Blu-ray review: Santa Buddies
Santa Buddies…it’s about dogs
On the surface, Disney’s direct-to-DVD/Blu-ray adventure, Santa Buddies, may have the cringe factor working against it; lovable dogs on the cover wearing Santa caps and looking adorable. It’s enough to make parents want to puke in their stocking with this adventure put on constant repeat. But it’s not, for the most part, an annoying adventure. It’s sweet, cuddly and tinged with the typical message of Christmas that guarantees a favorable response from the children.
Dogs and Disney go together like hot and chocolate so it’s no surprise that the fine people at Disney put out more than their fair share of lovable doggy doo. Unlike its Air Bud predecessors, Santa Buddies is more cartoon than basing its adventure in any sort of kind realism. There is no dog that is “gifted” who becomes a basketball/football/lacrosse/water polo star. Instead, we have a little pooch named Puppy Paws (Zachary Gordon) who is tired of the North Pole life. His owner, Santa (George Wendt) is on the verge of a breakdown since the mystic Christmas icicle is melting because nobody believes in Christmas except for the folks on Madison Avenue. If the icicle melts, Christmas is doomed. Puppy Paws doesn’t have time for this nonsense and heads off to the suburbs to learn what being a normal dog is like. After some break-dancing, vase breaking and snowman idolatry, Puppy Paws is dog-napped by the nemesis of most kiddy dog films, the scurvy dogcatcher (Christopher Lloyd).
While imprisoned, Puppy Paws befriends Tiny (Kaitlyn Maher) who is in desperate need of a Christmas miracle. Tiny teaches Puppy Paws not be such a jerk and instills in him the true meaning of Christmas according to Santa Claus and Coca-Cola. Even the curmudgeon dogcatcher turns his miserable life around. Because of the love-fest, the icicle stops melting. Queue Silent Night and roll the credits to this take on the classic Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol.
Santa Buddies comes packaged in standard DVD and Blu-ray versions. I love Disney’s theory with these releases: for those without a Blu-ray player, this set is future-ready. If you do have a Blu-ray player, you now have a disc for car trips and airplane rides.
Visual:
The AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) is pretty good considering it’s a direct-to-disc release.
Audio:
The DTS-HD 5.1 mix provides clear sound and a measured environment when listening through a 5.1 speaker set-up.
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Extras:
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (2:33) A music video from Steve Rushton.
Sing Along to Christmas Carols with the Buddies (3:33) “Santa Paws is Coming to Town,” “Deck the Halls,” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
We didn't know what to expect from the Santa Buddies DVD. We were expecting it to be in theaters. The whole family watched it over Thanksgiving and loved it! Cute, fun, cuddly movie for the whole family. The kid who plays the voice of Puppy Paws did a great job. He is our favorite Buddy…..
What a fun — and clean! — movie for our children. Our kids absolutely loved it. And the cute little dog named Tiny melted our hearts! My kids can't stop singing Tiny's Christmas miracle song. If you haven't seen Santa Buddies, definitely check it out. Great family entertainment!
fantastic entry. I will bookmark it! Thanks