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| “ | You're a hundred percent right, Jenna. I - I - wasn't thinking about those children. The important thing here is to get the medicine through, and that's just what I'm gonna do. (turns to Balto) And when I get back, I'm gonna fold you five ways and leave you for a cat toy. | „ |
| ~ Steele telling Jenna that he's gonna retrieve the medicine only for the glory. |
| “ | Go ahead, wolfdog! You'll never get home! I'll make sure of that! | „ |
| ~ Steele sabotaging Balto's trail to prevent him from returning (revealing he is willing to let the sick children die). |
Steele is the main antagonist of the animated 1995 Amblin Entertainment film, Balto. He is an egotistical Alaskan Malamute with an extremely mean streak, taking excessive pride in his popularity amongst both the village humans and the dogs and liking to bully Balto over his part-wolf heritage.
He was voiced by Jim Cummings, who also played Fuzzy Lumpkins in The Powerpuff Girls, Pete in Disney’s “Mickey Mouse” cartoons, Nessus in Disney's Hercules, Long John Silver in the Pagemaster, Ed in Disney's The Lion King, Dennis in Disney's Tarzan, Hernán Cortés in El Dorado, Razoul in Disney's Aladdin, Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM, Lord Boxman In OK K.O Let's be Heroes, and Hadrian in Minecraft: Story Mode.
History
Balto
Steele was the lead dog on the best dog racing team in Nome; he first encountered Balto (in the movie, Steele's behavior towards Balto is an obvious indication that they have met on prior occasions) after being defeated by the latter in a race while rescuing Rosy's hat.
Steele's behavior became much worse when Jenna starts to fall in love with Balto - as well as the fact Balto is faster, smarter and stronger than Steele.
Out of jealousy, Steele felt Balto was a threat so he bullied Balto. When the town became sick, there was a relay race to choose who would be on the sled dog team that would relay the medicine.
After successfully sabotaging Balto's attempts to enter the team of huskies that would deliver medicine to the village following a blizzard and an outbreak of illness, Steele became lost but refused to admit it, ultimately knocking out his master when he caused the sleigh to swerve uncontrollably in the snow, leaving him and his pack alone in the blizzard with no hope of returning home.
However, when Balto sought the team out and offered his aid, Steele had gone insane due to the ferocity of the blizzard; instead of being grateful, he became enraged and had a brief confrontation with Balto who refused to fight him.
During this fight, Steele viciously grabbed Balto by the bandanna Jenna lent him earlier when the bandanna came loose, causing Steele to lose his balance and fall off a steep cliff, but he managed to survive. As he climbed back up to the see Balto leading the sled team away, Steele vowed to stop them from getting home. Then, in an act of villainy, Steele deliberately tampered with the markings Balto had left on the trees so that they would not find their way back, proving he didn't care that the children would die without the medicine.
Steele returned to the village claiming innocence, saying that Balto was to blame for the "accident". Jenna saw straight through his lies, but the other dogs saw him as a hero.
Until Balto embraced his wolf heritage and was able to smell the trees that he marked and he and his team eventually arrived back in the village with the medicine, much to Steele's surprise and horror.
Therefore, Steele was left an outcast when the other dogs realized the truth, knowing they'd been double-crossed and turned against him. Dixie, Steele's biggest fan dog, called him "positively...disposable!" and slapped him in the face. He nervously tries to explain, but the other dogs won't have any of it and angrily leave, slamming the boiler room door in the contemptible Malamute's face and telling him to "get lost". He finally loses the respect he never deserved while Balto was hailed as a hero.
It is unknown what became of Steele after the events of the film, for he was never seen or mentioned in the sequels, Wolf Quest or Wings of Change. It can be assumed that he either froze or starved to death from being stranded.
Personality
Steele is a very sneaky, sarcastic, and manipulative dog who represents everything that Balto despises. His hatred for Balto is made out of pure jealousy (as Balto beat him to the finish line).
He also likes Jenna she sees through his lies and loves the pure-hearted Balto instead, which further strengthens Steele's hatred and jealousy towards Balto. But unlike Balto, Steele objectives Jenna as he doesn't care if Jenna is in the mood and also being a pervert when ever no ones watching him as he also forces Jenna to do what he wants and not caring about her feelings.
Underneath the exterior of a standard jerk and bully. However, he is shown to be completely heartless and utterly callous, as proven when Balto came to help, he instead attacks him savagely and keeps him from even taking the medicine, not caring that children needed it desperately. And finally, when Balto becomes the leader of his sled team, Steele proves his lack of empathy for the children by making the sled team lose their way back to the village. Both of those things prove him to be a true villain. His sanity slippage during the blizzard didn't help matters.
He is also a crafty, scheming, and mendacious liar, claiming that Balto and the rest of the team had died and at the end of the film; the undoing of his lies causes him to be shunned and hated by those who used to respect him. In addition, he was willing to cheat in order to win.
Steele had no chance of going back on the sled team, for it is possible that Balto had replaced him since the latter beat Steele at the finish line; plus, because of his actions, all of the other dogs turned their backs on Steele at the climax.
Quotes
| “ | Didn't make the team, Bingo? (Boris: Don't look at him. Don't listen to him. Liva long life.) (Balto: My name's Balto.) (Boris: But you can call him "idiot".) I'm sorry, Balto. Balto the half-breed. | „ |
| ~ Steele insulting Balto. |
| “ | Frail goose, you a half-breed too, huh? Part turkey? | „ |
| ~ Steele insulting Boris. |
| “ | Get outta here, wolfdog. You better get back to your own pack! | „ |
| ~ Steele |
| “ | Do you honestly think any musher would put you on his team? You're even more mixed up than I thought. | „ |
| ~ Steele to Balto. |
| “ | I AM NOT LOST! | „ |
| ~ Steele yelling at Star's face, refusing to admit that he is indeed lost. |
| “ | Everyone... is... fine! | „ |
| ~ Steele driven insane by the blizzard. |
| “ | I'LL get us back! I'M the lead dog! I'M IN CHARGE! | „ |
| ~ Steele showing harassment to the other sled dogs. |
| “ | Touch that box, and I'll tear you apart! | „ |
| ~ Steele threatening Balto with an outright death threat. |
| “ | (In the Nome boiler room...) (Wild Joe: I don't get it. How could Balto hope to find Steele and his team? They were off the trail.) (Jenna: Well, he's tracking them.) (Morse: That mutt? Tracking a championship team in a blizzard?!) (laughs; a couple others join in; their laughter is cut short when suddenly, the door swings open and everyone gasps when they see a dog covered in ice and snow.) (Jenna: Balto?) (Her hope disappears when everyone recognizes the dog.) (Dogs: Steele! You're back! You're alive! Where've you been? Are ya okay?) (They toss Steele a bone. He chews on it savagely.) (Doc: Steele, where are the others?) Well... one by one, they fell. Frozen. Barely alive. (He shakes the icicles off him and the other dogs duck, and they impale the wall above them) I pulled four onto the sled... and three more on my back. (counts his fingers) And, uh, I walked... and I walked. But it was just... it was too late. They were... (pretends to sob) (Doc: What about the medicine?) Well, uh, I went on, dragging the medicine alone, all alone, and... and then suddenly... that wolf-dog appeared, Balto! He demanded I let him take the medicine. You know, he just wanted so much to be a hero in your eyes. And he grabbed the crate... but he couldn't handle it. He couldn't see the patch of ice... The snow, the wind and... And then the log and the cliff... Well, he just didn't have a chance ... He just... (pretends to sob) I'm sorry. And then... (Steele pulls out Jenna's bandana he wrestled from Balto earlier) (Jenna: (gasps) My bandana!) He made me promise to take care of you, Jenna. (Jenna takes a sniff from her bandana then looks back at Steele. Her eyes harden.) (Jenna: You're lying.) (Steele nervously looks at the others) (Jenna: STEELE'S LYING! Balto's alive! And he's coming home!) (Jenna leaves out the door; Steele watches her leave; then turns to the others.) Uh... Well, you know, she needs a little time. | „ |
| ~ Steele lying to the other dogs that Balto and the sled team died in the snowstorm. Only Jenna sees straight through his lies. |
| “ | I swam and I swam. It was freezing cold. And finally, I said 'Steele, you just have to gnaw your way to the surface', so I (hears Balto's howl) What? (Doc: It's Balto, with the medicine!) (Dixie: Steele, you are positively.... DISPOSABLE!) (Dixie slaps Steele in the face and the other dogs glare furiously at him) Okay, okay. I can explain. (The other dogs angrily turn to leave and Dixie gives an angry puff) See, you guys weren't there, so you don't... wait... guys, wait just a second... please?! (Dog: GET LOST!!) | „ |
| ~ Steele to the other dogs when he is exposed as the dirty liar he truly is before they angrily leave him behind and slam the door in his face. |
Trivia
- Steele was originally going to be voiced by Brendan Fraser but a last minute change meant that Jim Cummings would voice him instead.
- Phil Weinstein explained that in the original script for Wings of Change, Steele would be one of the volunteers who would help Balto on his search for Duke.
- Although he does not appear in any of the sequels, the character Niju is based on him.
- Steele was originally going to die by hanging himself with his collar, but was scrapped due to how dark it is.
- In real life, Steele could have died from his fall off the cliff.
- In Nostalgia Critic's review of Balto, the Critic makes several jokes abut how Steele never seems to make a facial expression that doesn't cement him as a blatantly obvious villain, even commenting that "It's like he has ten different expressions and they all eat children." Later, when Steele lies about Balto trying to sabotage the medicine retrieval, the Critic comments "Wow, he's such an obvious, yet evil liar that he should probably be working in the White House."
- The video then cuts to a parody animation of Steele, called Steele Spicer, as the press secretary, in an obvious parody of Sean Spicer, telling blatant lies about the medicine retrieval and how his dogsled race had the most viewers out of every dogsled race in history. When questioned, Steele tells the man talking to him that his eyes are wrong and that it is an "Alternative Bark", which a spoof of the term, Alternative Fact". Then he is called Melissa (a reference to how Melissa McCarthy played Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live), but Steele Spicer gets angry and shouts at him not to call him that.
- Steele is considered to be one of most evil and ruthless villains along with Sharptooth and Botticelli Remorso from The Tale of Despereaux in the Universal animated franchise.
Template:Universal Animation Villains