Air Bud – Golden Receiver: Special
Edition (aka Air Bud 2/1998/Disney DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: D
In their zeal to be #1 in the children’s market, the Air Bud franchise quickly led to an
unnecessary sequel that was really pushing it with Air Bud – Golden Receiver (aka Air
Bud 2) and killed it as a theatrical film entity. That did not stop several straight-to-video
releases since, but of all the obvious installments, this is the dullest,
putting too much weight on the dogs and running them with no good script.
This time, the title canine gets involved in football, but
this “Air Dud” can’t even achieve a
field goal and this odd re-release is oddly packaged with the film in a slender
case inside a paperboard shell that includes a metal whistle as a bonus in what
is dubbed a Special Edition. Talk about bells and whistles to make a
product look better than it does. Not
even Tim Conway (a live-action Disney alumni of much better films with them)
can save this, so only dog-fanatic children should even begin to consider
bothering. The rest of us can skip it
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is surprisingly
soft through in what looks like slight image enhancement throughout and is
likely an older, low definition video master.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 chops up the advanced analog Dolby SR (Spectral
Recording) mix and it sounds weak and dated all around. Besides the whistle, the only extra is
all-new Sports Channel commentary by The Buddies, completing this releases
obsession with its case of the cutes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
