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Spawned from another conversation on a different thread. Do you guys think the movie would've worked better had duke been more antangonistic? The reason I say this is his personality seemed very contridictory. He seemed to like the sled dogs, but was actively trying to take their jobs, which are complete opposites that shouldn't really go together. This just bugs the heck out of me.

The reason I think him being more antagonistic, maybe a bit rude and cocky towards them (pretty much be a bit more of a jerk) would've helpped the plot a good bit. It'd make the sled teams desire not to help him more reasonible, it'd reafirm the plot of the first movie (Balto helpping someone who doesn't like him), and it wouldn't change the ending because Balto saving his life could easily change his mind about them and make him turn around.

What do you guys think?

(No offense to people who like Duke, I like him too, I just think he would've worked better this way)

Yeah. Duke (and his mail plane) was the antagonist for the movie, so making him friendly towards the dogs was basically the writers' and producer's way of making it a family friendly film where nobody gets their feelings hurt and everything works out great for everybody. The obvious comparison is Steele in Balto; Steele was a real antagonist, and even Niju from Wolf Quest was a better antagonist than Duke was.

Not that Duke was a bad character, just a bad antagonist. He wasn't very antagonistic.

Agreed. I think that was the wrong way to go because making him a nice guy makes it hard to cheer for the mailteam and makes Kodi's refusal to help makes Kodi out as a jerk (ok, that was kind of the point, but it'd at least be more justified if Duke wasn't nice). If I were to rewrite this movie, I'd probably make him a hotshot Ace who thinks the sled dogs are 'outdated' and need replaced. Then Balto and the sled dogs saving him at the end change his mind. As said above, it fits in with the tone of the previous two movies, where Balto went out of his way to help someone who didn't like him (he did TRY to help Niju after all).

Pretty much took the words from my mouth right there, Godzilla!

I personally believe they came to some kind of agreement. Like some important cargo, like medicine and such is delievered by the plane and the dogs still move the mail and such. It'd save risk to Duke, he already crashed once and icing on a planes wings can be a major problem. And during the summer months, naturlaly it'd be the go to thing. But I think Duke probably had more respect for them after they saved his life.

I don't think so. The fact he's not a "bad guy" makes this movie more original and interesing, not a replacement of two previous movies where characters have to deal with big bad villain.

If he wanted to take the sled team's jobs how bout settling an agree mention the plane gors long range mailing and the team short and mid range.

Agreed. Though I'm thinking if he were a bad guy, the other dogs may have been less likely to help at the end... except Balto, of course.

Now, had he had been introduced with meaner or even worse intentions than the usual "planes are better than dogsled" business, then that might have worked more into making him a bad guy and the trademark antagonist that we're used to.

- Juuchan17

Exactly. one of the main things I liked about the film is that it DIDN'T have a lot of the so called "Recurring Themes" if you will. I thought it really added to the overall originality like others have said. so I agree completely.