X‘Mas Wrap Up

I tend to get Christmas releases to review all throughout the last quarter of the year. This year there were three discs I missed when they were originally released – two classics, one not so classic for the little ones. Specifically the little ones that like talking dogs. I’m keeping things short as I write these from a snow capped mountain 10,000 feet above sea level, in a log cabin, seated next to a 12 foot, fresh cut tree, with perfectly wrapped presents wrapped around its base. I’m being literal. No, it’s not my house, but I’m still telling the truth.

Santa Buddies (Blu-ray/DVD two pack)

Sigh, the Buddies are back, and this time they’re dragging a very distraught George Wendt into the STV gutter with them. After laying the moral problem of children (and their puppies) being too selfish to understand the meaning of Christmas on as thickly as possible, the film introduces us to a nightmare world of talking dogs and tone deaf elves. Even the kids that the film is aimed at have to find the whole North Pole set up devastatingly bleak. This is followed by more heavy-handed morals, and more dog hijinx. The dog’s blank faces are eerie, the sets are cramped and sparse, and the majority of major characters are selfish to the point of mean-spiritedness. The basic plot and tone are consistently depressing, as the slow death of the Christmas spirit breaks down Santa’s workshop, literally starts to kill Santa and Santa Paws, and the junior Santa dog ‘Puppy Paws’ is captured by Lloyd’s evil dogcatcher (Stan Kruge). Of course everything ends with a happy ending (spoiler alert), but it’s a trudge to the finish, and one not spiked by as many goofy bodily function comedy as the last ‘Buddies’ flick. I suppose embarrassing, white-guy infused hip-hop speak and talking dogs might be enough for the kids, but I have a feeling this one won’t go over very well. Perhaps really bratty kids will learn a lesson through pure guilt. Christian families will also be happy to know that Lloyd finds Jesus at the end too.

Santa Buddies is brimming with terribly fake looking digital effects, but they’re certainly colourful. The Blu-ray disc’s high definition video doesn’t do anything to help the reality of these smoothed over, low detail effects (check out the North Pole exteriors and the digital doggie doubles), but it’s certainly crystal clear, and those colours are certainly pure and bright. The transfer is only as consistent as the material, so real world stuff is perfectly presentable, while the more extensive digital effects shots are really soft. The soundtrack is a relatively centric affair, spiked by a few of the more verbose ‘magic’ sound effects, which rarely find their way beyond the stereo channels. The film’s score, which is repetitive, and like the film, surprisingly bleak, make up the majority of the non-centric effects, but do little to assist the LFE. The extras are quite minimal, including three sing along Christmas sings (3:00, HD), a music video (2:00, HD), and some Disney trailers.

Date：2009-12-25　【Return】