Steele

Steele

Steele is a particularly large Alaskan Malamute and the lead dog of the fastest dogsled team in Nome. Selfish and aggressive, he serves as the true main antagonist of the first film, often instigating the bullying of Balto over his wolf heritage.

Personality

The most famous dog in Nome, Steele takes pride in his popularity amongst both the village humans and the dogs, often showing off in front of his admirers. He is incredibly arrogant, often swaggering up to females in the hopes of impressing them with nothing but his looks and reputation.

He also likes Jenna, but she sees through his lies and loves Balto the pure-hearted instead which further strengthens Steele's hatred and jealousy towards Balto. He was also a crafty liar, claiming that Balto and the rest of the team had died and at the end of the film, when everyone finds out of his lies causes him to be shunned and disliked by those who used to respect him. He was mean and sarcastic when he gets on Balto's nerves.

Appearance

Steele is a large, muscular Alaskan Malamute. He has black fur, with white socks, a white "mask", and a white underbelly. His eyes are ice blue and his nose is black. Among other dogs, females in particular, he is considered enviable and desirable.

Biography

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.

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.

Despite being deliberately kicked off the course by a competitor, Balto was the rightful winner of the race (by taking a special & longer route to catch up), but right after the race ended, Steele tells Balto that he'll never be a sled dog which Jenna scolds Steele for being a glory-hound.

Shortly after that, Steele stomped on Balto's paw as a musher reached to pet him, forcing Balto to growl in pain and bare his teeth, making the humans believe that the wolf-dog to be aggressive and dangerous especially with his teeth.

This causes Balto to be disqualified from the race despite being the victor.

Steele became the leader of the sled team to return the medicine to Nome, managing to lead the team successfully to Nenana and halfway back to Nome before becoming lost.

Balto discovered that Steele and his team at the edge of a large ravine. Despite Balto's pleas for Steele to let him help them back to Nome (knowing that the children would die if the medicine does not get there in time), Steele attacks Balto, making obvious that he thinks Balto as a threat to his position.

Balto refused to fight back, but still managed to escape Steele who ends up tumbling off the nearby cliff in his unstable mindset when Steele grabbed for the orange bandana around Balto's neck that Jenna gave to Balto.

Having demonstrated his good nature and noble intention to bring the serum back to Nome at all costs, Balto gains the unconditional support of the other dogs on the team. They pick up the trail and head back without Steele.

Despite his state, Steele managed to follow Balto's trail back to Nome, along the way marking all of the trees to disorient him.

On his return to Nome, he claimed that Balto and the rest of the team had frozen to death and that Balto had fallen off of a cliff and also stating that Balto made Steele promise to take care of Jenna. Then, Jenna realizes that Balto would have never told Steele such a thing and tells all the other dogs who believe Steele's story that he's lying.

Steele's strategy initially managed to catch Balto off his guard, resulting in him becoming lost as well. Despite this, Balto manages to believe in who he truly is, catches on to Steele's trick and follows the trail he himself had marked (using only his smell) back to Nome.

Balto's return results in him being accepted as a beloved hero and the undoing of Steele's lies cause the other dogs of Nome to consider Steele as a glory hound and a jealous liar, leaving him behind alone in the boiler room as he tried to explain to them but they angrily refuse to listen at the climax of the movie.

This is a complete reversal of their roles in the beginning of the movie where Steele was the town's most popular dog and Balto was the hated outcast.

It is unknown what became of Steele after the events in Balto for he was never seen or mentioned in the sequels.

Trivia

• Niju, the main antagonist of Balto II: Wolf Quest, is based off of Steele.
• Phil Weinstein explained that in the original script for Balto III: Wings of Change, Steele was one of the volunteers who would help Balto on his search for Duke.
• Steele is often confused as a husky, but is actually an Malamute, a very similar breed of dog.[1]
• After the events of the first film Steele's whereabouts are currently unknown for he did not appear in the other two films.