Animation Source Forums

that's why they would make him a malamute. i dont think that the animators are gonna bend the laws of nature that much to make him look evil.

I work at an animal shelter. The malamutes are WAY bigger than the huskies. The huskies are smaller and slender (like Star and Kaltag) and the malamutes are bigger and muscular (like Steele). His overall physique and image looks just like a malamute's. Why wouldn't he be one?

That's a husky. Huskies can have black fur, it's not rare.

Huskies CAN get quite big, like Steele. But it's not a normal size. If a big husky like Steele entered a dog show, it would lose because it wouldn't match the breed standards. Normal sized male huskies are 21 to 23½ inches at the withers.

I own a male husky. He could never go into a dog show because he is TOO BIG. He is twice the size of a normal husky, as I measured him to be 42 inches at the withers.

The official breed standards for a malamute states that they only have dark eyes. Blue eyes are considerably a disqualification.

I'm absolutely sure that the animators intended Steele to be a purebred husky. Huskies can vary in size and colors. I happen to own a purebred husky who is 42 inches at the withers and weighs nearly 80 pounds (which is NOT fat for his size). That's practically TWICE the size from a normal purebred husky. My husky IS purebred, with a pedigree and whatnot. My husky is big and muscular like Steele, just not black and white. He's mostly gray with a black saddle and ears.

So, sorry to disagree with you. But I am positive that Steele is a purebred husky.

Huskies being that big are NOT common at all, and it's very typial for a Malamute to have his size and build. I don't understand why people come up with all these reasons of why it would be possible for him to be a husky, when he looks more like a Malamute in the first place. If he looks like one, then I say he is one. Easy as that. If you want to call him a Husky, fine, but I'm always gonna stand by my opinion.

There seems to be a lot of bad information in some of these threads about the whole husky/mal debate. People are posting wrong information all over. I don't care what breed they intended him to be because after all this is an animated film. Even in hollywood when they say "based on a true story" it is often far from the truth just like when they did the movie eight below. All i'm here for is to clear up some confusion on malamutes and huskies. I own two malamutes and every day at the dog park I get asked "are those your huskies?" Very very few people know the difference.

The first issue I have though is by people saying because of the pedigree it is proof that he is purebred. That really isn't so. Dod registration is actually pretty much an honor based system. Since I have 2 registered mals if I were to breed them I could get the form and register the puppies they whelped. However there is nothing stopping me from breeding my mal to a husky and just saying that I bred my 2 mals together. From that point on those puppies would be AKC registered pure breeds. Then later on they could breed and pass on registration and pedigree to their offspring which would of course not be true but no one would know. Dog registration and pedigrees are only as good as the word of the breeder. So his line about the pedigree is proof of nothing.

As for Rylie's other thread about the mal with blue eyes I read that entire post and a lot of people were really mistaken about the stuff that they were saying. first off no matter what that picture said about it being a pure bred mal that you posted that is NOT a mal. That is without a doubt a husky. When I was looking for mal puppies I came across many a website that said they had purebred mals and it showed pictures of them with blue eyes and I knew they were wrong. When you are paying 1000 dollars or more for a mal, you know your stuff and you aren't about to get stiffed with a husky.

Now to clear this up. Malamutes have never, ever, ever or will ever ever have blue eyes. They DON'T. They ALWAYS have brown almond shaped eyes. ALWAYS. Blue eyes are considered a fault in shows because it without a doubt means that somewhere along the line, a husky was mixed into the breeding and it is no longer PUREBRED. The teacher at the shelter that told you that they can have 1 blue eye or both is completely WRONG. That is a husky.

Mals are much much larger than a standard husky although I have seen a number of huskies around 75 pounds at the dog park that were in great shape. That is real big for a husky, generally male huskies are 45 to 60 pounds and there is some variation but not as much as a mal. mals by standard are around 85 pounds but can get much much larger. To give you a good example a female husky by standard is 30 to 45 pounds. They can be a bit bigger but not much. so a large end of the spectrum female husky is 45 pounds. My female mal this morning at the vet weighed in at 45 pounds and she is only 4 months old. She just turned 4 months a day ago and she is the same as a large adult female husky.

I know this doesn't mean anything about the movie but I just wanted to give you some real facts about the real dogs. Everytime I read someone say that mals usually have blue or white eyes or that they are rare when they have blue eyes it makes me want to pull my hair out. Once again a malamute CAN'T have blue eyes. Not a pure one anyway.

She saw these dogs with her OWN eyes, so I highly doubt that what she told me was wrong. Anyway, I think that you should keep in mind that a lot of people discussing this topic forget that this is an animated movie, and mistakes like that can be made. I really like all the reasearch you did up there, but I doubt that the animators went that far to figure out the cans and cannots of the breeds.

Now, I'm getting kind of tired of this argument. I'm not trying to change everyone's mind, I'm just giving reason to why i believe this because I've read posts where people were all like "there's no way he can be a amalmute cuz of this and this and blah blah blah!!dfjdfjhdhgdjf!!! so there! he's a husky! HA!" and all that stuff.


I think that on the off-chance if anyone here knows how to get in touch with any of the animators--by e-mail or something--then they should. And coppey/paste their reply on here so everyone can read it and see the answer for themselves.

She may have seen the dog with her OWN eyes but she is still completely wrong. Mals CAN'T have blue eyes or mixed eyes. It isn't genetically possible for them if they are pure mal. If they are pure mal they will always 100 percent of the time be brown almond shaped eyes. This isn't opinion this is fact. As for doing research I didn't have to do any, I already knew all of this off the top of my head. My breeder of my first mal is listed through the malamute club of america which is very very exclusive and some states only have a breeder or two that are listed through them. I go through the husky/mal explanation daily to people explaining the differences.

I wasn't trying to single you out it was just that in the thread you started with the picture that one seemed to be the one where people were posting the most things that weren't correct. I'm not trying to change your mind or anyone elses. You can all believe whatever you want and that is perfectly ok. All I'm trying to do is stop people from confusing facts about the real dogs, like when people say mals can have blue eyes. That is completely wrong in the real world. Could the animated version be a mal with blue eyes? Sure it could and that is fine, but to try to say in real life some mals have blue eyes and use that as proof it is completely wrong.

A good rule of thumb is most of the time you come across one of the northern breeds they are huskies or at least husky mixes of some types. mals are much rarer. The dog park I go to I know 1 other person who has a mal. I know about 30 huskies that go there. With the exception of the litter mates of the one I have from my first breeder I don't know of any other mals within a large area of me yet I see huskies almost daily. This doesn't mean anything toward the movie I'm just stating in a lot of movies and pictures of real dogs most of them are huskies, like the picture that was posted in the other thread. I don't expect the animators to follow the guidelines at all. They might of done the research and know the charactersitics but that doesn't mean they followed them. I have no problem with that.

Whatever. I don't care anymore. I still stand by what I said.

Good points, Claymore. The idea that he could be more like a 'Husky on steroids' makes sense, really.
The animators care far more about getting their characters' personalities across than about realism, anyway.
I don't care either way, if you call him a Husky or a Mal...makes no difference.
I don't always trust those 'official' books and sources, though. Frequently they seem to know less about animals than I do. xD

eggh, why must there be so many argumenative people that want to get there way? STEELE IS A MALAMUTE! he has too many characteristics of a mal to be a husky.