Animation Source Forums

Balto appearis to be aging to me. even though it's really just a change of artist, the severe change in the way that balto and jenna are drawn makes them look aged. for example jenna isn't as pretty and young in appearance in the third movie as she is in the first. balto looks older and almost groomed. what do you think?

i always thought we look like he was getting older too

well it looks like he is ageing

Jenna and balto can't age that quickly. I trhink that the animatiors just wanted them to look older in each movie to show that time goes on. well, they went a bit fast.

I just thought it was awful character animation and bad information on the original character models.

It was just awful animation there, there not aging, just bad animation on the third one.

it was bad animation in the sequals. that might be it

Actually that's quite an interesting thought, I guess it would track that since we see Balto's pups growing up that their character design would also change to reflect that. I always noticed signs of their aging in the performances of their voice actors too, Balto and Jenna both sound older and more mature than the original film.

So it could simply be down to the quality of the artists, but it would make sense too if it were a conscious decision.

Yep if you notice in Wolf Quest, Balto and Jenna are alittle bit older reflect that the time has gone by for Jenna to let the pups grown inside her the to give birth so there's some time to age plus whatever happened before that... then in Wings of Change, Kodi's all grown already, is on the mail team and Balto is at the point in his "old" life that he'd like to fill some more of his dreams before he dies.... I did notice the voices sounding older as time went by too. I thought it wasn't a bad idea as that is how it would happen. Atleast they thought about it it seems.

And in Balto 3,Balto and Jenna really do look like they're aging.

Cartoons cannot age unless the people who made the movie want it to be. -_- Balto is just five years old.. Is he really going to die so young? Real Balto died at 11.. Balto in Balto 3 is just five years old. Young if you ask me. No, they sound older because their not the same people who voiced Balto and Jenna in balto 1. Also, not the same people who drew Balto and Jenna or whatever. So, yeah, their not ageing and will never die unless they make them die. =)

So, there.. They don't look older.

You know, I would totally say that he was aging...if the same people who were animating Balto1 animated Balto2 and 3...but they're not. I just don't think he's aging and that it's merely a (lame) style change, because Boris and Muk and Luk haven't aged at ALL.

As the others have said, I don't believe it's aging. Although I haven't seen Balto 2 or 3, I have seen screenshots and watched the trailor for Balto 2. Just a change in animators.

To those of you saying "bad animation" for the second and third. It simply a lack of time to animate, sequels are usually given a few years less then the original films were. Plus, it's hard to duplicate a character's looks exactly. The animators aren't any less talented then the ones who worked on the original film, they're just rushed to master a character artistically much faster then the original animators were.

If sequels were given more time, then the quality for the film would be greater. But since we live in a world with deadlines, then most sequels will be treated the same.

Yes, Balto does look like he aged, but I don't think that's what anyone intended. That's just the way he came out. IMO, with LaMarche doing the voice he sounds older as well. Not as full of energy as he was in his youth. Balto 3 took place three years after the first one did too, so he had to have aged a little.

It wouldn't have looked that way if it had been Amblin for all the movies.