Animation Source Forums

It would seem that a number of endings were considered for the movie and some clearly darker than others. As we know in the final version of the movie Steele is left having been shunned by the dogs that once admired him which is possibly the most fitting and shameful end for his egotistical character.

A possible ending that we have already seen on story boards is where the town dogs face up to Steele resulting in Star stripping him of his golden collar stating that Balto deserves it more as shown on this page:

http://livlily.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/b ... oards.html

However it seems a darker version was also considered where somehow, Steele actually hangs himself with his own collar. What isn't clear is if Steele actually dies from this or, for the second time, falls from a height and remains unharmed! One of the boards suggests that coal has fallen on him so it is possible that he has been buried alive.

I'm not sure if I have the order right for these but it perhaps gives an idea to the scene but how Steele gets caught on the lever (I assume perhaps lunging for Balto) is a bit unknown to me at this time...

Yeah, I have seen this too! And it's very dark. I saw this yesterday and my reaction: "What a... Why did they cut this?". Seriously. Just why? However, I can't understand what is it -- accident or suicide. I wanted to write about this, you did it faster.

I'd suggest accident. In my mind what happens is Steele doesn't want to give up the golden collar which should symbolise achievement but instead it represents his ego. The ensuing struggle results in him getting snagged by the very thing that he doesn't want to let go of which ultimately causes his downfall.

Thank you. I assumed this. And, I'm sure that Steele died. However, I can not understand where he fell (it's a hatch or something like this). But in any case, Steele dies from asphyxiation and fractures of the bones (possibly buried alive). I do not think that someone will survive after this. And, yeah, I heartily thank those people who puts such great storyboards. I even more deeply understand the story.

I actually like this ending a lot and I really think this treatment could have been a compelling ending if it was done right IMO but I guess ratings in the end killed the idea (No pun intended lol)

That's dark. Wow can't believe they actually made storyboards of Steele dying That would explain why he wasn't in the sequels. Though it is understandable since they didn't want to show kids something dark like that. Granted I do wish that they put in the scene where Star tore off Steele's collar.

Good golly... I have not seen this version at all! Wow that's pretty interesting/ intense.
I thought I remembered hearing a rumor that the possibility for Steele appearing in Wings of Change was toyed with, but was scrapped for budgeting reasons or something. I mean seeing as this was also cut, I would assume Steele was alive after the first Balto.

Steele was never apart of Balto III. Phil did have an idea of adding Steele, though it never went any further. Here's what Phil said during an interview in 2011:

"So, no it was never written there. My thought was, here they are—I’m just going to repeat basically the same thing as is on your forums—that Balto says, I’m going to try and <ind this pilot. Pretty sure this guy’s crashed, and I’m going after it. And nobody wants to join him, right? Everyone’s still like, you’re on your own. This guy took our jobs away, and we’re not going to do it. And Balto’s going to do the right thing; he’s going to go out there. And I thought, how cool would it be, if in that point of the movie, Steele steps forwards, and says I’ll go."

http://www.animationsource.org/balto/en ... &nump=4713

Thanks, Mighty! Interesting information. I try to imagine Phil's reaction on Steele's death LOL

But for me Steele is dead. I don't care that this scene was deleted. I just want to say, many people (fans of TLK) consider as a canon the deleted scene "The madness of king Scar" (where Scar wants Nala as his queen). Why can't we do the same? I mean, this scene shows Steele's fate.

P.S. We saw much dark and cruel villain deaths. So, this scene isn't so dark. And it's Steele's fault in his death.

Phil didn't work on the first film, only the sequels, so he wouldn't know about this deleted scene.

Steele isn't dead... There's no indication in the ending of the film that Steele was killed. The only thing I can imagine that became of Steele is he lost a lot of respect, and possibly became an outcast.

I don't exactly know what you're talking about regarding TLK2, but I don't see how it can be canon if a scene was deleted from a film. To me, if it isn't present in the film or books, etc, then it isn't canon.

I know that Phil worked on sequels (I'm not stupid, how you think about me). Here is a joke (if he doesn't know about first film and its ideas, he creates different story). His reaction. In the end of the movie, Steele was "abanoned" (all forgot about him or something like this), but this scene perfectly finishes the story. Well, you have your own opinion, I have my own opinion. I prefer the original film and its ideas and materials.

Just out of curiosity, where did you find this, and I bet there are many more endings and deleted scenes for the big moments of the movie (White Wolf Scene for example).

There's a few more of them in this forum as well as on his website http://fluke.theicecave.org/main.shtml. I'd reccomend looking there for a lot of cool and highly informative stuff.

There are loads of ideas on story boards and other preproduction works that never make it any further from the drawing board. It does give the director and artists an opportunity to try out designs and visualise scenes before making a large investment in time and money animating them. These preproduction works do not make something canon but on a personal level you can take whatever you want from them.

Deleted scenes however might be different... Those that were fully animated and cut out later for reasons such as movie length or rating could potentially be considered canon if they provide extra detail or events that keep the story on track. One of my favourite movies Aliens did this when the "Dirctors Cut" was released. - a longer movie with more detail but not changing the outcome of the film.

Going back to Steele after the movie concluded it would be highly likely that he would continue to live his life as accustomed. He may have lost the respect of the other dogs but he is at the end of the day a champion lead dog and potentially worth a lot to his owner. Personally I feel that seeing the fallen champion lose the respect and admiration, that was obviously important to him above all else, a truly fitting end. The death of Steele would have surely given the movie a slightly higher rating but given the time that the movie was released it would not have been an uncommon event or idea... Remember that as a non-Disney film the studio is following in the footsteps of Don Bluth films etc which could be extremely dark as apposed tot he singing animals of Disney. I am quite glad that Amblimation broke away from the norm and had the antihero simply being shunned rather than plunging to his demise.

While I will admit that what happened to Steele at the end of the first movie is somewhat underwhelming consider the things he did without showing guilt or remorse, I feel him dying would've been a bit too much.