plan was hatched. (The truly stunning thing is that Seppala met the serum relay en route, took a turn and then handed it over to the next team in the relay, and then continued on to Nome and arrived only a day or so after the relay of fresh teams made it there.)

I can understand the concern about how far the plot of the movie deviates from the historical truth, and feel badly for the many families who are proud of their relatives' involvement in the real-life heroics.

The movie is a fantasy based (loosely) on historical events, and concentrates on one character's personal journey - and that character is highly fictionalized, too. We never set out to make a documentary, and in our defense the live-action frame of the film does indicate that what we are being told is childhood memory, and that it is being told to entertain a grandchild, so may have considerable deviations from fact in it.

I know that when the Balto statue was commissioned for Central Park, many people felt that it should have been Togo. But Balto had been the hero of the sensationalist news stories and the name everyone had heard. In compromise, the plaque does not name Balto specifically, but talks about all the sled dogs - which is also why we read it out in full in the final scene of the film."

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Last comments

BaltoSep pala	August 13, 2015
	O' Cap'n My Cap'n!

That is a much-appreciated answer from Simon! I am quite certain, after he received my message through you, Karlamon, that he understands my passion for the true story (as he indicated in his response to me, also noting that he understood my feelings and my dedication, which was a substantial compliment), but this question was certainly one that other fans have expressed with equal passion (or nearly so). My other question to him was, with my request, rescinded before he saw it, but it did pertain to the question of the tag line of the movie ("the true story of an American hero", which it isn't, really...it's only loosely based upon the true story). I am impressed that Simon also took the time to review the historical information about the serum run in preparing to answer my follow-up question.

Karlamon	August 13, 2015
	Questions mod
	Slack Pack

Here is Simon's reply: "Yes, I read a lot of the contemporary news articles about the real serum run, so I am aware that the original plan had been for Seppala to do the whole round-trip, and it was only after he had set out from Nome that the relay plan was hatched. (The truly stunning thing is that Seppala met the serum relay en route, took a turn and then handed it over to the next team in the relay, and then continued on to Nome and arrived only a day or so after the relay of fresh teams made it there.) I can understand the concern about how far the plot of the movie deviates from the historical truth, and feel badly for the many families who are proud of their relatives' involvement in the real-life heroics. The movie is a fantasy based (loosely) on historical events, and concentrates on one character's personal journey - and that character is highly fictionalized, too. We never set out to make a documentary, and in our defense the live-action frame of the film does indicate that what we are being told is childhood memory, and that it is being told to entertain a grandchild, so may have considerable deviations from fact in it. I know that when the Balto statue was commissioned for Central Park, many people felt that it should have been Togo. But Balto had been the hero of the sensationalist news stories and the name everyone had heard. In compromise, the plaque does not name Balto specifically, but talks about all the sled dogs - which is also why we read it out in full in the final scene of the film."

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