OK.Balto 3 is a deception,i dont know but the story is just dull isnt for everyone?! I
watch the movie in spanish and it doesnt arrange the story..Stella is so stupid and her song his a Desaster!THE whole movie is so empty that you can ask you:Why do they actually made a third Balto?Balto made it up a bit but why is he actually complaining always about himself?ok, the entertainment is narrow in that movie because the characters only irritate the watchers .So the movie need more personality .

I am going to be blunt about this; I am not impressed with this film. Wings of Change lacks the depth and maturity of its predecessors. Even though Wolfquest had many flaws, I infinitely prefer it to Wings.

Balto Three, is the story of Balto, and his son Cody. Cody carries the mail with a dog team. Cody is very proud of his job, but change is in the air, in the form of an airplane. This metal machine is faster than any dog, and threatens to take the sled dog’s jobs away.

Although I dislike this movie, Wings has its good sides. Unlike "Wolfquest", Wings has continuity to the first film. Balto is finally recognized as the hero he is. The plot is relatively historically accurate… for an animated movie. Though I doubt real sled dogs were upset by "loosing their jobs".

The songs aren't half bad, but they certainly are not memorable. The score and sound effects are insufferable. They don't fit the movie at all, especially the climax, where a jazzy tune is played.

I don't care for most of the new characters. Stella, (Boris's love interest) and the two city dogs are annoying, and don't really move the plot along. Cody and his dog-team are not half-bad. They lack personality, but are likeable. As for the old characters, they have become extremely bland. Especially Balto, the now never-do-wrong father figure.

What really bothers me about this film, is the maturity level, which is low compared to the last two films. It focuses too much on comedy, and offers nothing thought provoking. If you’re looking for a sequel to Balto with accuracy then I suggest Wings, but if you are looking for something a little deeper, go for Wolfquest.

I very much agree with Lupercal in that this sequel was way overrated. Sean Astin was a great addition, and Kodi was an awesome character. Now you can all kill me for this- but I actually found Stella pretty entertaining. What I don't like is Jean Smart... The score was great, but not the songs. " Come On Up and Fly" wasn't much of a song, but was a well choreographed scene, " Everything Flies" had no melody or rythm of any kind, and I didn't even like Jenna's song all that much! Frankly Wolf Quest, while not as good in story/animation quality, was simply more enjoyable than WoC.

Edit: In response to Lupercal's statement about ' ghosting' in the animation and whether or not it was any better in the American version: Over here you don't even have to play it in slow-mo to see that ghosting, and it's really freakin' annoying.

Another Edit: Man, I never realized how serious it is to you people that Balto's eyes stay yellow.

Okay, this is my first review here, so it's not the best knocked-head-over-heels kind of review. It's just a simple, normal review. So let's begin. Let's get the first things first. All the great chars are back, with all the new voices, that were here in the first movie, example Maurice LaMarche, who's doing pretty good to make his voice sound the same as Kevin Bacon. Jodi Benson is here too doing the voice of Jenna, and she's doing awesome too. For a 2D movie it has a lot of 3D graphics, like the plane and all that, but it adds a nice touch to the movie. Also, one thing about one of the chars....As soon as you see Boris's new girlfriend Stella, you can tell she will be annoying. Oh yes. Annoying is the word. Having a girlfriend makes Boris all that less appealing and exciting as in the other movies.

Jenna's song is awesome! What's it called? Oh yes, 'You Don't Have to be a Hero' I think. Very nice tune, and words similar to a song I've heard before but will not reveal the sources.

Balto has yellow eyes again, yes! It's also great that Balto gets to lead a dog team again, just like old times. Balto seemed a bit different in the second movie, characterwise but now he seems back to normal again.

The graphics are really well done, can't really say anything negative....They did all of the chars pretty much the way they did them in the first movie.

Does someone always have to get mad at Balto? In the second movie his daughter gets mad at him, in Wings of Change, his son gets mad at him, does it never end? Though of course they always make up (due to younger audiences about lessons in friendship). The two polar bears get bigger roles in this movie, but act...more stupid. Well, that's all I have to say about Wings of Change...how'd I do on my first review?

This movie is the best sequal of the first movie. Much better than Wolf Quest, character voicing is much better. Characters actually sound like themselves from the first movie. The newest character, Kodi, is voiced by Sean Astin, who also played in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Although I would have liked Kevin Bacon to voice Balto and Bridget Fonda to voice Jenna, I still think that Maurice LaMarche and Jodi Benson do a great job in recreating their voices.
The music overall was great. The only MAJOR DRAWBACK was Stella's song. It was so awful that it made my stomache churn and reel with pain. It had no perspective or any purpose to exist even to call it that! The best song would have to be Jenna's song, "You Don't Have to be a Hero".
Animations in this movie are one big step up from Wolf Quest and a bit enhanced from the first Balto. Characters are more smoothly designed and move about more freely. The only problem that kept gnawing on me was the fact that too little detail and scenes of the plane crash were in existence. When I watched this movie the first time, I thought this movie was messed up because I was confused, but then I rented an extra copy and I realized what was happening after the third try. Except for the plane flying sometimes looking a little too 3D over a 2D movie, the animations were almost flawless and in pristine condition.
The story line is much more better too. Rather than based miles from home and based on some Indian-related tale, the movie is based on their present time, back in Nome. I think that a competition for the mail job that dogs have had for generations seems much more interesting to me.
Overall, another great family movie like the others, but this is one I stongly suggest. I want to thank Universal and keep up the good work. I hope to see more of this great work I've ever seen in a series in the near future.

For a dtv this movie was ok. The animation, voice work, score, and characters were, for the most part, done fairly well.

The story followed along the lines of the original in that Balto had to rescue someone. not very original, but better than Wolf Quest's. The mail delivery dog sled team races against a plane, the plane crashes, and Balto sets out to find the Pilot. It had a few slow spots, and was very predictable, but it was entertaining enough.

Most characters were pretty good. Many of the original characters made cameo appearances, but that was about it for them. Jenna did have a slightly larger role in this movie, which was nice, but really in the sequels her only role seems to be popping out puppies and being a worry wort. Balto, although not quite like the one in the first, was still pretty good. He wasn't overly protective in this movie. Kodi, Balto's son was a pretty good character, could have had a lot more depth to him though. Several of the other minor characters were pretty good. The only ones I really complain about are the polar bears and Stella. Stella is one of the most annoying characters ever thought up. She didn't help the story along at all, and at times I think she slowed it down. The polar bears, although very cute in the first, are just plain annoying now. Although they aren't quite as bad as they were in WQ.

The score was really good for a sequel. Most of time it fit the movie. Only two complaints. First is Stella's song. One word for it: Awful. It really served no purpose. It was just there for the hey of it I guess. Second was when Balto and the polar bears are being washed down the river. An upbeat jazzy background song is being played. Personally I thought it sounded very out of place. The other song, that was sung by a character, was sung by Jenna, and it was ok. Overall the music was nice and I enjoyed it more than WQ's score and songs.

The animation, although still a lot like WQ's, had more of the original flavor to it. Balto's eyes were yellow again, although it's something small it was nice to see this corrected from WQ's error. Some of the animation is still unnatural like WQ's but not as bad. The backgrounds were beautiful, and the computer animation flowed better this time and seemed to fit in a little better with the 2D. Several spots where the camera zoomed or did a fly by it would clash though.

The voice work was really nice in this film. Sean Astin did a wonderful job as Kodi. Balto, Jenna, Boris, Muk, and Luk all sounded closer to the originals this time than they did in WQ. Boris actually sounded Russian and Jenna's voice wasn't as annoyingly perky.

I enjoyed this movie, and although it has it's faults, it's a big step above Wolf Quest. I don't feel that I totally wasted my money when I bought it, and I'd suggest it to anyone who is really into Balto, maybe for a Friday night rental.

Wow. I just watched its American debut on Cartoon Network, and it has really made me want to buy it when it is released. This third movie of the Balto series has given Balto fans a few things that they had wished for in a sequel: the return of the original references, beautiful animation, and a great storyline. Balto has returned with a bang.
Wings of Change is mainly what I would call the "near-perfect sequel". The original characters (Balto, Jenna, Boris, and the bears) seem to be back in character since Wolf Quest (the horror), and the addition of new, colorful characters makes the mix complete. Balto and Jenna are done well, both with animation and the voices. They don't sound exactly like the original cast, but the second time around, the voices really have improved.
I think only one character in the movie really stands out in this movie, and it has to be Kodi. Kodi, one of Balto's children from Wolf Quest, makes his big debut as a sled dog who wants to be lead dog, just like his famous dad. His character is really interesting, especially his background as a pup that thinks that he can't do as well as the others until Daddy begins to form a bond with him. I only wish that his character was given more screen time for more of his personality to show. Sean Autin does a wonderful job of bringing Kodi to life with a powerful voice that seems to help make Kodi really become a son of Balto.
The other new characters, like the rest of the dog team, Mel and Dipsy, and Stella (Boris' love interest) and others, help make the story enjoyable. Even though some of the character designs for some characters should have been changed (mainly Stella's, with her chest area), their personalities are slowly developed, but not much.
The songs are okay. I'm glad there wasn't as many songs as in WQ, but most of them had a weird WQ feel to them. Jenna's song, "You Don't Have to be a Hero", was the best of them all. Jodi Benson really brings out the best of Jenna's feelings of Balto and Kodi's bond as a father and son in this song. It felt like the ending song from the original film. The other two songs were not as good IMO, especially Stella's "courting" song to Boris. To me, it didn't seem to fit in the feel of the movie and the series itself, since this is supposed to be a series for children. It was different, nonetheless!
Overall, it was very nice for a sequel. It was much better than WQ, even though there still were some things that should have been cut out. This is so close to a four stars rating, but it still has its flaws. I would hope that this would be the end of the Balto saga, even though a TV series would be best if the series was continued. Let's hope that if other sequels are made in the future, I hope that they are made as well or better than this one. This is definitely a must-see for all Balto fans.

This is what every Balto fans are waiting for! I watched it alreay, and I must say, its really awesome. I loved it, This is most probably one of the best DTV ever! I think everone should watch it. The voice acting improved, with Sean Astin as Kodi. The animation is much better now. The songs are improved and the characters doesn't really bug me too much now. Man, I really loved the Balto series, sadly to say this, but I really think that Balto 3 should be the end , the ending will leave an everlasting impression on one's mind. Unless there is an animated TV series for it, I don't mind!

Edit, 2007: this movie has been re-evaluated due to my new DTV rating guidelines, which boil down to 'This is a DTV, not 'Shrek 2'. As it happens, the rating wasn't changed anyway.

----

Ok, where to start? Well, I was one of the few people who thought 'Wolf Quest' was pretty good when it was being howled down as awful, so I suppose it's not that amazing that I should be a bit disappointed with the third Balto film when everyone is so positive it will be great. On the whole, on first viewing I would say it's probably not much better or worse than Wolf Quest, which is not a bad thing. Its strengths and weaknesses are in different areas, though.

What's good about it? Well for a start, it makes far more sense in relation to the first film, is similar in theme, and doesn't present the viewer with strange situations such as Wolf Quest did. Balto is no longer the inexplicably dispirited outcast from Wolf Quest. Instead, he's involved with the human population and the other dogs of Nome in a way which you would expect of the hero who saved the town in 1925.

Secondly, though Jenna is still off-model, visually and vocally, she's off-model in a more pleasing way, she's much more interesting than she was in Wolf Quest, and she gets a lot more screen time than I expected.

Thirdly, the production values are at least as good as Wolf Quest, some of the backgrounds are terrific (though Wolf Quest had some really strong backgrounds, too), and whereas there is a fair bit of CGI in B3, it doesn't tend to jar against the 2D animation as much as it did in Wolf Quest (though compared to some recent movies, the use of 3D in Wolf Quest is positively subtle!)

Fourthly there are no embarressingly bad canine characters this time, like that awful trio of wolves from the second half of WQ. Kodi, Balto's son, is a decent if not very fleshed out character, and the other dogs are all fine, though none of them are especially memorable.

Fifthly, there are a few animation sequences which surpass anything in Wolf Quest - though there also a couple of fleeting shots where characters seem to have been drawn by entirely different animators.

Finally the shift back to an action theme ought to be a welcome change away from the mystical distractions of Wolf Quest.

Ought to be. That's the problem. I just didn't find that the action/suspense theme of the film carried anywhere near the emotional clout of the original. In fact I think Wolf Quest was probably more emotional than Wings of Change, certainly in its final scenes. Why is that? I'm not completely sure, having just viewed it for the first time, but I'll make a few stabs at explaining it below.

What didn't work? Firstly, though there are no embarressing canine characters, there's an equally embarressing avian one. Boris's girlfriend Stella is really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY annoying. She turns up out of nowhere and is instantly and inexplicably seductive towards Boris - I mean to the point of having breasts for God's sake, and doing a really ridiculous cabaret number. This nonsense takes up far too much of the first half of the film and contributes nothing to the story, other than giving an oblique way of advancing the 'flight' motif of the movie. Fortunately Stella improves as a character in the second half of the movie, but it doesn't really answer the question of why she is there at all.

Secondly there's too much comedy. There was comedy in the first film, but it was largely cordoned off from the action sequences. This time the two get mixed up and it undercuts the drama at times - I think this is part of why the film lacked emotional impact for me. Or perhaps it was just because the thing isn't all that brilliantly directed. It just seems not to know how to tell a suspenseful story like the original film - and I'm putting it down to the direction, and to a lesser extent the writing, because there's nothing wrong with the overall story concept. An example? There is one point where a crisis is about to happen, which ought to have been really dramatic, and the soundtrack is a sort of ditzy, big-band jazz track that just has nothing to do with what's on screen at all.

There are a couple of other things that bug me. At the start of the film, Balto has an overwhelming fascination with wanting to fly. Why? We never find out.

Anyone who misses Aleu might be pleased to know that there's a female dog on the sled team, who, if someone hadn't called her 'Dusty' at one point, I would have thought was Aleu come back from across the ice. Which raises another question. If she's been accepted into the sled team, and looks just like Aleu, why was Aleu rejected for looking like that in the previous film? But I suppose this is more a fault of Wolf Quest than this movie, and you do get the feeling that the original writers, who are back for this effort, are making a conscious effort to correct some of Wolf Quest's inconsistencies.

Well, I'm a big Balto fan, and I suspect this film will be better recieved than Wolf Quest was. Personally I'd rate them about the same. They're both pretty decent for DTV sequels, and they're also very different from each other. I guess if I lean slightly towards Wolf Quest it's because I felt that with that movie the producers tried their hardest for something intense, but just didn't quite make it work, whereas with this one they got the foundations solid, but then didn't really try to do anything very special with it.

Like Wolf Quest though, this has its srengths and is a long way from being a shambles. I think I'm going to have to live with it a bit longer. I may grow more or less fond of it. At the moment, like Wolf Quest, this gets 3 stars, though (a couple of months on now), I'm finding myself thinking more and more that this is the over-rated sequel, and Wolf-Quest the under-rated one.

(PS I just had to do a search for a particular scene on this film in order to answer a question from someone - and I just noticed how bad the mpeg compression artefacts are. They're absolutely awful. I pulled out Wolf Quest to compare it with, and WQ was fine. You won't notice it porbably on normal viewing, but on slow-mo, search or pause there's ghosting all over the place. I'd be interested to hear when the US DVD comes out whether it's any better than the Australian one, because I might be tempted to get it. Odd, because the Australian version of the original Balto is pristine (and widescreen)

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 perfecly 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.