Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Over the Christmas holidays, my parents and I saw the film ‘Air Buddies’, which I purchased on DVD for us to watch. We greatly enjoyed seeing the film. My Mum amazed me in saying that she enjoyed this film, which I’m glad about, as it’s very entertaining indeed.

‘Air Buddies’ happens to be the sixth film in the ‘Air Bud’ film series and it’s the first of the direct-to-video spin-off film series ‘Air Buddies’. I’ve seen later instalments of the ‘Air Buddies’ film series on DVD and Disney+, including ‘The Santa Paws’ trilogy, which I like.

I’ve also seen ‘Super Buddies’, Space Buddies’ and ‘Treasure Buddies’, which I’ve shared my thoughts on in many Disney+ Roundups on my blog. I’ve not seen the ‘Air Bud’ films preceding this film. Thus, I went into checking out ‘Air Buddies’ on its own merits.

‘Air Buddies’ was released in 2006, It focuses on the five puppies of Buddy, the golden retriever of the ‘Air Bud’ films, who find themselves being put up for adoption. Unfortunately, someone wants either Buddy or the five puppies on a behalf of a special buyer.

Incidentally, having not seen the ‘Air Bud’ films, I found out this film radically alters the character of the series by making virtually all of the animals speak. So, I’m assuming that in the ‘Air Bud’ films, very few animals spoke. I would need to check out the ‘Air Buds’ film to be sure.

In case you haven’t seen the other ‘Air Buddies’ films, the five puppies include B-Dawg, Budderball, Rosebud, Buddha and Mudbud. B-Dawg plays basketball, Budderball plays football, Rosebud plays soccer, Buddha plays baseball, and Mudbud plays volleyball. 🙂

Not that’s an important aspect of the film, since we don’t see these puppies playing these sports much. Most of the time they’re running away or they’re searching for their parents, who’ve been captured in the film. ‘Air Buddies’ isn’t the sports comedy film you’d expect.

Budderball is voiced by Josh Flitter. He’s the chubbiest, biggest and oldest of the Buddies, and apparently, he farts when his paw is pulled. 😀 Rosebud, voiced by Abigail Breslin, is the only girl of the Buddies group. She’s always wearing a pink bow in her fur. 🙂

Mudball, voiced by Spencer Fox, loves playing around in the dirt in the film. 😀 Buddha, voiced by Dominic Scott Kay, loves to meditate and is the peaceful one of the Buddies. And B-Dawg, voiced by Skyler Gisondo, happens to be the rapping pup of the Buddies. 😀

The film also includes Deputy Sniffer, an old Bloodhound, voiced by the late Don Knotts. Apparently, he lost his sense of smell years ago, which reminds me of another Bloodhound that lost his sense of smell in the animated ‘Lady and the Tramp’ and the 2019 live-action one. 😀

There’s Buddy, the father of the Buddies, voiced by Tom Everett Scott, and Molly, the mother of the Buddies, voiced by Molly Shannon (who I’ve seen in ‘The Grinch’ and ‘The Santa Clause 2’). There’s also Billy, a Boer goat that lives on a farm, voiced by Wallace Shawn.

Wallace Shawn is well-known for voicing Rex in the ‘Toy Story’ films and he played Grand Nagus Zek in ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’. There’s also Belinda, a sow, voiced by Debra Jo Rupp, and there’s the Wolf that lives in the forest, voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. 🙂

For me, Michael Clarke Duncan played the Kingpin in the 2003 film ‘Daredevil’ and in one of the episodes of the new ‘Spider-Man’ animated series from 2003. One of the joys of checking out these films is how many actors you can spot that have been in other things. 😀

In terms of the human cast, there’s the late Patrick Cranshaw as Sheriff Bob and Holmes Osbourne as the villainous Selkirk Tander. There’s Slade Austen Pearce as Noah, Buddy’s owner, Jane Carr as Mrs. Niggles, and Richard Karn as Dr. Patrick Sullivan, Noah’s father.

Cynthia Stevenson (who’s been in the ‘Agent Cody Banks’ films) stars as Jackie Sullivian, Noah’s mother. Paul Rae stars as Denning and Trevor Wright star as Grim. Both work for Selkirk Tander. There’s Christian Pikes as Henry, Molly’s owner and Noah’s best friend in the film.

The Buddies get new owners in the film. Tyler Guerrero plays Bartleby, Budderball’s new owner. Fortunately, Bartleby doesn’t turn out to be evil, as implied when his father Steven Makaj as Mr. Miles Livingstone was trying to get a new dog for him when hiring the evil Selkirk.

For the rest of the Buddies’ owners, Gig Morton plays Billy, B-Dawg’s new owner, Jarvis Dashkewytch plays Sam, Buddha’s new owner, Cainan Wiebe plays Pete, Mudbud’s new owner, and Kelly Chapek plays Alice, Rosebud’s new owner. We only meet them briefly in the film. 😐

Karen Holness stars as Wilma, Henry’s mother in the film. Apparently, Air Bud or Buddy was played by more than one dog, including Scout and Parker. This was because of the film’s demanding schedule. Not that is expected to be known, but I still find it fascinating.

‘Air Buddies’ has been an enjoyable doggie film to sit down to. I’m pleased my parents and I saw it over the Christmas holidays, especially as I’ve seen other ‘Air Buddies’ films to know what to get myself into when checking out the first of this certain spin-off film series.

I don’t know if I’ll be checking out the previous five ‘Air Bud’ films set before this to find out for myself how it all began, but it’s something to consider. I’m just glad I’ve been able to see the first ‘Air Buddies’ film and I know there’s more for me to check out in the future. 🙂

And yes! Cuddles enjoyed this film too! 😀

Cuddles: Yay! Thank you, Master, for a lovely Christmas present!

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂