Air Bud: Golden Receiver Special Edition (Sport Whistle Necklace)

“This is the story about a football team. From the beginning this football team had heart and ability. But there was this one big problem. They didn’t believe that they could win. And then this dog came along, and this dog could do amazing things, and suddenly, the team started winning. But the truth is, even without the dog, they were winners, each and every one of them. So, if you believe that a dog can play football, then you better believe that we’re gonna win this game.”

Nah, this story isn’t about that. It’s about me … Baby.

Freeze, turkeys. This is Baby Sassani. Up until now I’ve just been in charge of security at Upcomingdiscs, but somehow those discs keep getting through anyway. So, maybe it’s time to supplement my Baby On Board Security business with helping out with the reviewing. OK. The truth is, I’ve been giving the UPS and Fed Ex guys a hard time around here, and Gino says it’s about time I started to understand the nature of this racket.  I’m a German Shepherd/Chow mix, and the Chow stands for goodbye if you come ringin’ the doorbell. If not, I’ll have to introduce you to my security staff: Frank, Antonio, Nickey, and Grady Sassani or

F A N G S for short. But, of course, that isn’t what I’m supposed to be talkin’ about here. I just wanted you to know who I was and where I was coming from. If you have any complaints about me doing a few reviews from time to time, file them with one or more of my security staff members.

It seems that Gino thinks I’m better qualified to talk about dog films. Actually I should write all of the Arnold Schwarzenegger reviews, ‘cos me and him are buds. In fact, he gives me a shout in every one of his movies: “Hasta La Vista , Baby”. But, Gino says he won’t be doing any new movies for a while because he’s doing some government job out in California. I hope it isn’t dogcatcher, or those guys are in a lot of trouble. He’s the only one I know tougher than me, and that spells G R O W L. Gino says I’m getting off topic again. But I won’t bite him.

This is the second Air Bud movie. I didn’t get to see the first one ‘cos I was livin’ somewhere else when that came out. There was this incident with a mail man and I… Gino’s right. Let’s not talk about that stuff right now. In the first movie Buddy was a basketball-playing dog who got real famous and lots of people liked him. He wouldn’t have made a very good security dog. In case, like me, you missed the first movie, they pretty much let you see what it was like when Buddy shows off his basketball talents in the beginning of this one. Buddy’s pet human was this boy named Josh (Zegers), and his daddy isn’t around anymore. I know what that’s like ‘cos that’s how I ended up here myself. His mommy (Stevensen) is trying to find a new guy in her life, but Josh and Buddy find ways to break those relationships up. I know a quicker way and that spells B I T E, but Buddy is too much of a wimp. It gets worse for them when Mommy falls in love with the new vet in town Dr. Pat (Harrison). At first they try to break them up too, but Buddy decides he likes Dr. Pat; besides, that means lots of free healthcare, and Gino says there’s a lotta people talkin’ about that right now. In the meantime, Josh decides to try out for the school football team as the quarterback. Guess what? Buddy can catch a football just like he could shoot a basketball. Heck, that’s not hard. I play ball just as good as Buddy, when someone around here gets around (the ball’s a round…) to playin’ with me. Don’t worry, though, ‘cos I’m real good at remindin’ everybody. Once again Buddy takes a bad team to the championship, and everybody’s happy, and that spells

W A G.

I can play a little ball myself. I’m including a picture of me so you guys and know how cute I am while you’re reading my reviews. In case you don’t like my reviews or don’t think I’m cute, I want you to pay careful attention to that smile. And that spells

T E E T H.

Video

Air Bud: Golden Receiver is something Gino calls an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The movie looked a little drab to me. Some people say dogs are colorblind, and maybe it’s because they watched this movie. The colors seem very dull at times. Gino says the place is known for raining a lot, so part of that is something called atmosphere. In the games the colors are a little better. There weren’t any marks or messes on the movie print. It looked very clean. Gino also says to mention that black levels were average. Overall it looks good for a somewhat older print and basically a children’s movie. Heck, it’s almost as old as I am, and sure, I still look good, but you can see some wear and tear…mostly tear.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is almost all upfront. Dogs can hear stuff a lot better than humans. But even I didn’t hear much of anything going on behind me. And I always know what’s going on behind me. I think there was some music once in a while. I also thought I heard a swoosh every now and then, but that might have just been my tail. You could hear the people talking and Buddy barking, so everything you need was right up front the whole time.

Special Features

The Buddies Sports Channel: (6:05) The Buddies have a sports show like ESPN’s Sportscenter, and they take a look at the highlights from the movie. They should have let me do it.

Whistle on a chain

Final Thoughts:

After this movie there’s a lot of other Air Bud movies coming out on DVD and maybe even Blu-ray, so I think I got me some job security for a while. Let Gino know that you want me to keep writing reviews, and maybe we can convince him to keep me on the payroll. If you tell him, he’s gotta do it. I’ll get to spend more time in the theater. Have you seen all of those treats he keeps in there? This is my ticket. “That’s my theory anyway.”