Children’s fare has changed from what I enjoyed as a kid. For me, animated talking turtles slinging one liners and nun chucks sufficed; if you believe Disney’s Space Buddies, today’s tikes require a more advanced form of talking animal. Apparently, the bar has been raised. If you consider Labradors with CGI enhanced mouths as raising the bar.
A quintet of “talking” Labradors find themselves launched into space after the field trip of their child owners becomes more participatory than originally planned. Rosebud the lone female, B-Dawg the obnoxious gangsta’ talkin’ puppy, Buddha the sublimely at peace leader dog, Butterball the thickheaded and diabetes-bound dog and Mudbud, the compulsive mud rolling puppy form the quintet which quickly becomes a sextet after lodging with the abandoned USSR space station after an in flight malfunction where the meet the resident mutt, Spudnik. Get it? Witty, I know. After a catastrophic departure from the space station the dog pack finds their way to the moon and finally back to Earth – but not without oodles of pulse-pounding excitement.
What truly bewilders me about Space Buddies is the dialogue. The target audience, assuming talking dogs have a target audience, can’t be older than 7 or 8 – and yet the dialogue seems slanted towards really immature, albeit stupid, high-schoolers. The language used seems just slightly out of the grasp of your typical child. The entire time I listened to B-Dawg – who I’d put down in a second if given the option – the more I came to resent the 10 one-liners a minute structure of the Space Buddies script. The funny thing about all of this is that the target audience of 7 or 8 isn’t really watching Space Buddies for the dialogue. Ironic considering the animators went through such lengths to animate their mouths, but the child who will draw any delight from Space Buddies will be of the age where the only thing necessary to keep their attention is the presence of 6 puppies (and a ferret…voiced by Amy Sedaris of all people) romping around on the screen.
Really, any and all dialogue is extraneous beyond the mere presence of puppies in space suits. I mean really, what more could your 7 year-old ask for?
Of the human actors in Space Buddies, of which there are about 10 who stay on screen, there are only 3 worth mentioning for keeping Space Buddies entertaining. First we have Kevin Weisman who plays the semi-villainous Dr. Finkel who, for some unknown reason, wants the Vision Space Expedition to go wrong. Why? We don’t really know, but it doesn’t matter. Kevin Weisman is an interesting enough actor that we tolerate pretty much whatever he does on screen without question. Then we have Diedrich Bader (whom you’ll remember from the Drew Carey Show) who plays the lonely and slightly puppy-crazed cosmonaut aboard the ill-fated space station. While his one-liners are just as bad as any delivered by the gangster puppy, his entire presence in the movie seems tinged with an air of self-deprecation that makes Bader so much fun. He knows he’s in a kiddie flick about talking dogs – but he doesn’t care. Good for him. Finally we have the combo of Lochlyn Munro and Ali Hillis who as a command center team come together to pretty much form an entire character. These two, of all the cast, seemed to be having the most fun (not counting Bader).
As far as kiddie fare goes Space Buddies is a mixed bag. As previously noted its content makes it hard to determine its exact demographic. There’s a definite age where the novelty of dogs with computer enhanced mouths just doesn’t cut it but at the same time there’s a minimum age where the one-liners and quips of the entire cast begin to appeal. It’s as if to elongate, as much as possible, the appeal of Space Buddies they took a specifically 4-6 year old gimmick and bolstered it with dialogue to make it more appealing to an age group maybe 3 or 4 years older than that.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Bloopers:
Okay, now I know what you’re thinking – anything more than physical mistakes made by the puppies aren’t really bloopers but rather planned little comedic bits to pad the Bonus Features reel. And you’re right – but if we accepted bloopers from Toy Story and other animated Disney movies we’ve created precedence which says that we’re willing to laugh at fake bloopers. With that precedent in mind, Disney gave us the reel of Space Buddies bloopers which are additional takes on a few scenes wherein the puppies’ lack of or boon of enthusiasm is manipulated to comedic effect.
Backstage Disney:
Disneypedia: The Buddies Guide to Space Travel:
The voices of the puppies take us on a behind the scenes tour of Space Buddies to explain some of the science behind space travel and the special effects used in creating the movie. While actually interesting in the parts where they discuss the history of space travel, a good thing for kids to learn, it does mean you’ll have to listen to more B-Dawg spouting lingo overly infused with pop-culture references.
Buddy Facts
This might be the best way to watch Space Buddies. Playing the normal movie, Buddy Facts will pipe in every now and then with little pop-up video style notes about the actors, space facts, etc. Definitely the better way to watch the movie – especially if the adults are going to sit through it with the chitlins.
Games & Activities: Buddy Finder
Like Budy Facts, Buddy Finder offers an alternative way to enjoy the Space Buddies movie by turning the viewing experience into a game of iSpy. With a list of 100 things to spot during the movie, Buddy Finder requires the viewer to press the remote whenever they spot one of the listed items in the movie. Again, for the adult watching the movie with their child this will help keep the interest.
“Dancing in the Moonlight” Music Video by Alyson Stoner
No one creates their own celebrities like Disney does. Pimping Alyson Stoner (who I’d never heard of before) and her rendition of “Dancing in the Moonlight” along with clips of the movie, Disney has found the perfect mechanism for creating brand awareness in your kids at an early age. The music video is harmless fun with surprisingly innocent dancing (compared to the norm of today).
As I’ve said Space Buddies crosses interesting territory by employing the adolescent-aimed talking puppy gimmick alongside dialogue that would typically be aimed at an older crowd. In this way it’s hard for me to tell you exactly how well your 9 or 10 year old will respond – and for all I know there are a few tweenagers who’d bite for this material – I don’t know. But for all intents and purposes it’s mediocre children’s fare. You could do better with 90% of Disney’s classic library – but if they have a hankering for talking puppies…well that’s a hard niche to fill.
I think it’s a universally accepted principle that the world feels bad for animals forced to wear costumes. But maybe, just maybe, some gangster-talkin’ puppies deserve such treatment.
"Space Buddies" is on sale February 3, 2009 and is rated G. Children & Family, Sci-Fi. Directed by Robert Vince. Written by Robert Vince, Anna McRoberts. Starring Ali Hillis, Amy Sedaris, Bill Fagerbakke, Diedrich Bader, Kevin Weisman, Lochlyn Munro.
