Santa Buddies is the second "Buddies" film to hit this year and continues Space Buddies' trend of inserting the pups in non-sports related scenarios. This time Rosebud, Buddha, Mudbud, Budderball and B-Dawg journey to the North Pole where they meet Santa and his trusty dog, Santa Paws, who is Santa Claus, but for dogs (no word on a Santa for any other species). As is traditional with Christmas movies, Santa Paws's son, Puppy Paws, has lost sight of the real meaning of Christmas, so its up to the pups to remind him.
Puppy Paws's dilemma ties into a bigger issue involving an icicle powered by Christmas Spirit. Like Puppy Paws, everyone is forgetting the true Christmas spirit, causing the icicle to melt. Once the icicle is gone, so is Christmas. Along the way, the gang tangles with Stan Cruge (Christopher Lloyd), an evil dogcatcher, and meet Tiny, a homeless dog.
There's a certain suspension of disbelief that goes with any movie, particularly with one involving talking dogs, but Santa Buddies tries to push the limits too much. I like the idea of dog Santa and even the tried-and-true idea of teaching kids Christmas is about more than "getting stuff." But then there's the whole magic icicle and idea Christmas will just go away because people don't have Christmas spirit. It's clear the icicle plotline is meant to add some emotional core to everything (the very thing that made Space Buddies a good movie), but it is a little too heavy-handed. Some kids will likely buy into the movie's premise, but my 3 year-old sounding board was bored once the novelty of talking puppies wore off and opted for something else. Ultimately, there's little here to keep kids engaged. With Space Buddies there was a reason to care about the four "hero pups" as well as newcomers like Spudnik. Here, it's just a bunch of talking dogs trying to push a message.
True to most recent Disney Blu-ray releases, Santa Buddies comes with both the Blu-ray and DVD version of the movie, giving you the option for a well-shot 1080p HD version as well as a version to pop into the portable DVD player. Both versions come packed with the same extras, a Christmas Carol sing-along with The Buddies and a music video for "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." The musical offerings are actually more engaging than the attached film, but only because they're short and built around the talking dog idea.
When it comes to movies like Santa Buddies, you always have to look at other movies in the series. While Space Buddies was an enjoyable movie that even parents could get into, Santa Buddies will only appeal to kids under 6 who are content with looking at puppies.
