If you grew up in the 90s, then chances are you know all about Balto. The 1995 Universal Pictures film, is simply titled Balto. It details the harrowing journey of a Siberian Husky as he leads a team of race dogs hundreds of miles through ruthless terrain. All to deliver a life-saving serum to an ice-bound town. The only problem with the film is that Togo, not Balto, is the dog that accomplished the most heroic feats of that journey.

Now, at long last and nearly 30 years later, Disney is looking to set the record straight. How? By releasing a live-action Togo movie later this month.

Don’t get us wrong; Balto is still very much a hero.

He did, in fact, ultimately race the serum into town on the last leg of the journey. As you’ll soon find out, though, the brave pup had more than a little help from a heroic friend. Here is their story.

It was 1925 in Alaska during a particularly frozen, blizzardly winter. The town of Nome was stricken by the deaths of two children from Diptheria infection. The highly contagious bacterial infection would soon spread without the Diptheria-serum. Likely, all of Nome would be dead before winter’s end.

To make matters even worse, Nome was in the grip of winter. It’s ice-bound for an entire 7 months out of the year. Even if some of the serum could be sourced nearby, getting it there was going to be an incredibly dangerous feat.

That’s when Leonhard Seppala and his faithful dog, Togo, stepped in.

Seppala was arguably one of the greatest dog mushers to have ever lived. The Norwegian racer both bred and trained race dogs. According to him, Togo was the best dog he ever had.

“I never had a better dog than Togo. His stamina, loyalty, and intelligence could not be improved upon. Togo was the best dog that ever traveled the Alaska trail,” he said.

When public health officials sourced some of the serum in Washington, they concluded the only way to get it to Nome in time was to deliver it by sled. That’s when they organized the Serum Run of 1925. It was one of the most intense, heroic adventures of 20th-century history. One that the Iditarod commemorates annually.

Among Alaska’s top mushers, Seppala was one of the racers asked to carry the life-saving serum to Nome. The run was set up like a relay race. Different mushers and teams of dogs were appointed to carry the serum on a “leg” of the journey. This was to prevent the exhaustion of the men and dogs on the run. Even so, Seppala’s leg was originally set for half of the 647-mile journey.

Togo had already been celebrated as one of the world’s best race-dogs.

He ran 4,000 miles in a single year, had led explorers through winter-encumbered Alaskan wilderness, and had many other accomplishments. Even so, the famed husky was 12-years-old when he and Seppala were approached for the serum-run.

Knowing what was at stake, though, Togo wouldn’t let his master say no. He was going to run the serum through the worst of what the winter had to offer.

Though Togo was originally set to lead his team for half the journey, he was able to shorten their journey to 261-miles.

Against warnings of severe, dangerous, and unpredictable weather complications, Togo led the team through Norton Sound.

The sound is an inlet of the Bering sea that freezes over every winter. The sea ice is known to break away from the rough shoreline, and people have been stranded there before. Nonetheless, Seppala made the call to run his team of dogs across that broken sea ice through a wind chill of 85-below. It was dark when they reached the sound, and with the wind roaring, Seppala could neither see nor hear.

The musher trusted Togo’s instincts to lead them to safety and that’s exactly what he did, serum intact.

At the end of his life and 30 years after Togo’s death, Seppala wrote that he knew he would be seeing Togo again soon.

“When I come to the end of the trail, I feel that along with my many friends, Togo will be waiting and I know that everything will be all right.“

To learn about the amazing feats that led up to Seppala and Togo’s greatest, and one of their final, journeys, and what led to Balto being given the credit for all of it, you’ll have to watch the film. It’s set to air on Disney+ on December 22nd, almost 29 years to the day that Balto was released.

Watch the official trailer below.

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H/T: The German Shepherd Dog Community