Santa Buddies: Uma Aventura de Natal

Watched due to a policy we have of monitoring our kids' "free" viewing choice, a policy we are now reconsidering after sitting through this pile of dog snow. Basically there is no Christmas movie cliché that is not recycled, nor is there a script problem that can't be addressed with "magic blah blah blah".

My wife and I did have a running discussion during the film, though, as to whether George Wendt was (a) drunk (b) deliberately trying to camp it up, or (c) channeling his worst high school play as the inspiration for his performance.

There is some nostalgia value, though: Christopher Lloyd revives his "Jim" character from Taxi, at least we think that's what he's doing. The computer-animated reindeer reminded me of the talking Camels from the pre-1972 Camel cigarette ads.

So, cynical adults, did the kids enjoy it? The six-year old got bored, at the end the nine-year old, whose choice it was, said, "my Christmas wish is that I had chosen another movie for my video time."

Trying to write a review as a six year old is not easy,because any body much over this age will almost despise this film.If you have seen the buddy films you will know what i mean but this takes sickly sweet to a new level,don't get me wrong ,im not a killjoy and its a wonderful life is one of my favourite films of all time but as an adult this really did make me cringe.Yes i know its a kids film but most kids today a a little more critical of what they see than we probably were as kids.Would rate this 5 for young children and 3 for everybody else,Watch out for the pup singing a Christmas song,the most cringe-worthy moment of all the Christmas films i have ever seen,I hope that is not considered a spoiler as it doesn't give anything away.

When Puppy Paws, the spirited son of Santa Paws, forgets the true meaning of this time of year, the Buddies must remind him that the spirit of Christmas is about things that can't be wrapped in wrapping paper.

The Buddies remind Santa Paws's son, Paws Patinhas, the true meaning of Christmas.

Yet another Air Buds production, which won't necessarily please the adults, the little ones probably, yes, because of the excess of cuteness.

The puppies are so cute, I thought the movie would be just as cute, but no... I didn't like the voices, the slang, everything was weird, the movie itself didn't help... In 2017 I was already bored with the Buddies...

This is the kind of movie you put on to keep your kids entertained and out of your hair for a couple hours. And of course it has puppies. But it's not anything great.

I've never seen an Air Bud movie. I know right? Insanity. But it's Christmas and so I just have to watch a ridiculous amount of Christmas movies, no matter how bad they are. This film just lays it out straight away. Santa and his dog (???) are walking (probably on the spot) in a painfully obvious CGI North Pole. Suddenly the dog talks, with a CGI mouth but a face as blank as a plank of wood. It turns out this is Santa Paws, the dog that delivers presents to all the good puppies in the world. Anyway, the Christmas spirit is dying, and this causes the North Pole to lose power. Puppy Paws, a little ragamuffin that just wants to be a normal puppy, sets off to learn from the Air Buddies. This film will be painful to anybody over the age of 6. Sometimes the animals, such as the reindeer, are completely CGI, but don't fit their surroundings at all. Christopher Lloyd plays a dog catcher named Crooge (I can't believe I'm typing this either). He stalks around like some kind of serial killer, but goes completely slapstick when he needs to catch a dog. The movie also contains a sick and possibly dying little boy, a vomit inducing song, and characters such as B-Dawg. He's a puppy. He break dances. Once again, something that seems to be a staple of kids movies, we have a protagonist that ruins everything. He breaks stuff, gets puppies in trouble, and so on. Why do kids films always have the message that it's OK to be an idiot? How about a character that uses common sense and has some social skills. He doesn't even learn a valuable lesson, those around him just have to accept him for who he is. The less said about the annoying voices the better, but one performance that simply can't be ignored is that of Santa. A supercut needs to be made of his reactions to terrible news. He's a lifeless soul in a film that aims for cute, but smashes through annoying.