Balto

The true story of an American hero
The true story of an American hero
BALTO (PG)
D: Simon Wells
Universal/Amblin (Steve Hickner)
USA/UK 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 1995
77 mins
 
Animated/Historical
 
W: Cliff Ruby, Elana Lesser, David Steven Cohen & Roger S. H. Schulman 
Mus: James Horner
 
voices of: Kevin Bacon (Balto), Bob Hoskins (Boris), Bridget Fonda (Jenna), Jim Cummings (Steele), Phil Collins (Muk/Luk)
 
Obviously, creative licence has been taken with this true story, unless the history books have lied about the existence once of a talking dog, otherwise it's a decent animated film for kids with a bit of legendary American folklore thrown in.
It begins as a live action movie with a grandmother & granddaughter in Central Park, New York and becomes an animated movie when the grandmother explains the origins of the statue in the park commemorating Balto, a dog used to transport medicinal supplies in Alaska in the 1920's.
The animation isn't quite up to Disney standard but output from other production companies rarely is. A string of straight-to-video sequels followed.
5/10

Balto
Balto
Did You Know:
The real hero of the 1925 serum run was Togo. The twelve-year-old husky led his sled dog team through 260 miles of blowing Alaskan blizzard to deliver emergency diphtheria serum to Nome. Balto received most of the fame, because he led the final 55 miles.