Customer Reviews

Balto III: Wings of Change [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My 3 year old LOVES all the Balto movies. This one seems to be his favorite. He has watched it so many times that he practically knows all the dialog by heart. And it peaks his imagination to play Balto, culminating in trying to be a sled dog pulling his wagon in the back yard. Hope there's a Balto IV coming soon.

This is the third movie in the hit Balto triology. A word of warning this movie has some mildly intense cartoon action seqeunces in some parts of it that maybe to intense for young kids under the age of ten. In Balto III wings of change young half wolf dog is leding the sleed dogs again. This time it's in a thrilling race to decide who will diliver the mail to Noamo the sleed dogs or the airplane. Your father charaters such as Boris the goose Jenny and those two wacky polar bears are back in this epic movie. Also in this movie are some new characters balto's son Kodo, and a beautiful female goose named Stella. Like the first two balto this movie has increbile characters breath taking adventure seqeunces and beautiful enchanting musical numbers. Will Balto win the race find out in the thrilling conclusion. If you like this I also recommend balto 1 and 2 as well.

I purchased the three Balto animated movie dvds as a surprise for my three daughters for a long road trip. My girls are 10, 9 and 6. It was the easiest and most quiet trip ever. The girls watched each movie in order and when the last movie finished... we had arrived. Yeah!

It's a great movie! But I think I like wolf quest better! But then again I have a hard time trying to figure out which one is my favorite out of all three Balto movies! In this one Balto's son Kodie who is a red and white Husky is a point dog on a sled dog team who runs the mail. And when they are to race an air force pilot to see who is faster Balto leads the team to see who is faster! But when the air force pilot is missing it's up to Balto, Kodie and the rest of the gang to save him!
It's a good movie!

Unlike the previous review, I think this second sequel is a major come back to the themes of the original Balto.

Balto is about a half-wolf, who is also half-husky, you shouldn't forget that. And this sequel focus on the sled-dog side, which still was the major point of the original Balto.

The story is nice, no major problem except that Stella goose (who takes way too much of the screen time). I really liked that there are real people in Nome (we almost never see one human in wolf quest), and that the scenes mostly take place there. The animation is much better than the one featured in Wolf Quest (probably an higher budget), and the musics are really good, especially the race themes.

I would definitely recommend it, at least much more than the second one which was a disappointment to most Balto fans. This one is a must-buy for the Balto fans IMO.

This direct-to-video sequel is already out in Europe, so that's why I've already seen it. And guess what : I love it! Not only because I'm a Balto fan, but because it's a really good animated movie, especially for a DTV (and we all know that the DTV sequels are usually all but good!).

In fact, it gives a slightly different feeling compared to the original or Wolf Quest. I don't know exactly why, but this is the first time I felt that with an animated sequel...And it's really a nice thing ;) The story is one of the best points : there are a lot of things happening, perhaps even more than in the first, and everything goes quickly. There are no boring passages, although some will probably not please everyone. No magic here, the humans are back for good, all the key points of the scenario give a feeling of reality; so it is much closer to the original on that side. The characters aren't still very well drawn; in fact, it depends, sometimes they are perfectly drawn, nearly as in the first one, and sometimes much less. I would say it is common for a DTV on that side. However, the backgrounds are AWESOME. The colors are more than beautiful, and the less beautiful backgrounds are on pair with the most beautiful in the original. It's another thing that is really impressive for a DTV sequel, seeing that IMO they are as beautiful as some big animated movies like "Brother Bear" or "Spirit", and perhaps even more! As for the musics : I would say the same thing. While there are still some empty passages, the soundtrack is really, really awesome, impressive, especially near the end. It may not have the shrewd style of Horner's Balto 1 soundtrack, yet the score from Adam Berry is exceptional, and make some passages unforgettable. To give a better idea of what I overall think of the film, I would summarize that into one word : beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Beautiful scenario, beautiful musics, beautiful graphics... Some of you might be wondering if they will rent it or buy it directly. Well, I believe that this film has more than enough replay value, when Wolf Quest had nearly none; so IMO, it is definitely a must-buy for every Balto fan, and even for everyone else ;)

To summarize : A wonderful film. Definitely a must-see for Balto fans, and one of the best DTV sequels ever made to an animated movie (maybe the best with TLK 1/2). It may have some flaws, but there are so many qualities in the scenario, graphics, musics...that everyone will let through these minor problems, and enjoy the great story it offers. If you liked Wolf Quest, you have all chances to love it. If you didn't, but still liked the original Balto, believe me : it's somewhat different from WQ, so you don't have any reason to not watch it just because WQ was a disappointment. Unlike Wolf Quest, I really can't see anyone who wouldn't like it.

Can anyone tell me if the only version available on DVD is Full Screen. I'd like to get Widescreen, but have only seen Full Screen in stores, and Amazon doesn't specify...

My grandson loves these videos and was happy to get his one. The delivery was faily quick and we were happy with the service we received with our Amazon purchase.

With the market being "bombarded" with aggressive animations themes, it is refreshing to see that there are still uplifting animations available for the whole family to enjoy.
Real value for money!

As my title said, I'm disappointed in this movie. The first and second Balto movies (yes, I'm one of those nutters who thinks that Balto 2 was one of the greatest films of all time) were totally rad, and when I saw that there was another sequel coming out, I shrieked with excitement. Then my family and I rented the movie, and my heart sank.

First and foremost, it doesn't really have the feel of Balto to it. Let me share some of the things that make it just not a Balto-ish movie.

-In the beginning, Balto says the LORD's name in vain. I found that annoying--not just because I'm a Christian who hates it when people do that, but because I never imagined Balto saying it. I don't know why, it just doesn't seem like something he'd say. They also use the word "butt" three or so times. I wish they wouldn't. I mean, that's not a horribly, horribly crude word, but it's still something you don't want to hear everywhere you go, and certainly not in a Balto film.

-This one made me REALLY angry--not once, not ONE MEASLY TIME is it even MENTIONED that Balto is half wolf!!!! They make it seem like he's a purebred dog, which he's not. He has the blessing of being half wolf (I'm a wolf fan, in case you haven't realized). In the first movie, his wolf heritedge helps him save a townfull of sick kids. The second movie was all about wolves. This third one deosn't mention them at all. Yes, I felt that, even though the second movie was way different from the first one, it still had the whole Balto feel--the beauty of nature, the knowledge that your family tree could be a lot more special than you thought it was... I dunno. I just think that it was totally wrong that they didn't bring up wolves in this movie.

-The songs are extremely lame. I'll put it bluntly. There are three of them--two are nice, but still not the greatest things in the world, the other I found completely vexing and stupid. Also, the characters sing the songs. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it was the way they sang them that wasn't Balto-ish. In the second movie (forgive me if I keep bring up Wolf Quest, I just think that it was a way better sequel than this one was), the characters sing the songs as well, but those songs are beautiful and entrancing, and you don't really notice that the characters are singing them--it's more of a background thing, and thoroughly enjoyable. In a way I'm glad that in Wings of Change there were only a couple of songs, but in another way I'm not happy, because the songs only dealt with a small part of the movie, and since there are only three of them, they really stick out like bumps in the road. In Wolf Quest, "Who You Really Are" went with the whole plot of Aleu searching for her destiny, "The Grand Design" depicted the grave fact that things will always change--a fact that the wolf pack must accept, "Muru's Chant" didn't really have much to do with the movie, but it wasn't supposed to, and you don't expect it to, and even then it does shed off the First Nation culture feel of the movie, and, finally, "Taking You Home" was just a cute song to stick in during the cubs adoption--it didn't really have much to do with anything else, but at least it didn't stick out like a sore thumb. The songs in Balto III did. Stella's song was totally annoying, Jenna's song was pretty and enjoyable but still brings up a problem they only bring up once and then forget about, so it didn't really belong. "Everything Flies", finally, was okay. It was a good intro song, and I did like it. But all in all, the music could've been better.

So, that's that. Three things I found in the movie that made me feel as if I were watching some film based on Balto instead of a film that was a sequel to Balto. One last complaint--they only show Aleu in flashbacks, and then as a cub/puppy, and I was really hoping they'd show a little bit of what happened to her somehow in someway...but I guess they just couldn't. Ah, well...

So, now for some positive comments. This movie was pretty darn funny in some parts--I have to admit. And it was cute to watch. They showed Rosie for a few frames, which I had to smile at--I was wondering if they would bring her back. She never talks, and they only show her sleeping in bed and then petting Balto and Jenna, and nothing else, but still, it was nice to see her again. And, on the DVD, the game does indeed feature Aleu properly, as well as the Aniu the White Wolf (though they call her the White Wolf Spirit), and the trivia sometimes found in the game honors all three movies.

So, it was a good kids movie, but nothing super-special, and it doesn't live up to the other two. I am a big Balto fan and have the other two movies, but now that I've rented this one and seen it, I'm not so sure I'll actually buy this one--I'm not so sure if it's worth it. But who knows? I might just change my mind. I would definately recommend the first two Balto films, but this one you might want to rent before you buy.