Kodi is a young wolf-dog who works for US Mail. When a new bi-plane arrives in his town, Kodi and his teammates are worried that they'll lose their jobs. A race is ordered to see who is faster and more reliable: the plane or the sled dog team. There's also a B-Plot about Boris meeting a pretty female goose but being too embarrassed to tell her that he's afraid of flying.
This film provides examples of:
- Big Damn Heroes: Kodi and his sled team pull this to save Balto and Duke from falling off a cliff.
- Call-Back:
- This film has even more callbacks to the first than the second: several characters, including Rosy, Kaltag and Star, are given small cameos; in one scene, dogs listen in on an important human conversation through a floor grate; in another, the mail team is shown hanging out in the same saw mill used as a gathering place in the first film.
- It also calls back to Wolf Quest in a flashback to Kodi's puphood, giving Aleu and their other siblings some screen time.
- Call of the Wild Blue Yonder: Balto is fascinated with the biplanes and wishes he could go flying in one just once. Duke grants his wish at the end.
- Flying Postman: Duke carries the mail in his biplane. The speed and efficiency of this means of mail delivery threatens to put the sled dogs out of business, motivating the mushers to challenge Duke to a race.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Jenna calls Kodi by his full name, Kodiak, when he allows his father to go out on his own to save Duke. Though it's not so much she's blaming him for that but that he doesn't care about someone's life. What's worse is it's directly in front of his friends.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Entirely averted with the bull moose, who is depicted as a short-tempered brute who attacks Balto and co seemingly just for wandering into his territory. Truth in Television, as bull moose are indeed quite aggressive, especially during rutting season, and the heroes only escape him because another moose shows up and the two lock antlers.
- It Will Never Catch On: Kodi is completely sure that biplanes can't displace sled dogs, a belief that is reinforced when his sledding team wins a race against Duke. Balto, who led said team to victory, recognizes that it was a fluke and biplanes really are the future. This divergence causes Balto and Kodi to have a falling out.
- Logo Joke: The movie opens with the Universal logo that was used from 1927 to 1936
. It's period-appropriate (since the movie is set in 1928), as well as thematically appropriate due to biplanes featuring prominently in the plot. - No Antagonist: This is the only Balto film that doesn't have a true villain. The closest things we get are a pair of moose.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The two moose that the gang encounters are voiced by Maurice Lamarche doing his impersonation of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
- Obfuscating Disability: Boris falls for a female goose named Stella but he's afraid to fly. He lies to her and tells her he's too injured to fly.
- Official Couple: Ralph and Dusty were intended to be this, but they didn't have time to put more scenes exploring it in.
- Precision F-Strike: In the beginning of the film, Balto says "My God" upon seeing the bush plane in town. Despite this being a G-rated film, this is the only time anyone has sworn in the trilogy.
- Shout-Out: Boris yells out Stella's name in a reference to the famous A Streetcar Named Desire scene.
- Speaks in Shout-Outs: The Bull Moose mentioned above that our heroes encounter likes to quote Robert De Niro from Taxi Driver during his appearance… a lot… so much so that other characters are outright RESPONDING to him after a while.
- Spin-Offspring: The film focuses on one of Balto's sons.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Kodi gets one when he refuses to go with Balto to save Duke after his plane crashed. Yeah, the guy did almost cost him his job but still. Both Balto and Jenna call him out on it but it takes a Full-Name Ultimatum and speech from Jenna in front of his friends to convince him. Kodi later delivers his own speech of the like towards his fellow sled dogs when they refuse to help Duke, declaring he won't be a mail dog if it means letting someone who needs help die.
