A team of stuck-up Alaskan sled dogs doubt the fortitude of a scrappy half-wolf mongrel until they're stranded in a blizzard and he represents their only chance at a rescue. The last film ever produced by Amblimation, before Steven Spielberg folded the studio into DreamWorks and began eyeballing computer animation, _Balto_ is inoffensive but unremarkable. The animation is fluid and energetic, no cost-cutting there, although the film is light on strong, distinct character designs. The mean bad-guy pack leader has a good look, as does the comic relief (a throwaway pair of adolescent polar bears, gibberish-voiced by Phil Collins), but that's where it begins and ends. Even the hero is drab and boring, too cookie-cutter for his own good. Kevin Bacon plays Balto, the stray scapegoat based (loosely) upon a real life animal, but there isn't much to his arc (or performance) and the character often fades into the scenery. That's true of most of the voice acting, really. Nobody seems excited to be here, apart from Bob Hoskins, who hurls himself into an inessential supporting role as a cranky Russian snow goose. Tough to say I blame their lack of enthusiasm. This is milquetoast to the core.