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Was the white wolf in the "heritage of the wolf" scene actually real or was that some kind of hallucination on Balto's part. I've always wondered this, anyone else too? :p

I don't know why you posted your topic in spoiler tag, there's nothing to hide.

Anyway, last year we had the opportunity to ask Simon Wells questions about the film, and this question was one of them. This was his reply: "Whether the White Wolf is Balto's father or some kind of ephemeral Spirit of the Wolf is deliberately unstated. The White Wolf Sequence is still my favorite part of the movie, and James Horner's extraordinary score that accompanies it still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

We wanted to keep it mystical and vague - is this a real event or is it some kind of hallucination that Balto is experiencing? All of these were reasons to not have the White Wolf speak or in any way explain himself. Perhaps the Wolf is a manifestation of Balto's inner voice, telling him to take ownership and use that part of him that he has always been ashamed of - certainly that is the message Balto takes from the encounter, real or not.

(And by the way, if it was really his dad why didn't the old man help him drag the antitoxin up the cliff?)"

http://www.animationsource.org/balto/en ... &nump=8497

I always viewed the wolf as a physical female wolf when I was a kid, but now I believe the wolf is a manifestation of Balto's imagination (hey, maybe the wolf is a memory of one of Balto's family members). The way the wolf fades in and out of the now, makes it seem symbolic. There's also the part where Niki says "great, now we've got wolves". You can only hear a single howl, not two.

I missed that, sorry bout that. Thx for answering my question.

I thought in Balto 2 it was revealed that the white wolf was Balto's mother. So why is noone else saying that?

Aniu was inspired by The White Wolf, but they are not the same character. Remember, Simon Wells directed the first film, not Phil. When Phil was working on Balto II, he hadn't seen the first film.

By the way, "noone" is incorrect. That isn't even a word. It's " no one".

Yup, there are practicaly two versions of the canon: Simon Wells, director of the original Balto movie who said it was a random wolf and could actually be a spirit/halucination and there's director of Wolf Quest, Phil Weinstein, who haven't seen the first movie, but claimed the White Wolf and Aniu are the same characters.
Which one you choose to believe is up to you.