Santa Buddies

Santa Buddies

DVD cover art
Directed by Robert Vince
Produced by Robert Vince
Anna McRoberts
Written by Robert Vince
Anna McRoberts
Based on Characters 
by Paul Tamasy
Aaron Mendelsohn
Kevin DiCicco
Robert Vince
Anna McRoberts
Starring Zachary Gordon
Josh Flitter
Tom Bosley
George Wendt
Quinn Lord
Christopher Lloyd
Danny Woodburn
Tim Conway
Liliana Mumy
Ty Panitz
Field Cate
Skyler Gisondo
Richard Kind
Kaitlyn Maher
Music by Brahm Wenger
Cinematography Kamal Derkaoui
Edited by Kelly Herron
Production
company
Keystone Entertainment
Key Pix Productions
Distributed by Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release dates
  • November 2, 2009 (2009-11-02)
Running time
 88 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Santa Buddies[1] is a 2009 direct to video film. It is the fourth installment of the Air Buddies spin-off series as well as the ninth film in the Air Bud franchise.[2] It was released on November 2, 2009. This is Happy Days star Tom Bosley's final role before his death.

Plot

The movie begins at the North Pole with Santa Claus (George Wendt) and his dog Santa Paws (Tom Bosley) taking a look at the magical Christmas Icicle, which is melting because of nobody believing in Christmas anymore; if it continues to melt, Christmas will be gone forever.

Puppy Paws (Zachary Gordon) is the fun-loving son of Santa Paws, who has not learned the true meaning of Christmas, finds Budderball (Josh Flitter) on Santa's naughty list for eating the Thanksgiving turkey and figures he's just the dog to show him how to be an ordinary puppy.

The film then moves forward to Budderball and the other Buddies (Field Cate, Liliana Mumy, Skyler Gisondo, Ty Panitz) in Fernfield, who also don't have any Christmas spirit, believe that their father is Santa Paws and that the naughty list is a way to scare them to behave. However, Sniffer (Tim Conway) replies that Christmas is about giving and a holiday they must learn to respect.

The Christmas Icicle makes a big crack and shuts off the power at the North Pole and makes the reindeer weak and powerless (earlier before he left the North Pole, Puppy Paws stares at the icicle stating "I wish Christmas would just disappear" causing it to crack).

Puppy Paws makes it to Fernfield to find Budderball in his home and Budderball himself introduces Puppy Paws to his brothers and sister and the North Pole puppy causes trouble to each of the Buddies: Budderball gets framed for eating the gingerbread cookies as he tries to get back on the nice list, B-Dawg gets beaten by Puppy Paws at dancing who even breaks a vase, Mudbud teaches Puppy Paws to roll in the dirt, and unaware not to shake dirt out of his fur in the living room, he makes holiday shapes of the dirt spots causing Mudbud to wear a cover-up coat for the rest of the day, Rosebud gets an extreme Christmas makeover, and Buddha's meditation statue gets turned into a snowman as Puppy Paws explains that the snowman is "what citizens of the North Pole meditate in front of".

Therefore, due to the incidents, the Buddies want Puppy Paws to leave. But, they learn that Puppy Paws isn't hurting them as they are hurting themselves and decide to treat him with compassion. Suddenly, Puppy Paws gets dognapped by a dog catcher named Mr. Stan Cruge (Christopher Lloyd) and takes him to the pound. There, Puppy Paws meets a puppy named Tiny (Kaitlyn Maher) who is wishing for a Christmas miracle and sings a song about miracles, which teaches Puppy Paws about the true meaning of Christmas.

The Buddies, along with an elf dog named Eddy (Richard Kind), have come to the rescue. With Tiny and Eddy still in the pound, the elf dog speaks to Cruge that he knows the dog catcher always wanted a puppy for Christmas, but his mother was allergic to dogs and never got one, which made Cruge hate Christmas and become a dog catcher. Eddy becomes free from the pound and changes Cruge.

With help from an elf named Eli (Danny Woodburn), Christmas spirit returns, the Christmas Icicle stops melting, and the North Pole is back in business, with Puppy Paws and the Buddies making it to the North Pole. The reindeer are not able to fly, and Puppy Paws and the Buddies volunteer to save Christmas with their uncanny abilities (it is revealed the Buddies remembered what Shasta taught them). A changed Mr. Cruge brings Tiny over to the child who has been asking for a puppy as a Christmas present and Tiny herself says her goodbye to the Buddies and Puppy Paws. After their last delivery, Santa Claus and Santa Paws arrive in Fernfield and Santa makes the Buddies (including Budderball) on top of the nice list, Puppy Paws becomes part of Santa's family, and the Buddies say farewell.

Mr. Cruge is invited to dinner with Tiny's new family and the movie ends with the entire town, led by Cruge, singing "Silent Night" in front of Fernfield's Christmas Tree.

Cast

Voice cast

Prequel

A prequel called The Search for Santa Paws was released on November 23, 2010.[3]

Sequels

Spooky Buddies was released on September 20, 2011 as a Halloween movie, featuring the Buddies in a new adventure filled with curses, ghosts, and mayhem, and an attempt to stop Warwick the Warlock and the Halloween Hound. Treasure Buddies was released on January 31, 2012 as an Indiana Jones-like movie, featuring the Buddies in another new adventure trying to stop Cleocatra in Egypt.

References

  1. ↑ Santa Buddies website
  2. ↑ Holiday Movie Guide IMDb Listing of all nine films 1997 through 2009.
  3. ↑ The Search for Santa Paws at disneydvd plot summary; trailer

External links

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