- Released: 19 February 2002
- Directed by: Phil Weinstein
- Running time: 1 h 16 min
- Rating 4/5
Synopsis
Balto's daughter Aleu goes on a quest to figure out who she is and what her purpose in life is.
My Thoughts
I’m going to be blunt here: I have a really soft spot for this movie. Back when I first saw it it was my no.1 source of inspiration for a long time. I even modeled my wolf drawing style and some of my characters after the ones present in this movie, because I drew so much fanart and made so many fan characters. It basically jump-started my wolfaboo phase. And that’s all specific to this movie. Not the first, not the third Balto. Just Wolf Quest.
So I’m going to try to be unbiased here, but I’ll be honest and say that there is probably some positive influence in this review. I literally can’t be too negative on this film, I’m that attached to it. Ah well, let’s have a look. Last time, we looked at the first Balto movie. Let’s see how his daughter Aleu fares in this one. (Also, side note: I’m not going to bring up anymore inconsistencies with reality in this one. All of the Balto sequels are not based on real events).
Story-wise, I always liked this movie. It’s not the most original, but actually having a story about finding out who you are and where you belong is something I hadn’t really seen when I first watched it. I could really relate to Aleu’s struggles, though, with me not fitting in with most people I knew. The whole spiritual elements never really bothered me, though they do feel somewhat out-of-tone compared to the two other Balto films. I actually liked them, and I think they’re still okay by now. It has an original-enough plot if you ask me!
The characters are actually an improvement over the first movie. Balto still isn’t the most original, but he does have some development in this, with him accepting being his role as supposed leader of the wolf pack when time starts to run out. Aleu is really the star. I absolutely adore her character. She’s strong-willed, yet not stupid. She was onto the solution of what the wolves needed to do before anyone else. She’s also the first time in the Balto series we actually got a female character that doesn’t constantly get needlessly shoved aside and gets plenty of moments to shine. Jenna in the first movie attacked a bear once and then was back to being a passive element in the story, but Aleu is the leader in her own story. She decides to set out on her quest. She decides to help the wolves when Balto wants to leave. She is the one that ultimately ends up being the “one who is wolf yet does not know”, the chosen leader of the wolf pack. She’s great.
We still have characters from the first movie, and most of them play less of a role here, except for Balto and possibly Aniu (who may or may not be the same white wolf of the first movie. No discourse on this review, please). Boris (unfortunately not voiced anymore by Bob Hoskins) has less of a role, but I also thought he was more annoying and blunt here than in the first movie, so it’s not a big loss. The polar bear cubs are still pretty much useless and could be written out, but they, again, have much less of a presence here. Then there’s Jenna… and I am sad to say she is again shoved to the side. She is ready to go look for Aleu multiple times in this film, but everyone is constantly like “no, Balto must do this. How dare you have some time in the limelight”. Not a big fan of that, but at least we got a really strong female character as one of our leads in this one to make up for it. For our major new characters, we mostly have the wolf pack (yes, I’m calling it a pack. I know they use the word clan, but c’mon), which is led by Nava, an elder with supernatural powers and a strong connection to the spirits. He’s really cool, being a leader that is strong because of his wisdom and ties to the supernatural rather than physical strength.
The main villain in this is Niju (voiced quite well by Mark Hamill), a black wolf (that looks oddly feline) who is set on becoming leader and staying in their homeland rather than leaving it to chase after the caribou. I always used to hate him at first, but, honestly, he’s an interesting villain if you ask me. Not the most intricate, obviously, but beneath his obvious lust for power and strong will, he has this underlying fear of leaving his homeland where his pack has lived for generations. This, I thought, was an interesting motivation beneath him. He reminds me of Jenner of The Secret of NIMH in a way, which is a good thing (except that Jenner actually succeeds in killing the old dude leading the group, unlike Niju, luckily).
Finally, we have Nuk, Yak and Sumac, who are our new comic relief trio, replacing Nikki, Star and Kaltag. They’re even pretty similar in design conventions, with there being two smaller skinnier guys and one bigger broader one. I’m not a big fan of them, especially with how quickly they turned from being evil henchmen to supporting Aleu and being willing to leave the lands, but I’m glad there was more to them than just being mindless followers. Their humor isn’t funny, though, much like the trio of the first movie. Nuk eats a lot, Yak has fleas and speaks incorrectly, and Sumac seems to be slightly crazy. The jokes are just repeated over and over again and it’s not funny the first time, and definitely not when repeated.
The pacing is quite good, however, I always thought we spent too little time with the wolves. They only show up in the last twenty minutes or so, and for players that are a really major element of the story and its ending, I think that might be a bit too late. We definitely should focus on Aleu and her journey to find herself, too, but I feel some scenes could’ve maybe been slightly shortened (such as the one with the wolverines, which doesn’t do much except show another one of the animals on the totem pole), so we get a little bit more time to develop the wolf pack more and show their conflict in more detail. What we got is good, but it could’ve been improved upon.
Now for the… not so great parts. Yeah, the visuals. Starting with the animation. Because, as much as I love this movie, this animation? It ain’t it, chief. It is inconsistent, there are more mistakes (a lot of them obvious) than I can count, characters go off-model sometimes, there’s some really shitty early-2000′s CGI which is poorly implemented, fur isn’t animated properly, etc. It’s just not good, even for a direct-to-video sequel of the early 2000′s. And it’s not so bad that it doesn’t bother me, it absolutely does. In fact, when I was younger and re-watched Wolf Quest for the millionth time, I used to play games of counting how many mistakes I could spot without pausing the movie. Yeah, I literally made a game out of it. It’s that bad. So don’t go into this expecting the same wonderful animation as in the first film. Heck, Wings of Change, the other Balto sequel, doesn’t look groundbreaking or anything, but at least its animation is better than this.
The other visuals are kind of meh, too. The character designs definitely took a bit of a back seat. The wolves look less like wild animals like in the first film and more like overgrown dogs with big paws here. They’re not really as massive or fluffy, which is kind of a downgrade. Niju himself just has one of the weirdest character designs. He kind of looks like a wolf-version of Steele, except he has a blue-gray underbelly instead of white, grew whiskers and has a massive chin added. I’ve also heard that he is a design expy from Lip Lip of the cheap Goodtimes White Fang movie, which was made to cash in on the success of Balto. What an… odd choice. He just stands out like a sore thumb among the other wolves here. Even Nava and Aniu, while having slightly more unique designs, still resemble the standard wolf design in this. I think Nuk looks fine (safe for him having the husky facial mask), but again, Yak and Sumac (which share a design model) look too different. Too round chins, too short, ears too tall. They look more like coyotes than wolves, if anything. Aleu herself’s design I actually do like, safe for her weird eyes. They have this really different shape and are blue for no reason. It’s not genetically impossible for her to have them, seeing how both Jenna and Balto have husky ancestry, but for someone who is supposed to “look more wolf than father”, she shouldn’t be having these really distinct blue sight orbs. Making them reddish-brown or yellow or amber or whatever would’ve worked so much more. Ah well, most characters from the original films do look the same still, though the tails have gotten oddly big in this sequel. They just look like their original counterparts with a (slight) downgrade.
The color palette is really not that good. While some scenes do have pretty colors (particularly during some songs), the lack of real color coding some of the scenes have is really obvious. Balto and Aleu have the same color palette in pretty much any scene of the movie safe for some night scenes, rather than having it adjust to the circumstances. It just looks incredibly flat and dull, especially after the first movie, which had a great use of color. The colors are also a bit too bright if you ask me, and inconsistent with the first. I have no idea why Balto suddenly is more brownish and has less yellow eyes.
The backgrounds are sometimes nice, but nothing great, either. And, again, the use of color isn’t always the most interesting or pleasing to the eyes.
The voice acting is…varying. I don’t mind most of the replacements they got for the original’s characters (though Charles Fleischer is definitely not Bob Hoskins), and even some of the newer actors for characters introduced in this film do a good job. I really liked Mark Hamill as Niju and David Carradine as Nava. However, I do have one problem, and that’s Aleu’s voice. And it’s a big problem, since she’s one of our main characters. Her adolescent-voice is simply too young. I’m not saying that Lacey Chabert did a bad job acting, per se, but she just doesn’t sound the part of how Aleu looks. She is this rebellious late-teenager who matures throughout the movie, yet she sounds like a very young teen. It always really distracted me when watching this movie in English (which is why this is one of the only movies I sometimes watch the Dutch dub of, because Aleu has a pretty good VA in it that really sounds the part).
I guess I’ll also bring up the obvious point that, despite Aleu growing up, Muk and Luk just stay cubs. This bothered me when I first saw it, and still does to this day. At this point I’m just assuming maybe they’re polar bears with dwarfism, because they never seem to mature, even in the third movie. I do know that polar bears mature slower than canines, but they don’t even progress a tiny bit throughout these movies (which have taken place over at least a two-year span, but is implied to be more). It just is kind of annoying.
The music, finally, was fine. Nothing standout (though I can dream all of them due to having watched this film like 2000 times), but it does its job well. I really do like some of the original songs we got for this one, such as "Muru’s Chant" and "The Grand Design".
Okay, so, visually, this movie is nothing to write home about. In fact, it’s more remarkable how bad the visuals are, than anything. But, if you ask me, the characters, story, some of the voice acting and songs are all good enough for me to enjoy it. I’m also not going to meander around the fact that this is one of the main movies I would describe my childhood with. Nostalgia, man.
I cannot hate this movie. I can be frustrated by its visuals, sure, but I cannot even remotely dislike it or anything. I’m just too attached to it. I’m probably too soft on it, but I really do believe that the elements about this sequel that are good about it, are really good. Ah, well. If you really grew up loving the original and only later saw this sequel, I don’t think you’d like it very much, but it’s the ultimate Balto movie for me. Alex out.
The pacing is quite good, however, I always thought we spent too little time with the wolves. They only show up in the last twenty minutes or so, and for players that are a really major element of the story and its ending, I think that might be a bit too late. We definitely should focus on Aleu and her journey to find herself, too, but I feel some scenes could’ve maybe been slightly shortened (such as the one with the wolverines, which doesn’t do much except show another one of the animals on the totem pole), so we get a little bit more time to develop the wolf pack more and show their conflict in more detail. What we got is good, but it could’ve been improved upon.
Now for the… not so great parts. Yeah, the visuals. Starting with the animation. Because, as much as I love this movie, this animation? It ain’t it, chief. It is inconsistent, there are more mistakes (a lot of them obvious) than I can count, characters go off-model sometimes, there’s some really shitty early-2000′s CGI which is poorly implemented, fur isn’t animated properly, etc. It’s just not good, even for a direct-to-video sequel of the early 2000′s. And it’s not so bad that it doesn’t bother me, it absolutely does. In fact, when I was younger and re-watched Wolf Quest for the millionth time, I used to play games of counting how many mistakes I could spot without pausing the movie. Yeah, I literally made a game out of it. It’s that bad. So don’t go into this expecting the same wonderful animation as in the first film. Heck, Wings of Change, the other Balto sequel, doesn’t look groundbreaking or anything, but at least its animation is better than this.
The other visuals are kind of meh, too. The character designs definitely took a bit of a back seat. The wolves look less like wild animals like in the first film and more like overgrown dogs with big paws here. They’re not really as massive or fluffy, which is kind of a downgrade. Niju himself just has one of the weirdest character designs. He kind of looks like a wolf-version of Steele, except he has a blue-gray underbelly instead of white, grew whiskers and has a massive chin added. I’ve also heard that he is a design expy from Lip Lip of the cheap Goodtimes White Fang movie, which was made to cash in on the success of Balto. What an… odd choice. He just stands out like a sore thumb among the other wolves here. Even Nava and Aniu, while having slightly more unique designs, still resemble the standard wolf design in this. I think Nuk looks fine (safe for him having the husky facial mask), but again, Yak and Sumac (which share a design model) look too different. Too round chins, too short, ears too tall. They look more like coyotes than wolves, if anything. Aleu herself’s design I actually do like, safe for her weird eyes. They have this really different shape and are blue for no reason. It’s not genetically impossible for her to have them, seeing how both Jenna and Balto have husky ancestry, but for someone who is supposed to “look more wolf than father”, she shouldn’t be having these really distinct blue sight orbs. Making them reddish-brown or yellow or amber or whatever would’ve worked so much more. Ah well, most characters from the original films do look the same still, though the tails have gotten oddly big in this sequel. They just look like their original counterparts with a (slight) downgrade.
The color palette is really not that good. While some scenes do have pretty colors (particularly during some songs), the lack of real color coding some of the scenes have is really obvious. Balto and Aleu have the same color palette in pretty much any scene of the movie safe for some night scenes, rather than having it adjust to the circumstances. It just looks incredibly flat and dull, especially after the first movie, which had a great use of color. The colors are also a bit too bright if you ask me, and inconsistent with the first. I have no idea why Balto suddenly is more brownish and has less yellow eyes.
The backgrounds are sometimes nice, but nothing great, either. And, again, the use of color isn’t always the most interesting or pleasing to the eyes.
The voice acting is…varying. I don’t mind most of the replacements they got for the original’s characters (though Charles Fleischer is definitely not Bob Hoskins), and even some of the newer actors for characters introduced in this film do a good job. I really liked Mark Hamill as Niju and David Carradine as Nava. However, I do have one problem, and that’s Aleu’s voice. And it’s a big problem, since she’s one of our main characters. Her adolescent-voice is simply too young. I’m not saying that Lacey Chabert did a bad job acting, per se, but she just doesn’t sound the part of how Aleu looks. She is this rebellious late-teenager who matures throughout the movie, yet she sounds like a very young teen. It always really distracted me when watching this movie in English (which is why this is one of the only movies I sometimes watch the Dutch dub of, because Aleu has a pretty good VA in it that really sounds the part).
I guess I’ll also bring up the obvious point that, despite Aleu growing up, Muk and Luk just stay cubs. This bothered me when I first saw it, and still does to this day. At this point I’m just assuming maybe they’re polar bears with dwarfism, because they never seem to mature, even in the third movie. I do know that polar bears mature slower than canines, but they don’t even progress a tiny bit throughout these movies (which have taken place over at least a two-year span, but is implied to be more). It just is kind of annoying.
The music, finally, was fine. Nothing standout (though I can dream all of them due to having watched this film like 2000 times), but it does its job well. I really do like some of the original songs we got for this one, such as "Muru’s Chant" and "The Grand Design".
Okay, so, visually, this movie is nothing to write home about. In fact, it’s more remarkable how bad the visuals are, than anything. But, if you ask me, the characters, story, some of the voice acting and songs are all good enough for me to enjoy it. I’m also not going to meander around the fact that this is one of the main movies I would describe my childhood with. Nostalgia, man.
I cannot hate this movie. I can be frustrated by its visuals, sure, but I cannot even remotely dislike it or anything. I’m just too attached to it. I’m probably too soft on it, but I really do believe that the elements about this sequel that are good about it, are really good. Ah, well. If you really grew up loving the original and only later saw this sequel, I don’t think you’d like it very much, but it’s the ultimate Balto movie for me. Alex out.
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