Three years after that despicable abomination Balto 2: Wolf Quest, Universal released Balto 3: Wings of Change. I admit it's not right up there with the first movie, it has it's flaws, there's a lot about that I would have loved to change but it's a much better installment to the series than Wolf Quest.
Unlike Wolf Quest (how I hate that film!) the story to Wings of Change is straight forward and easy to follow: Balto's son, Kodi (voiced by Sean Astin from Lord of the Rings) is part of the Nome mail delivery service. However, Kodi's job- as well as the other dogs on the team- is in danger of losing their jobs with the arrival of new technology. That is, a bush plane has arrived in Nome and may very well be the new mail delivery service. Balto is fascinated by the plane and quickly befriends the pilot, Duke. Soon a race is organized between the dog-sled team and the plane to see who can deliver the mail to the neighbouring town and back the fastest. Along the way back to Nome, Duke's crashes and is lost in the wild. The dog-sled team wins the race, much to Kodi's delight, but Balto knows that something must of happened to Duke and sets out to find him. Meanwhile, in a subplot Boris falls in love with a she-goose, Stella. Stella wants to fly with Boris, but Boris, even though he's a bird, has a secret fear of heights and hates flying.
The good points of Balto: Wings of Change are: a straight forward story as I said before, unlike Wolf Quest which was all over the place and had too many pointless subplots which went nowhere. Balto is a better character this time around; he doesn't spend most of the movie sleeping and being a coward (here's looking at you again, Wolf Quest!). Kodi is also another highlight. Unlike that nuclear bomb of a character, Aleu, Kodi is actually likable and doesn't whine about being part wolf. Also, Sean Astin does a great job voicing Kodi; he actually sounds like a teenager (or yearling in dog years) unlike Aleu who sounds like an angry five year old on helium, despite also being a yearling.
The bad points of Balto Wings of Change are: The animation, although compared to Wolf Quest is far better, is a pretty crudely done for one thing. There's also still songs in the movie though there's three and a half, so that's not too bad. The song "Everything Flies" which plays over the opening and ending credits is actually pretty good, it's not brilliant, but it's not bad either. "Come on Up and Fly", on the other hand is just God awful; it doesn't help matters that it's sung by Stella, the absolute worst character in the movie, and that the whole sequence that goes with the song is practically a striptease with a goose. It's painful to listen to and painful to watch. Jenna's "You Don't Have to Be a Hero" isn't a bad song; it was just unfortunate that they happened to show clips and some extra film of Wolf Quest which suddenly brought back horrible flashbacks. Still if you skip past "Come on Up and Fly" and "You Don't have to be a Hero" (or just close your eyes till the song is over), you'll have a much more enjoyable experience. Another bad point to Wings of Change is that there happen to be some very random scenes which have nothing to do with anything and feel like they were tacked on to make the movie that little bit longer. Three examples of this is when Jenna and some other dogs are at the race and waiting for dog-sled team and the plane to come back; they hear a loud noise and think it's the plane but it turns out it's the saw mill they're standing next to. Example number two is when a quick fade in of the plane crash shows up on screen, but then fade out all of a sudden; it's as if the people who made this movie originally planed a scene there, but changed their minds at the last minute. Number three is when Balto, Muk, Luk and Stella find the crashed plane but are suddenly ambushed by a moose who keeps on and on saying "You talking' me?" a la Taxi Driver. The moose then suddenly gets into a fight with another conveniently placed moose. However, the absolute worst part of Balto: Wings of Change is the character Stella. I'm dead serious they gave her a wavy hair (feather?) style, a beauty mark on her face and even deep cleavage and is so sexual you would of thought she was zapped out of some furry porno.
Even though it's swimming in all sorts of flaws (but not a disaster from start to end like you know who!), I would honestly have to say that Balto: Wings of Change is pretty damn good for a straight to video sequel and a good installment to the series.
Final score: 7/10
Unlike Wolf Quest (how I hate that film!) the story to Wings of Change is straight forward and easy to follow: Balto's son, Kodi (voiced by Sean Astin from Lord of the Rings) is part of the Nome mail delivery service. However, Kodi's job- as well as the other dogs on the team- is in danger of losing their jobs with the arrival of new technology. That is, a bush plane has arrived in Nome and may very well be the new mail delivery service. Balto is fascinated by the plane and quickly befriends the pilot, Duke. Soon a race is organized between the dog-sled team and the plane to see who can deliver the mail to the neighbouring town and back the fastest. Along the way back to Nome, Duke's crashes and is lost in the wild. The dog-sled team wins the race, much to Kodi's delight, but Balto knows that something must of happened to Duke and sets out to find him. Meanwhile, in a subplot Boris falls in love with a she-goose, Stella. Stella wants to fly with Boris, but Boris, even though he's a bird, has a secret fear of heights and hates flying.
The good points of Balto: Wings of Change are: a straight forward story as I said before, unlike Wolf Quest which was all over the place and had too many pointless subplots which went nowhere. Balto is a better character this time around; he doesn't spend most of the movie sleeping and being a coward (here's looking at you again, Wolf Quest!). Kodi is also another highlight. Unlike that nuclear bomb of a character, Aleu, Kodi is actually likable and doesn't whine about being part wolf. Also, Sean Astin does a great job voicing Kodi; he actually sounds like a teenager (or yearling in dog years) unlike Aleu who sounds like an angry five year old on helium, despite also being a yearling.
The bad points of Balto Wings of Change are: The animation, although compared to Wolf Quest is far better, is a pretty crudely done for one thing. There's also still songs in the movie though there's three and a half, so that's not too bad. The song "Everything Flies" which plays over the opening and ending credits is actually pretty good, it's not brilliant, but it's not bad either. "Come on Up and Fly", on the other hand is just God awful; it doesn't help matters that it's sung by Stella, the absolute worst character in the movie, and that the whole sequence that goes with the song is practically a striptease with a goose. It's painful to listen to and painful to watch. Jenna's "You Don't Have to Be a Hero" isn't a bad song; it was just unfortunate that they happened to show clips and some extra film of Wolf Quest which suddenly brought back horrible flashbacks. Still if you skip past "Come on Up and Fly" and "You Don't have to be a Hero" (or just close your eyes till the song is over), you'll have a much more enjoyable experience. Another bad point to Wings of Change is that there happen to be some very random scenes which have nothing to do with anything and feel like they were tacked on to make the movie that little bit longer. Three examples of this is when Jenna and some other dogs are at the race and waiting for dog-sled team and the plane to come back; they hear a loud noise and think it's the plane but it turns out it's the saw mill they're standing next to. Example number two is when a quick fade in of the plane crash shows up on screen, but then fade out all of a sudden; it's as if the people who made this movie originally planed a scene there, but changed their minds at the last minute. Number three is when Balto, Muk, Luk and Stella find the crashed plane but are suddenly ambushed by a moose who keeps on and on saying "You talking' me?" a la Taxi Driver. The moose then suddenly gets into a fight with another conveniently placed moose. However, the absolute worst part of Balto: Wings of Change is the character Stella. I'm dead serious they gave her a wavy hair (feather?) style, a beauty mark on her face and even deep cleavage and is so sexual you would of thought she was zapped out of some furry porno.
Even though it's swimming in all sorts of flaws (but not a disaster from start to end like you know who!), I would honestly have to say that Balto: Wings of Change is pretty damn good for a straight to video sequel and a good installment to the series.
Final score: 7/10