Animation Source Forums

In the movies, actually every on where we see a sled, there's actually a mistake in the arrangement of the sled! Not really the sled, but in the dogs pulling it.
The real-world arrangement is like so:

However, in the movies, if you look at the arrangement, how many dogs are hooked to the sled?
There's seven! (Sorry about the lack of a picture, I couldn't find a decent one.) So basically, either sleds are arranged differently in the magical world of animation, or the animators forgot to research before they arranged. They could have saved themselves a lot of trouble had they paid attention...

Dude, you can have as many dogs as you want on a team. Some even have as much as twelve >> Don't think they don't know what they were doing, cuz they did. Plus sleds were probably not exactly built the same back then anyway, and if you see how the sled is pulled from above, you'll see how the harnesses ARE attached exactly how you showed!


http://balto.ru/components/com_datsogal ... C750-5.jpg

The sled is seen from so many different angles, and since its Steven Spielberg film, most of them are going to be nuts to draw from, let alone animate. And they're animated spectacularly.

So know what you're talking about before you go and start pointing fingers at people.

They also didn't draw it historically accurate. The team in RL had six, as well. Not that they had any level of historical accuracy above one name and basic plot, but still.

Like cat said, they could have any number of dogs on their team as possible.
When you make a movie on your own, with a team you leading it, come back and then we'll talk. In fact, do a movie about the past, (Like in the 1920's) and come back.
They've might of wanted to change the events in the movie, hence the sled number.

I would think that since it's SUPPOSED to be a historical document for kids, though, they would at least TRY to get it similar...

They did try, but again-
They also CAN'T (which means NOT, NOT DO ) put all that they like in a movie, some have a certain time limits when they get the funding and such.

Well, I'd be of the mind that, like almost all major animated movies, the point of its creation was to sell t-shirts and toys, not educate children on the finer points of dog-sledding.


From what I can tell, it seems relatively accurate. The animators, or at least the director, seems conversant with the general idea of how a dog-sled works. If it isn't exactly like the real-life Balto, well...Balto wasn't friends with 2 polar bears and a goose either. It makes for a good movie.

...although I agree w/ the points made to counter the OP I do have one argument against an argument.



Uh. I'm calling BS here. You don't need to be an expert in filmmaking or animation or have made your own movie to make any kind of criticism on one... Have you ever disliked or even nitpicked something about a movie you've seen? Ok well, STFU and make your own movie, THEN you can have an opinion on something you've seen! ...see? That logic doesn't work...

Anyway, as everyone else has said, sled teams IRL can vary in number, so there's really no inaccuracy there in the movie; there's no universal ( ) way to organize a team.