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The "overall effect of the movies" is in the eye of the beholder. As I said before, different people experience this movie differently. You can't tell people that this movie shouldn't make them sad because that's not what the writers intended. It doesn't work that way.

As far as the clinical definition of depression and whether this movie is able to cause it or not, maybe you guys should read what I said again. The reaction I and other people have experienced is not caused directly by the events in the movie that can be considered "sad". They're not related.

Nobody here, not me or anybody else, is qualified to tell anybody how they should or should not feel when watching this movie, or what emotions this movie is capable or not capable of producing in the viewer. This is more about having an open mind and accepting the fact that there are aspects of this movie that cause different people to experience it differently, because of the viewer's own life experiences.

So if somebody says this movie made them cry for 48 hours, I believe them, and I understand why. If it didn't make you cry, that's great. Not all people are the same as you. Try to keep in mind that this movie has the potential to evoke far greater emotional responses from people who deeply identify with certain aspects of it, like Jenna and Balto's relationship, for example. If that's something you don't personally identify with, that's fine. But don't assume nobody else does.

I personally believe Balto can actually cause depression - real depression - but it's important to note that it would be entirely conditional on the mental and emotional state of the viewer. Nothing in the movie would cause an emotionally healthy person to become depressed. That being said, remember that not everybody here is emotionally healthy. Some of us have long standing, crippling emotional issues that are vastly intensified by some aspects of this movie.

Why do you think I write about Balto and Jenna the way I do? It's not because I'm a model of emotional stability, that's for sure. I accept my flaws, and I understand them. I use them to my advantage. The irony is that without them, I wouldn't have written my stories at all, and I know at least a couple people on the site enjoyed them. It's almost ridiculous how my deep-seated emotional issues are they very things that drive me to write like I do. The thing is, it's actually very healthy to channel it like that, so ultimately Balto is one of the best things to happen to me.

The bottom line is that you need to keep an open mind about this. Nobody is trying to say that Balto, the movie itself, could be responsible for causing depression or even significant sadness in a normal, well adjusted person. It all has to do with the person viewing it, and their emotional state. There are a few movies that affected me like this, and Disney's Robin Hood was the first one. That one has been driving me like this since I saw it for the first time thirty years ago. Balto is a close second.

very, very true. Minds are very individual, and the study of how they work, facinating. I would never deny that. What I stated, was that all those who said "heck no" didn't nessisarily mean it had no effect on them, after all would we be fans if the movie hadn't caused some emotional response, and/or something to relate to? It would have passed out of our lives just like it did for those who are not fans. I was able to relate to it because I went through elementary school being treated exactly as Balto was. A direct mirror. Why? I was a nerd. I am a nerd. I was the one who went home and watched documentarys. Who stuck only to the discovery network in my television viewing. I was the only one who aced standardized tests. I was the only one who followed the rules. And for all those things, I was rejected. Yet, I never changed and never will. I was able to relate because I know what Balto's expirience is like, and Balto helped me through that expirience. Things were very differant in jr. High, and have been in high school. I don't know where that crutial turning point occured, but I'm very glad it did. The expirience didn't exactly leave me emotionally stable either. When entering a social environment, I assume everyone is my enemy until proven otherwise. I've been through chronic depression because of it as well.

I related because my experiences with people mirrored Balto's. Really directly along the movie's plotline. When did I bring the
medicine back? Four years ago, upon becoming a key player of my jr. High's yearbook staff. Four years later, I've now started my fourth consecutive year in yearbook, this time becomming a key player in my high school's yearbook. Being a key part of that is what made me high profile, and accepted as an equal or sometimes superior. I was made safe from both verbal and physical harrasment by being high profile, and having selflessly produced (i gave up countless hours of my time to finish the yearbook, something nobody else would do) someting everyone wanted. Just like Balto. I suppose I didn't exactly save any lives, but my social expirience was the same as Balto's and thus, through a very lengthy parallel, I related to and became a fan of Balto, even well before expiriencing the good side of my peers.

I suppose emotional reaction is probably very much a result of how people make connections and parallels with the movie, where they make those relations and parallels, and how they interpet them. In elementary school, I was inspired by the movie, because Balto went through what I was going through, and not only made the best of it but turned it around. I proceeded to do the same.

Great example. Personally, I love how Balto is a movie that can be so many things to so many different people. We all experience things like Balto through our own "life filters", and Balto is just one of those movies that hits a wide variety of high points. For some people it's the perfect underdog story, for others (like me, cough) it's the perfect love story.

Unfortunatly I couldn't relate to the sequals, aside from Balto's sudden passion for aviation, a passion I have had all my life, which appeared out of nowhere in the third. I finally went of to become a pilot just last summer. The only relation I can make with balto2 is that appearently my therapist assumed I was just like Aleu.

"so are you having any issues with your parents?"
"Nope, we get along fine"
(brief interlude diolauge)
"So how do you get along with your parents?"
"...just fine"
(slightly longer interlude)
"so how is the relationship between you and your parents?"
"..."

I laughed heartily about that one




it's like that every time I have to get my prescription for OCD medication renewed. (which I rarely use anyway. As I program computers in my free time, and the medication tends to screw with my code organization) Appearently, they can't get it through their heads that I am more or less emotionally stable, and that my relationships were.

well for one thing, crying isnt depression (im in depression and it is 50X worse)
also, it is a childrens movie and making it depressing would cause even lower ratings and less people would buy the film.
if any one got 'depressed' from the movie it would be possibly a 2-3 year old, if they can understand the movie

Yes, precisely. Depression can last for months, even years at a time. As I stated in my previous post, the movie could be touching, but cause depression?

Like I said above, the effect the movie has on the viewer is dependent on the viewer - not on the movie's content per se. Events in the movie will affect some people more than others. Depending on how much somebody identifies with some of the elements in the movie and how emotionally vulnerable they are to those elements, it can definitely cause depression.

Nobody is saying that Balto by itself is causing depression. But given the right circumstances, a person can become depressed by watching it.

Touching - yes.

Able to cause depression - ... go get help....


As people have said, depression does not last only "48 hours". So to call your bit of crying "depression" can be offensive to people who actually suffer from it.

Blunt and untactful? Possibly, but eh, calling it how I see it.

A 48 hour period is in no way depression. There is no real way for the movie to acctually cause the chronic condition, however, as Xaqtly said, under the proper circumstances, (The subject is already afflicted with some form of depression, but not currently suffering, it goes away and comes back) It could theoretically start a bout of depression symptoms, again related to how the subject identifies with the movie. However, it will not cause the mental ailment in itself.

Psychology is a very tricky subject. As with all science, it must be studied objectively. However, an individual's mind is entirely subjective. There is really no way to predict how someone will/should react to mental stimuli. Really, they could react in an infinate number of ways. It is difficult to make an objective study on something entirely subjective. All you can do is take a huge sample size, and determine the average reaction to certian stimuli. However, this will not account for the vast number of people who will react differantly, based on life expirience, trauma, or simple and miniscule chemical discrepancies with what has been determined as the average. Really, I find the subject facinating, but my point is, there is no way to determine that there is anything wrong or abnormal who did find it depressing, or for that matter, overwhelmingly happy. We can only know the average, and sometimes, the average isnt even the majority. You could have a sample where all the subjects are at opposite extremes of reaction. The average would be no reaction. There is simply no way to really decide whether or not the movie is depressing. That is entirely subjective. To come out with a definitive answer would be objective, and therefore impossible. We can only take an average, and an average doesn't place the outliers as differant. The human mind is 100% subjective. People share opinions, but never EXACT thoughts, right down to the firing of their neurons.


Balto can't really CAUSE depression, but it can certianly instigate an existing condition. I think that is really a better term for what Baltoluv stated. Its closer to Balto instigating depression. An event of any nature could instigate depression symptoms.

Beautifully said, and very accurate, Tibb! Well done!



Also very well said! And logical. Because anyone who gets depressed watching such a movie certainly must have emotional or psychological issues which most likely need professional therapeutic intervention.

Indeed

Balto 1 did something to my mental status for about 3 months, not all that long ago. It felt like depression, or possibly obsession, but I could never place the exact reason why there was that feeling. Maybe it was his relationship with Jenna, relating to the girl I liked for 4 years who never even considered me; it seems like a possibility. Or the fact that middle school was H.e. double for me and I felt rejected all the time. One other thing is that the landscape is very similar to where I live. Snow is not the scenery typical of any other animated film I've seen. Whatever the reason, I still have to avoid listening to "Heritage of the wolf" because that song just sets me off. ...that probably seems really weird to most of you, but it's true. The first time I saw the movie was around 12 years ago when I was 5 or so. Then one day I decided to watch it again and it completely "did something" to my mind.........yah idk......please don't judge me on this comment lol. Now adays I try to just regard it as a good movie.

Wow,

you just bested me and xaqtly, paralelling in both the love and underdog aspects!

What you say about us being here is very, very true.

I loved alien
I loved jaws
loved the dirty Harry movies
loved big Jake

never became a full fledged fan of any of them

that relationship has to occur on an emotional level. As a student pilot with a life long passion
for aviation, I can superficially relate to Wings of Change. Despite this, I intensely disliked the movie.


Perhaps Balto was so successful with connecting with me was that it gave me a slightly new perspective on my own predicament, puting it into the third person, and taking it out of human context. It allowed me to see my own situation from a differant angle. Balto would get into a bad situation. Seeing it from this seperate perspective, I knew what he should do, and wished he would do it. Then whenever finding myself in similar predicaments, I subconsciouslly did what
he did or I wished he would do. (early in the movie he reacted more then he should, instigating further ritiqule) and it worked. The interesting thing is, I didn't realize those effects are exactly why I was a hardcore balto fan until reading this thread and posting my replies. It was then I
realized those parallels existed. I realized they where the reason I related to the movie so strongly. I first saw the movie predisposed towards huskies and wolves. That, and Balto's personallity similarities with myself allowed me to sympathize with Balto, and that allowed me to identify with him, and his situations. Balto may honestly have saved my social life.

Now, I have a reply when someone asks me why I am a balto fan.

Why?
Because I lived it.