My opinion on Balto 2 - Wolf Quest :

Note : I've written this review before watching Balto 3...and translated it into english after :)
First of all, in order to not spoil anyone, I will not give any information on the scenario in this opinion.
I got the Balto 2 dvd rather recently (March 2004), with the DVD for the original Balto, so it would be easy to compare both directly.
But I think that it would be rather unfair to make such a comparison, at least from a technical point of view, since the budget allocated for this sequel is far from being the same as for the first (I believe it was even 10 times less...)

This sequel was not carried out by the same studio as for the first (this is obvious, since Amblin doesn't really exists anymore), and despite that, I find that this Direct-To-Video movie remains relatively good, at least on specific points.

Let's start with the technical aspect. We can feel that it is recent: the 3D generated by computers is much used, and the colors are sometimes very beautiful (many color gradations, in particular the purple one, which is often used in some recent productions like Treasure Planet or Sinbad. This is my favorite color ;) ).

On the other hand, the characters are drawn just correctly, and are bad animated, even if that remains rather smooth. But, in fact, this is not really surprising for a DTV sequel, and it's not really worse than the Disney ones. Besides, Balto isn't the most popular animated movie, so the budget was low. So we can't really blame Universal for that.

A delicate point, since it is one of my favorites things from the first, relates to the musics : well, I think it is a good work, certainly not at the level of the soundtrack from James Horner, and it's quite different, but the Indian themes are really beautiful and some passages are really worth listening, even if there aren't too many of this kind (that's a shame!), and there are too many "empty" passages in the film, which is often the case in the small budgets sequels like this.
But one of the most surprising thing is that there are songs in this one! I won't lie, usually I try to "escape" those kiddy songs, but in reality I kinda liked the songs of Balto 2 : there are not too much (3), and I found them very well integrated into the film, so that they will not be the worst passages in the film. I even came back to the film several times only to listen to them... And hopefully, no character from the first sing! (...at least in this one...) I will not say much about the voices, because I rarely watch it in american (BTW, in the french version, the characters didn't have their voices changed from the first, contrary to the american version!) , but the replacement voice actors sound quite decent, especially Balto's voice (hopefully the most important).

You may have noticed that there is no really negative criticism in what I said until now. But I think there is a major flaw : I found this sequel too traditional, there is absolutely nothing original in all this and unlike the first, I think that everything else is not enough to hide this problem. This doesn't mean that the story isn't good, because it's still above the average DTV sequel, it's just that it could have been better. Another problem is that the story is really different from the original : no human, and some magic...something that everyone won't probably like.
Moreover, I found that the characters back from the first were somewhat changed in their behaviors and characters, even if it's not always obvious.

Lastly, I will say that it's a shame this sequel is only intented to the children from the way it is made: to tell the truth, I think that the animation studio must have too much made "Land Before Time" sequels, mixed Balto with it, and somewhat believed it would be enough to make Wolf Quest an alternative to the Land Before Time series by simplifying the situations and dialogs to attract a young public (less than 10 years?).
And it is a pity, because the same scenario could have generated something much better if some limits had not been put in order to be accurate for the youngest... But, even the adults should also like the film anyway, and once again Disney doesn't do much better with their animated video sequels. (after all, we still talk about packs of wolves here...).

To finish, I would say that it remains a good film. Perhaps not the sequel Balto deserved, and it could have been better if more care had been taken overall... But everyone who liked the original Balto obviously must throw an eye into this, I think they still have many chances to like this sequel. The important thing is to not consider it at the same level of the first. As for everyone else, well... it is just absolutely necessary to see the original Balto !!!

Rent it first in DVD (if you can find it...), but only after having seen Balto 1! ;)

To summarize:

Strong points:
+ Pretty, "recent" graphics
+ Good musics, some awesome passages
+ Interesting story
+ Decent voice actors
+ Some people may even like it more than the original

Weak points:
- Traditional
- Intended for a young public
- Sometimes: missed animations (the bear...)
- Some questions remain at the end
- Much different from the original

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