Animation Source Forums

Here :
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=all& ... 436&page=1

Look especially at page 3. They say, among other things, that :
For traditionally animated, 2D features like Charlotte’s Web 2: Wilbur’s Great Adventure (produced by Nickelodeon and distributed by Paramount), or Balto 2: Wolf Quest and The Land Before Time: The Great Longneck Migration (produced and distributed by Universal Studios), the general production cost is $5 million to $15 million, with an approximate schedule of 70 weeks (38 weeks for preproduction, 36 weeks for production, and nine weeks for post-production).

So, 70 weeks for a DTV sequel, approximately 1 year and a half...and preproduction is even longer than the production itself, surprising!

That's interesting, I would have thought the preproduction would take less time than the actual production. Nice find!

Yes, nice find indeed. If a movie takes 1, lets say 2 years, then why did the Balto sequels appear at 7 years distance ? 1995-2002 (Hope I'
m not wrong with the dates)

That's because they didn't start the sequel in 1995. They probably started in 2000, though I'm not sure on that.

So. It took them 5 years to notice that the movie was a succes, or... what's the delay

It wasn't a success at all, money speaking. It flopped at the box office, due to the reasons we all know (toy story, poor marketing,...) But it surely had a great success on video, so they still decided to make the sequel, a few years after, and after seeing that the American Tail direct to video sequels didn't work at all (sales speaking, again).
They were in fact surprised by the sales of B2, because they had really low expectations due to the box office figures of the original. The growing reputation that the original Balto got in few years after its 1995 release made Balto 2 a success, so they made a Balto 3 too. Unfortunately we haven't got much sales figures for this one, but it seems it sold well too.
Balto 1 is a sleeper film...and will probably stay like this unfortunately, even if it is more and more known with time.

yeah you're right steet that really is suprising

WOW now that's surprizing..... but I think that if Balto 2 is know wouldn't the people wonder hey what about balto 1 and were did Balto meet jenna and all that stuff, wouldn't they?

maybe but maybe not personally i think they've known each other since they were pups

Yes, but I mean wouldn't the people wonder like he lead a dog team and all that?

Cool that is very interesting...

yeah, I understand now. Thanks...

they probally would but oh well

Interesting ... they certainly didn't do very good marketing of this, as at the time the only way I knew of this 'Balto' was by a random magazine advertising a Balto sticker album in it. Otherwise I knew nothing about it, and if I had I would surely of gone to see it as it was (and is) my kind of thing!

I agree, the marketing for this was pretty pitful. At least for my taste...