Good concept, poorly executed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Over all, Balto: Wings of Change is an improvement over the story of its predecessor, Wolf Quest. It sadly introduces a couple of new characters who are either annoying or pointless. The two highlights of the second sequel to 1995's Balto are the story and the musical score. The story takes a little time to get going, but then it captures the heart of the original story. Balto has a pup, Kodi, who is proud of delivering the US Mail, but feels threatened by the new and more effective air mail delivery. He and the other sleigh dogs compete against the plane to determine who is superior. When the plain crashes down, Kodi is torn between seeing the pilot as his enemy or human who needs help. It is also a better story than its predecessor. Adam Berry did a good job scoring an atmospheric soundtrack. The songs were not especially memorable and one time the music did not match the mood of what was happening, but those are minor things. The CG animation used stuck out at times and some of the character designs were a little flat, but story triumphs over visuals. What brings this installment down is the new character, Stella. She is rather pointless. The side plot about her and Boris is pretty annoying and drags out the real story. The moose characters are also pretty lame. Muk and Luk have a little more to do in this movie and that is an improvement over their pointlessness in Wolf Quest. Over all, Wings of Change has improved where it should have improved. It is a serviceable sequel without reaching the heights of the beautiful first movie.

It is not as good as the first film, which I just love. But it is a notch above the second film, which I personally didn't think was that bad, just the weakest of the three. There are some things that were lacking. The animation is rather rough-around-the-edges, more in the character designs than in the backgrounds and graphics. There are some scenes also detailed in another review that do feel a little random and feel little more than filler. And I really disliked the character of Stella, she was annoying and served no real purpose to the story. However, apart from Stella's song, which I have always found ear-gratingly-bad, the songs are really quite nice especially the credits song. The soundtrack has that mysterious whimsy that fits wonderfully, and the dialogue is thought-provoking and means well. There are also improvements over Wolf Quest, there is a much more coherent story, there is more of the first movie's feel here and Kodi is a much more likable character than Aleu. Other than Stella the characters are great. The voice acting, while not as good as any of that of the first film, is decent. Sean Astin is great as Kodi, and as Balto, while not sounding entirely like Kevin Bacon, Maurice LaMarche again shows what a superb voice actor he is. Jodi Benson is appropriately sympathetic as Jenna, and Keith Carradine brings a certain gruffness to Duke. All in all, not a bad sequel if not on the same level as the original Balto. 7/10 Bethany Cox

this movie sucked. how can you even try to make a sequel to a true story?! let alone two sequels?! and the first one doesn't even cover the true story. I would know, i live in Alaska. Balto wasn't even the lead dog that ran the race. The real lead dog was some other dog that just got tired after running across the whole frickin state, and they put balto on for the last 20 or so miles and every remember's him and not the other one. see, even i don't remember his name. i can't say enough about how much this movie sucked. i mean,...crap. i own ninja vs. ninja on DVD, that that's a pretty bad movie. i wouldn't say this movie is worse, or even as bad,..but still...holy crap. this movie sucked,don't watch it.

Overall, for a direct-to-video movie, this was pretty good. There actually was a coherent plot, better character writing (as compared to the 2nd one), and awesome graphics. But, I still don't feel that this movie captured the true essence of Balto. My two biggest problems with this movie are 1) the voices. It really detracts from animated sequels when they don't use the same actors. I sit there through half the movie not really believing it's that character because I'm trying to get used to the different voice. And 2) The writers conveniently left Aleu out of the story just to better fit their plot. That makes the story even less believable to me because you know he has a daughter and she's just not there...I mean, at least give an explanation as to why she's not in the story. And yes, this is a kid's animated movie, and some may argue that I'm holding my standards too high, but one of the key elements to making a successful sequel is to make it believable--you have to feel like you're in the movie, and believe what you're seeing.As for the actual content of the movie, the plot in this one is much better. There actually is a purpose, and while it's not as heroic or pivotal as in the first Balto, it is still important. Personally, I think it would've been a lot more interesting if Balto had been in a race and gotten hurt somewhere in the wilderness, and his son Kodiak & his daughter Aleu had to lead a team to find him and save him. I would also have put Jenna on Balto's team...I don't like that she just sits on the sidelines and delivers good advice--her character has much more potential than that. I think the solo sequences with Boris & Stella detract from the movie. It started off well because we care about Boris and like that he's found someone, but then they just go off the deep end with the song and dance number. The only song worthwhile in this movie was Jenna's song to Balto, but even then, the 'lyrics' as it were are so one-dimensional and juvenile I couldn't decide whether to laugh or scoff.Overall, I think the ratings for this sequel are inflated because the 2nd one was such a disappointment. The big difference with this movie is that it does partially recapture the feel of the first Balto, but the characters are still severely underdeveloped and a little typecast. So while this movie is definitely watchable, there wasn't enough conflict and/or obstacles in this movie to make it interesting and further the plot along, especially considering there is no villain. Kudos to the CG animators and directors, but next time work on better character development and PLEASE, if you can't get the same voice talents, get some with the same voice tone.5.5 out of 10