Animation Source Forums

This is different than the thread about action...

If you were in charge of Balto 4, what direction would you take it? Would you maximize the budget and try and top the first; or would you follow the footsteps of Balto 2 and 3 and take a different path? Would there be songs? What characters would recur other than Balto, and what new character would you introduce? Would you have someone die? Who would you hire for the voices? What else would you do?

Assuming I have very deep pockets...

Given that I'm not working for Universal nor Disney, just because I'm curious what a Balto film would be like with a different cast, I would base it more around the true story. I would basically recreate the first movie, but make it much more realistic, and much more powerful. I would also make the movie a little darker. I wouldn't change a thing of the Alaskan outdoors; that state is beautiful.

Of course I would also add fictional characters and exclude focus on the humans to give the movie more interest. If everything's exactly the way it happened in real life, the movie would be a little bland.

There would be absolutely no sing-a-long music in the film. Only score; sing-a-long takes value and respect out of a movie's plot. Unless that movie happens to be a musical.

Out of respect to those of the Race of Mercy, I most definitely would not hire famous actors to voice the characters. I would audition every-day folks.

At the end of the movie, I would throw in a brief timeline of what happened to all the dogs and mushers after 1925. This would make the movie's end bitter-sweet. Just a simple happy ending would leave you with the feeling that everything ended fine, which it didn't.

Sadly, to stick closer with the true story, there wouldn't be any wolves in the film.

I probably wouldn't be able to top the magic and mood of the very first Balto, but hopefully I would be able to direct a meaningful, powerful, and respectful masterpiece of it's own essence.

A lot of the wolf parts were what made the original so good, and the fact that it was only "loosely" based on the real events.

I'd maximize the budgets which is pretty obvious.

The Balto Sequels were horrible so I'd hope the best for this one.

I'd have songs. Mainly Instrumental but for the credits I'd have a song sung by a light voice singer and wouldn't make the song all babyish.

I'd bring Aniu back and you'd get to see Kodi if you look into the crowds sometimes. I'd introduce Saba into the movie series and what I think happened to her.

Who would die? To make it interesting I'd either have Aleu die(Possibility) or Jenna die. If Aleu were to die I'd make it at the very end of the movie when they're walking. They're attacked by a pack of wolves then find a wolfdog that looks very much like Aleu lying dead in the snow. If Jenna were to die it'd be She was with Saba and Jenna died protecting her from a bear.

Everybody's voices would be the same.
For Saba here voice would be by myself O_o

I'd try to make the animations more like the first movie if possible. Aniu would actually get a few lines. Less magic would be in the movie.

If making Balto 4 I would give recognition to the 2nd and 3rd films but wouldn't dwell on them, I'd definetly scrap the songs. I'd make it a lot like the way the first movie was but original as in no more "Who am I" buisness that only the first pulled off effectively. Firstly I'd bring back a lot of the old cast including Steele just so I could cement some sort of story to why he's never seen in the 2nd or 3rd movie. A 4th Balto movie might have Balto nearing old age, not too old but nearing it.

I would also definetly use the animation done in the original as I feel it's unsurpassed regarding cartoon animation and there would be nothing better then to have a fat budget for it to sit on.

Storywise... I suppose I would centre it around maybe one of Balto's kids having puppies of their own therefore having Balto give being a Grandparent a go. I know its a bit typical the story but even the first Balto movie was to an extent. Anyway you can do a lot plotwise with an ambitious yearling (or yearlings) learning the new world, rare'ing to go off on one of Grandad's great adventures and not realising yet how dangerous the world can be. I'd probably prefer it if there were 3 or 4 puppies acting as the main characters so there wouldn't be so much solo parts in the film and actually give some easy relief story wise.

Ooooh I wanna write a fanfic now >.<

Most likely I would maximize the budget and bring back Balto's original voice tallent, along with Jenna's, and the trio from the original. I would try and bring back all the characters from the first and third movie. I wouldn't bring back the new characters you meet in Balto II, because i didn't like any of them.
For the music score I would try and follow the original movie. I would have insturmental subtones around most of the movie, and at the very end credits a song that summarizes, in a very beautiful way, what happened in the movie.
As for what happens in my Balto 4, i would have current happening in Balto's life as he's trying to discover what happened and what he remembers of his past, with long flashbacks of his past.(I've always wanted to see a young Balto on screen) The specifics of what happenes in my script aren't clear at the moment, but i understand the fundamentals of what i want. Thanks for listening to me rant.

I'd have Kevin Bacon do Balto's voice again,also Aleu returning,and have Kodi introduce her to Dusty.

First of all, I won't call it Balto 4. A name like Balto 4 sounds unattractive to most people since most movie goers are skeptical of sequels that go over 3. I'll call it "Frontier Dogs" for now.

I think we can borrow from the concept of "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". Instead of humans from fiction, we'll bring in two different dogs from fiction. One will be based off of Buck and the other will be based off of White Fang. It will be interesting because the White Fang dog is trying to get into society, the Buck dog is trying to get out, and Balto has made peace with both the wild and the domestic. I don't know how the story will unfold but that's the start of it. We'll call the White Fang dog, Bill and call the Buck dog, Tim as temporary names.

And now... the cast! The cast in Balto was fine but I just want to name some adjustments for the fun of it.

Balto played by Simon Pegg: After watching Cat's "Balto of the Dead" mock trailer, I was fully convinced that Pegg would do an excellent job. So what if he's British? He has an acting style that's both serious and playful, which makes him great for the role.

Bill played by Nick Frost: It is a rule of nature that whenever you have Simon Pegg in a movie, you must have Nick Frost to accompany. Besides, he can play a friendly outcast.

Tim played by Hugh Laurie: Tim is sick of people and wants to remove himself from society. Much like another character Hugh Laurie plays.

Steele played by Jim Cummings: He's too perfect. Nobody can match Jim. The closest I can think of is Tim Curry, but that's all.

Jenna played by Jane Fonda: I can't think of any other actress because Jenna's personality is pretty flat I'll admit. But she seems to do just fine.

Borris played by Bob Hoskins: Keep him. The voice is just too distinctive.

The movie will have no songs. That's what stuck out to me about the first film, and I enjoyed it. Only Disney can pull off good songs in family flicks, but this isn't Disney.

Someone will die. All the awesome animated films had someone bite the dust.

No 3D animated backgrounds. I won't tolerate it. It looks ugly.

Have the human element. Admit it, the human element is a must have. In the first one, without Rosie, there would be no story. The reason why Wings of Change was more like the first movie is because of the presence of humans. Don't let it be all dogs because Balto wasn't meant to be that way.

Alliance/Love Triangles are classic part of theater and have made any story intriguing and made them full of betrayal and unpredictability.

Wow KV, that's a pretty interesting idea. It sounds like a whole different movie with a few of the same characters though... no offense.

Thank you! That was the idea.

-Hire all the original cast
Kevin Bacon-Balto
Bridget Honda-Jenna
Bob Hoskins-Boris
Phill Collins-Muk and Luk
Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford-Muk and Luk's brothers
Jim Cummings-Steele
Tim Curry-Steele's father
Jack Angel-Kaltag
Danny Mann-Nikki
Robbie Rist-Star
Juliette Brewer-Rosie
me-Viktor (My own wolf dog from norway)
Bruce Dickinson-Kai
Mark Callaway (A.K.A the Undertaker!)-The Alpha male in Alue's pack and husband
Tarja Turunen or Enya-Aniu
(I can't seem to find a voice for Balto's father.)
-Get more in-depth with the charcters (i.e Balto, Jenna, etc)
-Have a higher budget
-Have Balto's father die
-Have a very emotional/strong musical score by danny elfman or anyone
-Steele comes back with a....Vengence!
-Get rid of the Who am I crap
-2d backgrounds
- give the movie a little "zing" you know to make the movie more hard hitting.
-Make Alue less new age

I'm pretty sure Juliette Brewer has gone through puberty by now. Are you insisting she appear in the movie as a teen or adult? That'd be pretty cool.

Good call. I like that pick.

I wonder what Steele's father was like... could he have been the one to raise Steele to be arrogant?