Balto: Wings of Change (2004)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Introduction Trailer-The Land Before Time - The Great Migration Game-The Ultimate Rescue Challenge Game
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	68:13 (Case: 78)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (47:24)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Phil Weinstein
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Elana Lesser Cliff Ruby Sean Astin Jodi Benson Keith Carradine Charles Fleischer Maurice LaMarche Jean Smart
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Adam Berry Ken Solomon Marilyn Graf

    This is the third movie in the Balto franchise and I have a feeling it may well be the last. While the first film was very good and the second also excellent, this third instalment really is not in the same class as the first two.

    The first was a wonderful tale about a creature that was different to those around him, and his journey to self-realisation and acceptance. The second was similarly themed, but this time told the story of Balto's daughter. Both movies involved life-altering decisions, and this was reflected in the depth of their storylines. In this third instalment it is one of Balto's sons that is having a problem, but this son is already accepted by those around him and the only thing really on the line is his job as a sleigh dog.

    While there is some interest in the father-son aspects of the story and their expectations of each other, there is not the tension created by the story involving life-altering decisions.

    The dog teams are currently the only transport between some of these outback, snowbound towns, but this may change with the coming of the aeroplane. The mail run is the main money spinner and whoever holds the mail contract has a future - those that don't are going to be out of a job. There is only one way to decide who is the best to carry the mail - with a race of course. The film follows the race but then twists slightly with a crash and someone trapped out in the snow. Will the dogs turn around their dislike of the competitor and help in the search and rescue?

Video

    The transfer is presented at 1.33:1 which is most likely its correct aspect ratio as I believe this is a direct to video production.

    The individual frames are sharp but there are substantial quantities of aliasing (such as the eagle's wing at 0:57, but really just about every moving object) which gives a blurred look to any moving object. Shadow detail is as drawn and there is no low level noise.

    The colours are very pure with no graduations of blocking indicating that this transfer probably came straight from the computers that helped animate it. There are lots of bright primary colours and some wonderful sunsets.

    There are no MPEG artefacts present in the transfer. There is quite a bit of aliasing on lines near the horizontal such as at 0:57. There are no film artefacts supporting the direct from digital transfer theory.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

    This is an RSDL disc with the layer change at 47:24. It is rather badly placed and quite obvious. This is a shame as only thirty seconds earlier there was a complete fade to black which would have hidden the change completely.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue quality is good throughout as is the audio sync.

    The music is orchestral along with some songs to try and build some emotion. The orchestral score works quite well, but I am not so sure about the songs.

    The music and some ambience make it into the surround speakers but I heard little in the way of directional effects. A missed opportunity here as an old biplane makes several overhead and left/right passages.

    Other than supporting the music there was little activity from the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Trailer: The Land Before Time: The Great Migration.

    This is a one minute trailer for the direct to video release of the 10th (that's right, the tenth!) movie in the Land Before Time series. Presented at 1.33:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, this is a fair representation of the film.

The Ultimate Rescue Challenge Game

    A game where the premise is that you have to help Balto find his way home by navigating a series of puzzles. The first is to choose which of two paths to take, the second to help find Much and Luk who have hidden somewhere in the scene. You use the menu to select arrows that show either direction or a hiding spot in the two examples. There seems to be little skill involved as there are no hints as to the right direction - you simply guess and are sent back if you guess wrong.

    This title is due for release in R1 in February 2005. Based on preliminary release information the only differences are in the subtitles (French and Spanish) and in the soundtracks with an extra two Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, one in French and the other in Spanish.

    This leaves us with a default R4 win.

    There is a subplot in this story with Boris the Goose and a female goose that has flown in for Spring, and we discover one of the reasons that Boris has never migrated while he tries to woo the lady of the eiderdown. This adds a bit of fun but little else. Addendum: After writing this review I noticed that I am at odds with 11-odd people on IMDB who seemed to quite like this film. Everyone likes different things and this movie just didn't engage me the way the earlier ones did.

    The video is marred by the aliasing.

    The audio is functional but hardly a 5.1 effort.

    The extras are of little consequence.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall