11/21/2023 0 Comments Airbuddy movie![]() Buddy’s antics inspire them and draw the attention of his former owner, who tries to exploit Buddy’s newly discovered talent for TV commercials. When they discover Buddy’s uncanny ability to accurately shoot a basketball, the team makes him their mascot. Through hard work, Josh makes the school basketball team. Coming home from school, Josh discovers Buddy, a golden retriever who has run away from his abusive master, Norm Snively. Framm arriving with her withdrawn 12-year-old son, Josh, and young daughter in a small Washington town where she hopes to rebuild their lives following the untimely death of her husband. Don't let your dog see the movie, or it'll want some.AIR BUD opens with Mrs. The dog, by the way, wears its own little basketball shoes. ![]() But I don't want to know what kind of trickery was used to create the dog's game scenes whatever it was, it worked. I especially doubt that the dog has a better average from the field than Michael Jordan. Can this dog really shoot baskets? I doubt it. He has the structure of a traditional story here, but makes it seem new with good performances, crisp editing, a lovable dog and a new twist on the old movie tradition of the "big game.'' And then the movie just keeps getting better, with a very funny courtroom scene involving a judge ( Eric Christmas) who never catches on that the dog is trained to bark when it hears a gavel pounding. The movie was directed by Charles Martin Smith, himself the star of a much different kind of animal movie, the classic "Never Cry Wolf'' (1983). By the end of the film I was quietly amazed: Not only could Buddy play basketball, but I actually cared how the game turned out. And the climactic scenes are not only absurd and goofy but also enormously entertaining. There are predictable crises: Will Snively the Clown ( Michael Jeter) come looking for his dog? Will Josh be promoted from manager to player? Will the team's mean star and his overzealous dad spoil the fun? The movie touches those bases, but with freshness and energy. It doesn't give a rat's behind about his point average-he just likes to play the game!'' Because by then, of course, Buddy has found the gymnasium, bounded on court during a game, and scored a basket. The school's aging janitor ( Bill Cobbs) turns out to be a New York Knicks star from the 1950s, and when the regular coach is fired, he takes over the team and hands out advice like: "You take that dog. Pass Buddy the ball, and it can bounce it with its nose and make a basket (it doesn't miss once in the entire movie). And on the basketball court it turns out to be a star. It has the ability to enter Josh's second-floor bedroom by jumping on a car, climbing a rose trellis, walking across the roof, and jumping in the window. (The church's notice board carries the ominous legend, "eek an ye shal fin.'') Josh names the dog Buddy. Could he be a player? He lacks the confidence to try out, although he practices for long hours in an abandoned court he's discovered behind an old church. Josh is lonely and depressed in the new town, and is an outcast at the junior high school, although eventually he gets to be the "manager'' of the basketball team. (His father, a test pilot, has been killed in a crash, following the ancient Disney tradition that one dead parent is nice, and an orphan for a hero is best of all). Josh has just moved to a small town with his mother ( Wendy Makkena) and kid sister. On the highway, the dog's cage bounces out of the clown's pickup, and through a series of adventures the dog makes friends with the young hero of the movie, Josh ( Kevin Zegers).
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