Balto II: Wolf Quest (2002)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

We all know that the first Balto (1995) is the best of the trilogy but the sequels are very good and enjoyable so lets talk about wolf quest, for a kid movie it as charmed especially for the story, the animation is not bad, the music score is great (I especially love the music when Aleu choose her new home in the end), the voice acting is very good like I always like Mark Hamill (who is voicing the joker on the classic animated series of Batman) and in this movie he is voicing an evil wolf and it was perfect.The movie had some default, some cheap dialogue, I already said that the animation was not bad but its not very great, but the viewers do not look far enough behind it, viewers thought that Aleu ran away because of the heritage of wolf well it wasn't exactly for that all her life she still had hope to be adopted but then her father reveal how humans sees her the truth about himself of his wolf part he never told her (which is a big mistake).The ending broke my heart when Aleu Finally found her new home and who she is, the music score in this scene was perfect and beautiful.It is actually a very brilliant and special movie for children that I will recommended.

Back in 1995, we were given the animated film, "Balto". It was one of my favorite movie's as a kid and it developed a cult following. In 2002, we were given, "Balto: Wolf Quest", a bad DTV sequel.The thing's I liked about this film was the hand-drawn animation, even though it's DTV, it was still good. David Carradine does a good job as the the Wolf Shaman, Nava. I also thought, Maurice LaMarche did a decent job as Balto. He wasn't as good as when Kevin Bacon did the voice of him in the first one, but he was still good.The thing's I didn't like about this film is that the CGI animation was terrible. It look's like it came from a video game. Lacey Chabert was pretty bad as Aleu. She sound's like an eight-year old. Also, the villain Niju was really weak. I liked Mark Hamil as the Joker in, "Batman: Arkham Asylum", but seeing him in this movie is just lame. Why not have Steele from the first movie be in this one? Also, we don't get to see that much of Jenna, Boris, Muk or Luk. Not only it had bad CGI animation and a weak villain, but the movie had singing. The song's aren't even that good.In the end, "Balto: Wolf Quest", is a bad sequel that's not worth watching. Fan's of the first film might enjoy it but for everyone else, no.

Though it doesn't hold up to the wonderful original Balto, this is one of the very few animated film sequels that didn't totally make me gag. The storyline is completely different (thankfully not going the 'Oh, no! Another epidemic!' route one would expect) and the entire movie takes a Native American twist, focusing less of dog-sleds and more on the Wolf roots of both Balto and his daughter, Aleu. The songs are touching and beautiful, my favorites being "Taking You Home" and "Who You Really Are". "Taking You Home" is probably the only song I've ever heard from an animated film that has ever made me cry- and it take a lot to make me cry.This film, combined with the original Balto film, would be a wonderful little gift pack for anyone who's a fan.

This was a must see during my Balto obsession phase back in high school. Yes, it's crudely drawn TV animation and not one single person from the original Balto (that I am aware of) bothered to work on this movie released by Universal Toons as an attempt to copy off Disney's lack of originality. (Note: They ALMOST got Kevin Bacon to come back, ALMOST)Any the movie...the one thing I remember was that I though it was terrible as soon as we heard Jenna I went nuts. (Why Jodie Benson? She's done terrible renditions of Anita (101 Dalmations 2) and Lady (Lady and the Tramp 2). Why Jenna?! Why couldn't they find someone who was much much closer to the personality of Bridget Fonda's character. Jodie Benson was great as Ariel and that is what she should stay. You know you're watching a video sequel when you hear Jodie Benson destroying an important female character and pushing her into the background. That's all Jenna, Boris, Muk and Luk were. They were gone before the second half of the movie and never returned. Actually this was a good thing because I could remember not being able to handle the torture of hearing and looking at these poorly done old characters. My only other complaint was the CGI. I know it's kinda cool in the dream sequences but geez, couldn't these animators at least bother to make it more blendable with the animation?! Are they taking us Balto fans for suckers or just the kids?!There are good things to like. As I said the movie for me actually got better and recovered from our character dissapointments. Aleu is voiced by Lacey Chabert who is also doomed to doing nothing but DTV sequels but I believe this character fitted her. (Yeah I know, Aleu should still be a puppy if only a year passed right? Oh well) And we cant forget how much of this plot was taking hmm lemme go down the list: Little Mermaid II, Lady and the Tramp II, 101 Dalmations II, and the big daddy: Lion King II. Yes the overprotective father and his rebellious daughter returns but don't worry folks, Balto's character isn't destroyed like Simba's was in the sequel. But some of the acting was lame. "Finding yourself," blah blah blah. Who cares?OK the plot seems kinda pointless until we get to the wolves. now it all comes together and we actually have a plot. Niju's henchman however were unnecessary. I felt as though I was watching a Saturday morning cartoon with these guys. The wolves needed more character than comic relief. I say this is a different type of DTV sequel because well, check out the end...it's not your average DTV ending.Last but not least songs, wow the songs. They're actually good. Still a bit DTV cheesy but still memorable. Someone needs to get on phone with Universal and say "Come on people! If Disney can chug out pointless soundtracks to their crappy DTV sequels, so can you!" This is really soundtrack worthy if there's four really good songs to consider.So that's it. Here's to hoping that Balto 3 has the same, if not better beauty of Balto 2, but I doubt it.