Above, a compilation of the endings to the three Air Bud movies. The essay that follows goes along with the movies, but both can stand on their own. Especially that last part of the video, oh yes.
Last month, Tiger Woods was voted Athlete of the Decade. Not a bad choice, of course, as he won 64 tournaments from 2000-2009. But I think the voters made a mistake. They really should have chosen Air Bud.
Let’s backtrack a bit: Back in the 1990s, Buddy the Wonder Dog was a dog who could actually shoot basketballs into the hoop. He had a tape on how to teach your dog how to play sports and eventually became the subject of a Disney movie, Air Bud, in 1997.
Here was the shocker: Air Bud was actually pretty good, about the best possible dog-playing-basketball movie one could make. Roger Ebert sums it up well: “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.”
Earning $24 million on a $3 million budget, Disney naturally released Air Bud: Golden Receiver in 1998. The original dog had died, so the movie dipped a bit in quality, but it was still a theatrically-released Disney movie. It was passable enough. The movie also led to another great Roger Ebert line:
The first time Buddy runs onto the field, the announcer shouts, “It’s a dog!” Don’t you kinda think a play-by-play announcer in a small suburban town would recognize the golden retriever that had just won the basketball championship? A dog like that, it attracts attention.
Things get interesting after Golden Receiver. And, by “interesting,” I mean “stupid.” The next three Air Bud movies were all straight-to-DVD releases, usually produced and released by Disney subsidiaries. Not so shockingly, they were horrible. But Air Bud put together three incredible athletic achievements the likes of which will never be repeated.
Let’s do this in reverse order of release and awesomeness, like the video above:
Air Bud: Spikes Back (2003): If you’ve never seen a sports movie before, almost all of them go like this: Team of losers pulls it together and wins the big game. Air Bud Spikes Back follows that to a tee, as Buddy discovers he can play volleyball, etc.
It’s amazing it took until a fifth film for Air Bud to learn volleyball. I mean, geeze, Wilt Chamberlain was a great volleyball player. Obviously Air Bud would be an awesome volleyball player as well. Anyway, after his team wins the local championship, Air Bud teams up with Gabrielle Reece to win some volleyball championship. Let’s assume it’s the world champs. That alone is a great accomplishment.
Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch (2002): Same story here: Andrea — the sister of star of the first three Air Bud movies, Josh (Kevin Zegers, last seen as a conspicuous drug dealer on Gossip Girl) — is awful at fall coed baseball, but then she practices with Air Bud and the team rallies to win the big game.
But what happens after that? Oh, right, the then-Anaheim Angels call up Andrea and sign Air Bud to a contract. After that, he actually wins World Series MVP. Well, he’s a more prestigious winner than David Eckstein, at least.
Air Bud: World Pup (2000): Josh is still in this one, and he teams up with some hot foreign chick to win the state title in coed soccer, a sport I believe no state actually endorses. The Air Bud movies never actually explain how a dog is allowed to play on a high school soccer team, and why no parents ever sue when their child was cut so a dog can play.
But whatever: This Air Bud movie has the greatest ending of all. Brianna Scurry (goaltender on the Women’s World Cup team) comes up after they win the state title and says she really liked the way Buddy plays. Next thing you know, Scurry is getting hurt in the Women’s World Cup finals and Air Bud is filling in to save the final shootout attempt. Yes, yes: Air Bud is a boy and yet helped the United States Women’s World Cup team win the championship. If this isn’t cheating, I don’t know what is. Tisha Venturini and Brandi Chastain are actually both in this movie as well; fortunately Julie Foudy had too much self-respect for this thing.
So there you have it: Air Bud, world champion in volleyball, World Series MVP and winning goaltender at the Women’s World Cup. Tiger Woods may have been a great golfer, but I don’t think anyone excelled at multiple sports in the 2000s more than Air Bud.
If you liked this, read my review of Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch at Walkoff Walk as well as the secret 9/11 joke in the movie.
2 years ago