I suppose it would be prudent of me to say upfront that this DVD is a rip-off.
Air Bud: Special Edition is not so much a special edition as it is a gift rerelease. Like taking something old and giving it to someone bundled with a homemade cookie. You’ll find that this DVD is a barebones one with a total of one special feature (not counting trailers, which really shouldn’t count at all), but wait! It includes an "Air Bud" dog tag in the set, so that totally makes up for it.
Originally released in theaters in 1997, Air Bud was a movie made solely to show off the basketball skills of Buddy the Dog (who did the tricks in real life) by creating the typical boy-meets-dog scenario around him. You know what’s impressive? Aside from being a dog that plays basketball, Buddy was also cozy with the camera. He gives the best performance in the movie, subtly conveying emotions with glassy eyes or a certain stance. No, seriously.
Michael Jeter, who gets top billing, is a crooked clown who’s gotten tired of his trick dog. Abandoned, the dog finds a new home in the newly-moved-in-town Framm family. Their son Josh (Kevin Zegers) has been in a slump since his father’s death, too shy to even try out for the basketball team. His friendship with Buddy rejuvenates him, which really should be the heart of the story but is done within the film’s first 30 minutes. After that, it just throws a villain at Josh after every problem solved, from the overbearing coach to the jock bully to Jeter’s evil clown coming back to claim custody of Buddy.
I’m not sure what the moral is. “Feeling blue, get an awesome dog?” Any heartfelt emotional contact in Josh and Buddy’s relationship is negated by the farcical third act, in which Buddy is allowed to compete in a middle school basketball state championship. Paw-leeze.
DVD Bonus Features
The real Buddy died after this movie’s successful release, but that didn’t stop Disney from making sequel after cheap sequel every year. 2006 was the death knell, when they created the spin-off franchise Air Buddies, this time with dogs that talk. It is this abomination that produced the DVD’s only extra feature, a commentary track that has the voice actors from Air Buddies perform scripted comments full of puns and made-up behind-the-scenes stories. It’s sort of a practice run for kiddies who enjoyed the recent Space Buddies to expect Director’s Commentaries on DVDs as they get older. In it, the dogs say things like, “Notice the courthouse in the background of that shot. It will become important later. This movie is really well-structured,” leading me to believe that the director wrote these scripted lines himself.
It’s kind of cute, but also kind of morbid, because the premise of the commentary is that they’re dogs who are aware that they’re actors. When Tom Everett Scott’s voice is pretending to be that of the real Buddy’s, recounting his experience on the Air Bud set (“Kevin Zegers and I had a lot of fun shooting! He was a really good actor!”), it’s a bit unsettling to know that he’s lying and that the real Buddy is buried somewhere—perhaps in a Pet Sematary.
Verdict
The commentary and the dog tag are rather useless bonuses for the price, but would probably delight the franchise’s younger target audience. The only real reason to buy this DVD, if you’re a fan of the movie, is that it’s the first home video release of it in anamorphic widescreen. Kids these days get cranky when they don't get 1.85:1.
"Air Bud: Special Edition" is on sale March 3, 2009 and is rated G. Children & Family. Directed by Charles Martin Smith. Written by Kevin DiCicco (character "Air Bud"), Paul Tamasy & Aaron Mendelsohn. Starring Bill Cobbs, Kevin Zegers, Michael Jeter, Wendy Makkena.
