Rozalyn wrote:
To me Balto is a lot like high school in the movies. You Know, where the unpoplar boy fall for the popular girl and gets harrassed by the other cool kids. what do you think?
I suppose you could make that claim. Heck, anyone could take any element of the cartoon and draw comparisons to other things in life, or even other cartoons. The fact is that, if anything, the "unpopular boy" concept reflects two things (even assuming the writers of the Balto cartoon were thinking of this at the time):
1. Balto was totally unknown before the 1925 Serum Run (whereas other dogs, like Togo, were well-known racing and service veterans...Togo had a hand [paw?] in efforts to save lives even before the Serum Run...and had been on Seppala's racing teams in a few of the many races in which he participated...including as lead dog in some...)
2. After the Serum Run, when Balto received the majority of the press coverage, and was made "THE" hero of the event (when so many other heroic dogs and people were overlooked completely), it infuriated his owner, Leonhard Seppala. Seppala also was the musher on Togo's team, which made the farthest and fastest single run...over 300 miles compared to the only 52-mile run by Balto's team...and in the same blizzard conditions (and facing even more dangers).
Seppala had a low opinion of Balto anyway (another element reflected in the Balto cartoon). He felt that Balto would never be any good for anything except hauling loads of freight on spare teams. So he labeled him a "B" dog, and had him neutered at a very early age (which is what happened to all "B" dogs...they were either neutered or spayed). Seppala felt Togo deserved the majority of the credit, as well as the rest of his team. So much so that, after the Serum Run, any pedigree information on Balto, including his birth year and his sire and dam (his parents) disappeared from public record. To this day, there is no public record of Balto's familial history. Any information concerning Balto before the Serum Run is pretty much a mystery. Though some record probably exists SOMEWHERE...if perhaps only in the Seppala family records.
