Reviews

Santa Buddies Blu-ray Disc Review

By brenden ⋅ December 3, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

SANTA BUDDIES (2009, Blu-ray released November 24, 2009 - MSRP $39.99)

Talking dogs. In Santa hats. Pulling a sleigh, delivering presents, saving Christmas. How does that sound to you? Yeah, me too. But I’ll tell you something, the kids love it. Want proof? Watch this video review from Max and Olivia!

This is my 9-year old nephew Max and his 3-year old sister Olivia. They both take after me. They love movies. And they watch a lot of them. They count Ghostbusters, Hellboy 2, Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series amongst their favourites. Yeah, I may have influenced their tastes a little. But I had nothing to do with this review of Santa Buddies that they turned in. They screened the film, put these thoughts together themselves and sat for the filming like the good little Siskel and Ebert that they are. I’m pleased to present the very first Blu-ray Blog Kid Review:

How about that? A 4.5 out of 5! Well, it’s certainly a movie geared at the younger crowd. Parents would best be warned, however, that they’ll have a pretty tough time sitting through it themselves. It’s not for adults. Or even teens. Despite the fact that this fourth entry in the Buddies saga is slightly more entertaining than the previous film, Space Buddies and features TV stars we remember fondly (George Wendt, Norm from Cheers as Santa and Christopher Lloyd as evil dog-catcher, Stan Cruge) you’ll find it a struggle to make it through all 88-minutes of the film. The story is predictable, the performances uninspired and the low-budget CGI dogs are particularly distracting. Santa Buddies is for the young ones alone.

The movie might be a bit of a stinker but the Santa Buddies Blu-ray looks pretty great! Unfortunately, this well done, highly detailed transfer only highlights the poorer special effects work in the film. Those digital-dogs look horrible in HD! Not a big deal though, if you’re 10 years old or younger. Colour is saturated and blacks are deep. I can’t imagineSanta Buddies looking any better. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is front heavy but crystal clear with very little sense of immersion.

Special Features are limited, putting the focus on music with an HD selection of Sing Alongs and a Music Video. Sneak Peeks and BD-Live access round out the package. Disney may have included very little in the way of extras on the Blu-ray disc but they had the incredibly great sense to add a DVD version of the film for the little ones to enjoy in the car or at a friend’s house.

Tags: Christopher Lloyd, Disney, Field Cate, George Wentz, Josh Flitter, Lilliana Mumy, Santa Buddies, Walt Disney Home Entertainment