Air Bud Special Edition DVD

The movie Air Bud was first released in 1997, and with the recent release of the new movie “Space Buddies”, which stars the five offspring of the original Buddy, Air Bud has been re-released in a Special Edition. Having never seen the original movie,  all I had to compare it to was Space Buddies, which my daughter loves and wants to watch every day. The Air Bud Special Edition DVD has a “dog-u-mentary” voiced by the five “Buddies”, the original trailer, and comes with a keepsake dog tag.

I have to say, the fact that the five Buddies are on the cover of the DVD did not score points with my daughter, who was expecting them to be IN the movie, and once she figured out they weren’t, she lost interest pretty quickly. Plus, the beginning of the movie drags, establishing the storyline of Josh (Kevin Zegers),  a shy kid who has moved to a new city and hasn’t made any friends. While hanging out behind an abandoned house, he discovers Buddy, who was abandoned by the clown (Michael Jeter) using him in his act.  Josh is shooting baskets through an old hoop when he makes the surprising discovery that Buddy can shoot baskets too.

Josh tries out for and makes the basketball team, the media learns about the dog, Buddy’s former owner shows up wanting his dog back so he can cash in, plus of course the team is headed to the state finals.   I can see why the movie was such a hit in 1997 (cost $3 million to make, earned $24 million), it just wasn’t a hit with my 3 year old daughter. I’m thinking basketball loving boys might enjoy it more! Pick up the movie at stores and on Amazon.