Snow Buddies

Picking up where Air Buddies left off, Snow Buddies revolves around the shenanigans that ensue after the series’ five central puppies, Rosebud, Buddha, Budderball, B-Dawg, and Mudbud, inadvertently find themselves in Alaska after sneaking aboard a refrigerated truck. There, the pups encounter a malamute named Shasta and eventually agree to run a dogsled race with a scrappy young boy. As expected, there’s not a whole lot within Snow Buddies that’s been designed to hold the interest of viewers over a certain age – though there’s certainly no denying the effectiveness of John Kapelos’ scene-stealing turn as smug French villain Jean George. Director and co-writer Robert Vince has infused the proceedings with an exceedingly silly sensibility that’s sure to win over little kids, yet it does become increasingly difficult to stomach the film’s often unreasonably broad comedic elements (including a wacky deputy and a scene in which one of the dogs morphs into a big snowball after rolling down a steep hill). Snow Buddies is, in the end, probably no better or worse than any of its predecessors, and it seems clear that fans of the series will find little to complain about here (one can’t help but wish, however, that Vince and co-writer Anna McRoberts would include something for older viewers to latch onto).

** out of ****