The blog of someone who worked on Balto !!!

steet · **Posted:** Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:37 am

Whitewolf(uk) wrote:

Wow, you've got some awesome luck finding that Steet!! :shock:

As for questions, erm...

1: If Universal were to make a fourth Balto film at the same quality of the
first would like to work on it?
2: Do you agree with the idea of making a Balto Special Edition DVD?

3: If so, do you think it should include as much content as the Lion King
Special Edition DVD?

I don't reply for him, but : he doesn't work for Universal now, I'm not even sure he has seen the sequels. (well that might be a question to ask...)

Some of my questions :

1/ What was exactly your job on Balto?

2/ Do you have any idea why the film didn't encounter success? Why it wasn't well promoted by Universal? (problems between Universal and Amblimation? Toy Story?) We have the feeling that it has been "abandoned" by both its makers and its publisher, even before its release.

3/ Why did Spielberg decide to make a new animation studio (Dreamworks) when he already had one?

4/ What does the white wolf exactly represents?

5/ What was the film budget?

6/ Was "Snowballs" a code name for the film?

7/ What started the project? (the initial idea?) When did pre-production start?

8/ Why Don Bluth wasn't involved in the film, unlike the previous Amblimation ones?

9/ Do you have more photos/artworks to show?

10/ Do you know any other people from the Balto crew we could contact?

11/ What do you think of the current whole-CGI trend? Do you think the computer animated films have the same "value" as the traditionally animated ones?

Maugrim · **Posted:** Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:04 pm

You've got all of my questions more or less in there Steet.

USMC Wolf · **Posted:** Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:12 pm

Those are some awesome pics, nice find Steet.

(deleted user) · **Posted:** Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:19 pm

wow

agwolfcp [Kyrahlynn] · **Posted:** Sat Mar 24, 2007 7:32 pm

steet wrote:

He says that on his blog :

Quote:

it is surprising that there is no publication
about a very productive period in london the end
of the eighties until the mid nineties. during that
time steven spielberg had his own animation studio
A M B L I M A T I O N, located not in one of the
nicest areas in london, in acton located north of
chiswick and not too far away from kew gardens.
within these few years the studio produced FIEVEL
GOES WEST, WE'RE BACK and BALTO.
they might not be absolute masterpieces,
but compared to the junk that we better
don't watch nowadays they don't look too bad.

the studio had collected after a short time the
probably best available talent in europe. most of
the animators came from france ( school gobelins )
and of course england. but a lot were from germany,
italy, denmark and holland. what an incredible melting
pot! and what incredible talent!
you can judge yourself today, because
most of the talent of DREAMWORKS-animation
is from the original london amblimation crew. when
spielberg, katzenberg and geffen formed
dreamworks in 1994 in los angeles, most of the
talent from the london studio moved to L.A.

in 1991 I was a bit bored with my development
work on KING of the JUNGLE at that time, later
THE LION KING. it was not my favorite story
and not too many artists at disney believed in
the project. in annecy that year I met some of
the artists of AMBLIMATION that I had worked
with on ROGER RABBIT some years earlier,
simon wells and phil nibbelink. they were working
on a very interesting project, the animated version
of the andrew lloyd webber musical CATS.
the story details sounded very interesting as well,
so I went to london, one of my favorite cities, in
sept.1991. the studio was at that time finishing
WE'RE BACK. probably not too many people
remember that movie. it had major story problems
and for rating reasons some of the more interesting
'horror-movie' parts were cut out. most of them
were already animated. it was a shame, the whole
movie did not make sense anymore and the
animation had been incredible. some very good
animators worked in the studio, kristof serrand,
rudolphe guenoden, eric bibo bergeron, rob
stevenhagen, nicolas marlet, jeff varab, daniel
jeanette and many more.

some more incredible artists in art direction
neil ross and color styling daniel cacouault.
the same top talent in layout and background,
too many to name them all. later I worked with
all of them on BALTO.

Oh my gosh, I remember "We're Back"! I saw it once, a looooong time ago. I was really young and enjoyed it. I'd be interested in seeing it again now that I'm older...

Anyway, somethings I'd be interested in asking would be: 1.Once the actual animating was started, how many seconds of film were completed each day? and 2.how was the actual animating done, since they didn't use cels?

if I think of anything else, I'll let you know^^

PhiWolf_14 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:08 am

groov-a-licious(a special find deserves a special word)

steet · **Posted:** Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:48 am

So, is this ok for everyone? Will I send him these questions?

steet · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:40 am

I just sent him the questions, and he also posted some more!

And he mentioned also this :

Quote:

the gold-dredge played a much bigger part in
the earlier story versions of BALTO. in the final
film only a little bit is left. it was a very interesting
location designwise because a lot of oldfashioned
machinery had to be invented. we only found little
reference of actual gold-dredges in alaska.
so I went on a reference trip through some very
old machine repair shops in chiswick/london
and a waterpump station from the 1900s in
the same area. amazing machinery, very detailed
in design. I documented most of it on video, will
check where it is and post some images.
following are some of my color designs of
the gold-dredge...

KrazyArc075-cwp · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:50 am

wowy I think I know these used in the movie! I think wowy! Tell him he has my thanks for sharing these wow!!!!

steet · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:59 am

Check this one more closely! (make a zoom in your picture editing program!) Behind Boris & the bears, there are two dogs and it's mentioned "B & J", probably "Balto & Jenna", did this mean they intend them to go together?

UKthewhitewolf · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:28 am

I'm looking forward to his answers. Those pics are awesome too, I love the detail he puts into them...I wonder if Balto and Jenna were supposed to be together...guess it should've been a question, too bad he updated his pics too late...he did upload 'em after you sent the questions right steet?

steet · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:37 am

Well he posted them on another blog, which I found out only after having sent the questions. Maybe if he answers that batch of questions, he'll be able to answer one more.

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The blog of someone who worked on Balto !!!