Animation Source Forums

Okay...it's pretty evident that, if you study the actual history of the Great Serum Run, and that of the general history of the Alaskan territory (a U.S. territory in the late 19th/early-to-mid 20th century), you'll find that there is MUCH "poetic license" taken by the writers of the Balto cartoon movies...most specifically the first one.

Now, clearly, it's a foregone conclusion that the writers and animators anthropomorphized the animals somewhat (gave them higher intelligence, the ability to speak to each other, to understand human language and even human writing, and have a full range of human emotions and regional and national accents). But that's not what I'm talking about.

However, there are also certain things which not only the first, but also the second or third movies got RIGHT too. I'll break this down into at least a couple of posts, but given my research of not only the real Great Serum Run, but also of Nome and Alaska in 1925, here's my analysis of what Hollywood got right, and what it got wrong in the presentation of the three Balto cartoon movies (not just the first one).

First, by way of a short list, what they got RIGHT in keeping with history:

1. Balto did indeed lead a team of dogs during the Great Serum Run. And his name was Balto.

2. The event happened in the dead of winter (late January/early February...the coldest and harshest time of the year for that area).

3. There was a terrible storm and blizzard which blew into the area during the last couple of days of the run, as Balto's (and, actually, Seppala's) team got close to their destination.

4. The citizens of Nome were struck down by diphtheria, at the time a very unpleasant (and deadly) disease. And it was a child who was first struck down (though, in truth, it was an Inuit girl from a town called "Holy Cross"...a mostly native settlement).

5. It was an anti-toxin the team(s) were carrying back to Nome (also called "serum").

6. A train carried the serum to Nenana, and then it was transferred to a dog team.

7. There was an accident with Balto's team, where the serum was nearly lost (though it was temporarily buried in a snow bank...it did not fall down the face of a cliff...and it was Gunnar Kaasen who dug it out...it was not Balto)

8. The team arrived back in Nome before light, at 5:30 A.M. local time, in the dark (though there were very few people to greet them upon arrival)

9. Wireless telegraph was used to transmit the announcement of the emergency, and to prepare a plan for getting the serum to Nome.

10. The town of Nome lay on the shores of Norton Sound, and was snowed in during the winter of 1925 (as it always is in winter)...and it is darker more often, at that time of year, than it is light.

11. Biplanes were starting to be used as an alternate means of carrying important mail and communications (and small packages) in the 1920s. By the 1930's, they had all but replaced dog sled teams as THE means for carrying supplies and mail. And they were indeed called "bush planes" (in 1925, there were only three in service in Alaska. They were World War I era Standard J-1 biplanes from the Fairbanks Airplane Corporation. During the winter, these planes were dismantled. They had open cockpits, and water-cooled engines which were totally unreliable in cold weather...thus impossible to use in winter...especially in stormy weather!). The term "bush plane" echoes the use of the term by Australians for their own small single-engine prop planes. Northern remote Alaska became known as "bush Alaska" when visitors from Australia, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, found that the tundra and the remote villages of the region reminded them of the outback...which they frequently called "the bush" (and still do...as the remote sections of northern Alaska are STILL called "bush Alaska", and pilots of small private-service planes are STILL called "bush pilots"...and their planes "bush planes"). So the story line in Balto 3, while fictional, is completely historically credible (though there is almost no way a dog sled team could actually have beaten a bush plane...the insurmountable odds against Duke, shown in Balto 3, would not have been risked by a responsible bush pilot).

12. As demonstrated by the racial appearance of the musher of Kodi, Kirby, Ralph and Dusty's team, Mr. Simpson, most mail carriers and other mushers were actually of native blood...Inuits of the various northern clans (yes, they are known up there as "clans" even moreso than as "tribes").

13. The totem pole seen in Balto 2 is historically-credible. The northern clans did indeed use them for a variety of purposes (heraldic poles to show clan geneology and history; mortuary poles to honor the dead; memorial poles, which served a similar purpose; house posts for use in clan housing structures; and shame poles, erected to shame and ridicule someone who failed to clear a debt, behaved dishonorably or broke their word...they would be cut down when amends were made by the shamed individual). The pole seen in Balto 2 was most likely a heraldic pole.

And now for some important differences...as to what Hollywood (and the Balto movies) got WRONG...

The differences, or errors, in the Balto cartoon movies are equally-intriguing. For example:

1. Essentially, the area of the Seward Peninsula (upon which Nome sits, on the southwestern side) is open tundra, rivers, creeks, and mountains. There are almost no trees on the peninsula (the closest trees, in modern times, to Nome lay a good eighty-some miles away into the interior). The kind of terrain seen in the Balto cartoon movies would be more evident of the Alaskan interior (waterfalls, raging rapids, great forests, etc.)

2. Balto was not a wolf-dog hybrid, but rather a full-bred Siberian Husky of the Chukchi lines (as were most of the "Siberian Huskies" used as sled dogs at the time...and most were bred by Leonhard Seppala, who was one of those involved with introducing the dogs to Alaska). Alaskan Malamutes DID exist at the time, but were not terribly common in the big communities, and not often used on mail teams or dog sled teams, but mostly by the native population in remoter areas.

3. Balto was a mostly-jet black husky, with white socks, a white "bib" and underbelly, and a white-tipped muzzle. Surprisingly, this color scheme is still seen in the working lines of the Siberian Husky breed, and dogs which look a lot like the real Balto occasionally do make their appearance on dog sled teams.

4. Balto was a bit large for his breed at the time, and was relegated to the status of "B" dog...which meant he was neutered at a very early age, and could not have produced any offspring.

5. The following characters are completely fictional: Steele, Star, Nikki, Kaltag, Jenna, Dixie, Sylvie, Doc, Morris, Boris, Muk, Luk, Rosy, Aleu, Dingo, Saba, Kodi (and the two other pups, which were never officially named by Universal), Nava, Aniu, Niju, Nuk, Sumac, Yak, Stella, Mel, Dipsy, Ralph, Dusty, Kirby, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Conner, Mr. Gundersen, Duke.

6. There were, in fact, twenty teams (and nearly 150 dogs) that took part in the Great Serum Run...not one.

7. Steele is NOT based upon Togo!

8. Balto did not go out looking for the team after it got bogged down in the snow during the blizzard. He was with the team from the start.

9. There was no abandoned fishing boat in which Balto lived. Balto was the property of Leonhard Seppala...and lived in his kennels.

10. There was no race in Nome to determine the fastest dogs to lead any team which participated in the Great Serum Run.

11. The race, pictured in Balto 3 (between Kodi and Kirby's team and the bush plane) is a work of fiction.

Here's something interesting! There are at least two buildings appearing in the Balto cartoons which actually did historically exist in Nome! And they are drawn pretty close to the real historic buildings!

The first is the Nome post office...seen mostly in Balto 3 (as in the image here, alongside of a photo of the real Nome post office, taken on the morning of February 2nd, the day that Balto's team arrived in Nome...that's the team parked in front of the post office):



The other is St. Joseph's church...built around the turn of the century. It still stands today (though it was moved, apparently, from its original location). Here are two images...the first is a shot of the church as seen in Balto 3, and the second is an image of the real St. Joseph's in Nome in the 1920s...note the surprising similarity in the architectural design, demonstrating that the background artists DID do their homework!



So you see? Occasionally, you can find impressive little snipets of fact in the Balto cartoons! Heh heh...

Well, I think the writers simply wanted an antagonistic character...a "bad guy", if you will, for the story. And if anything, Steele strikes me as either a very BIG Siberian Husky, or else an Alaskan Malamute!

Wow, great info there BaltoSeppala, kudos to you.

Very cool thank you.

certainly seems like you did your research very interesting, Balto was in fact a pure husky.

You're all very welcome! =) Yep...Balto was a pre-bred husky of the Chukchi lines from Siberia (thus a "Siberian husky"). heh heh

You know, I thought a little more on this, and I get to thinking that there are two other possibilities for people mistakenly thinking that Steele was developed to represent Togo:

1. He is antagonistic to Balto. Likewise, Seppala (Togo AND Balto's owner) held a great deal of misplaced anger and antagonism towards Balto after the Great Serum Run, for all the press he was receiving (when Togo received practically none)...and so I am sure he was quite glad to be rid of him when an offer was put on the table, by the dimestore sideshow museum owner, to buy him (even if it meant also selling the other members of the team)

2. Steele is written as a legendary racing celebrity. In Balto 1, he is presented as already having established an impressive racing record. Likewise, Togo was, by the time of the Serum Run, a racing veteran (mostly of the "All-Alaska Sweepstakes"), and also a veteran of other emergencies (note the poem thread I submitted last night), and a celebrity dog in more than just Nome.

Still, as was also discussed here recently (in the Togo pics thread), it would seem that Balto the cartoon character has much more in common with the historical Togo than he ever did to the real Balto. I suspect there are two reasons that Universal Pictures and Amblimation decided to go with Balto: a) he was the famous dog of the Serum Run, thanks to the press corps; b) his name, perhaps, sounds better rolling off the tongue than "Togo".

hmm, very good researching! i think you must love it ^^ i do too!!! i like history too, especially this history and your topics are da best! keep it up! great detail! Have you seen the article i wrote about the true points inthe Balto movie on Balto Source? It's kinda similar to this. Good research! very impressed!

Nope, I haven't yet. But I'd like to! Is it one of the old topics that Togo (one of our BS mods) moved over here? If not, if you can provide a URL link, that'd be great!

heres the URL http://baltosource.timduru.org/balto-ac ... g-619.html i hope you enjoy it! it took me ages to write, and somethings that i didn't know but now know because of you ^^ aren't really there. But i like making long articles like this, at the moments im working as some about the breeds in Balto. I will let you know when i do some more history linked ones! which i am sure, that there will be more!

Thank you! This was exactly the kind of information I was looking for on this site: the fiction and non-fiction of Balto Though, I DO believe that the bulldog's name was Morse (after the Morse code the old man was using) I'm pretty sure I seen his name on some concept art of him, but I don't remember. But that's beside the point. Very nice info. If there should have been any Balto sequels at all, they should have leaned more towards the real thing, I think. But alas *sigh* Again, Im grateful SOMEONE pointed all this stuff out

Yea, the bull dogs name was Morse. THe man said it was morse. But i thought Balto 3 was quite alike to the original. But yea, i see your point Cat