4/5 The Usual Fare
  by Scott Asher
An unlikely story of 5 dogs who stow aboard a space shuttle, take a trip to a space station to pick up a Russian dog, land on the moon, then pilot the ship safely back to earth and their loving masters. It's what you would expect in a movie like this: action enough for older kids, comedy and cheese enough for younger ones. Clean fun.

The highest praise I can give it is that my children loved it and I wasn't bored (the first time.) Recommended for children of all ages.


2/5 Space Buddies Okay
  by Heather (Sugar Land, TX)
I purchased Space Buddies for my two boys - 3 1/2 and 5 years - because they kept seeing the commercials for the video. Since we're always looking for good videos, I thought I would give it a try. In a nutshell, the movie is fair to poor. To give some detail, the first time my 3 1/2 year old watched Space Buddies was on an airplane ride. The movie was on for only about five minutes until he was bored. We were at home the first time my 5 year old saw the movie, and he watched it for probably about a half hour. We have had the movie for about a month now, and they have not asked to watch it once since the first time.

Below are some video suggestions instead of Space Buddies (most for boys):
1) Iron Giant - I cannot express in words how much my boys have loved this movie. They are absolutely enamored by with this one.
2) 101 Dalmations
3) Spectacular Spiderman (Not Amazing or other Spiderman videos)
4) Transformers
5) Curious George Movie - They loved this when they were a little younger. A good age group would be 2 to 4 years.
6) Enchanted - Even though this is supposed to be a girls movie, my guys really like it. And I think it is pretty funny at times.
7) Barnyard (with Kevin James)
8) Sandlot
9) And the obvious Disney greats - Monsters Inc, Toy Story 1 & 2, Cars, etc.

4/5 For those who are fan of the "Buddies", another fun family film with the puppies now going to space! Looks great on Blu-ray!
  by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
These "Buddie" films are just so cute and enjoyable, family fun films with cute puppies that you can't get enough of.

Since the 1997 debut of the film "Air Bud", from that film of a talking canine has launched several "Buddie" films featuring the golden retriever puppies in "Air Buddies" and "Snow Buddies" and this time with "Space Buddies".

What happens when the puppies become stowaways in an experimental spacecraft? Expect a lot of fun and giggles for the family.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

The film is presented in 1080p high definition (1:78:1). The film looks great on Blu-ray and the majority of the film is done using green screen and CGI and wirework. The CG work was done quite well for this family film.. From the space station to the aircraft and its digital screens, the film looks pretty good. Also, there is quite a bit of wirework done to emulate the puppies floating due to gravity and you don't see the wires, again, it looks pretty good.

Audio is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and I did notice the rear channels being used quite a bit for several action-based sequences and sound effects rather effectively. I was very impressed to hear the all channels being utilized during the film because for a children's film, I really wasn't expecting it. So, needless to say I was pleased by it. Although "SPACE BUDDIES" is primarily a dialogue-based film, the film does take advantage of your system's surround sound, so that was definitely cool!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are a few special features on this Blu-ray edition of "Space Buddies". The video quality ranges from 1080p, 1080i and 480i and are featured in Dolby Digital 2.0. The special features are:

* Buddy Facts: You can watch the film with pop up tidbits about the making of "Space Buddies" and about space.
* Buddy Bloopers: Outtakes and blunders (granted these were purposely done)
* "Dancing in the Moonlight" Music Video with Disney Channel's Alyson Stoner
* Disneypedia: The Buddies Guide to Space Travel: This was a 10+ minute featurette about the behind-the-scenes making of the film. Also, a insight on comparisons of how real astronauts train for space and what the pippies had to do to look like they were in space. A fun featurette that the kids will definitely enjoy!
* Buddy Finder: Exclusive to Blu-ray is a scavenger hunt game using your remote control and while watching the film, you need to find 100 items.
* Disney BD-Live Network: A US only feature which people with BD-Live equipped players can access special features from Disney's BD-Live Network.

I watched this film with the family and each of us enjoyed the film. I suppose it's really hard not to dislike a film about puppies and fortunately the technology of how they make the puppies talk on film definitely works well when they mouth the words and overall, the talking portion doesn't look cheesy at all.

This is a safe family film. For my 6-year-old, there was only one sequence in which he was a little scared but that was the Cosmonaut Yuri (because he has lived in the space station and is a bit unkept, so his hair is a bit wacky) but all in all, from his perspective, he had a lot of fun and of course, when you have a puppy who likes to eat a lot and when his paw is pulled, he lets out gas. So, I guess you can say that the "fart jokes" really goes well with the kids.

As for the puppies safety, I know that there are a few dog lovers who cringe when they see animals in a film because they worry about their well-being and if they are going to be put into any dangerous situations . The puppies were more or less kept indoors most of the time and in small and what looks like safe areas in the films, so I believe that the puppies were quite safe during filming.

As for adults who are watching this film, may you be a dog lover or a parent, the film of course is a bit farfetched especially how the puppies were always so successful into sneaking into a building or vehicle with human's nearby but with these type of films, you can't get too serious, after all it's a film made for children. But these are the types of film that are wonderful to watch with the whole family especially if your child enjoys reading about the planets, the moon and outer space, the film and the special features will definitely be entertaining. Heck, even if you are captivated by the charm of these puppies, you'll definitely find this film fun and entertaining.

The Blu-ray version of "Space Buddies" looks very good in high-definition and the audio is pretty good as well! This is the best looking "Buddies" release yet!

Overall a solid, family film for the children and worthy of purchasing on Blu-ray!

4/5 The kids liked it
  by M A (Fairfax, VA United States)
The kids liked this film. Garden variety animal movie, predictable plot.

Negatives:
1) The blu-ray quality was horrible in scenes that were dark. Very grainy picture quality.
2) As an adult, this movie was basically unwatchable.

The kids loved it, which I would expect is the only criteria anyone who is buying this movie would care about. Save your money and buy the non-blu-ray version. Kids who would enjoy this movie wouldn't care about the "blu-ray" quality.

3/5 It Was Just OK, A Few Good Laughs
  by Daniel G. Lebryk
Space Buddies - the whole Buddies franchise, well it's fun, and it has worn out it's welcome in some ways. A thirteen year old says, yep it was an OK movie (he did laugh a number of times), but it wasn't really that good. Here's dad's take, the earlier versions were better, a bit more engaging, a bit funnier.

There's a lot less dog moving mouth and talking scenes in this one. The CG on the moon, well it's really downright bad. It actually looks like a person with a Macintosh and a couple of hours could have done much better. A ferret talks the dogs back to earth. Nothing about the film is real or believeable, but it's entertainment, so a person can suspend reality for a while.

Daumer from Coach days is the head dunderhead owner of Vision rocket company. And there's a Robert Downey Jr. wanna be that is the villan. The other characters were filler Disney characters. The kids were, as usual chez Disney, cute and smarter than the adults.

It's a pleasant, decently fun movie to watch for an hour and 20 minutes. There's no real rewatch value. Definately PG, and appropriate for just about everyone. There's a moment when the Russian space ship burns up, and it looks like the Cosmonaut (Diedrich Bader from The Drew Carey Show) will burn with it. However, he gets in an escape pod and is launched away. He also drinks some clear liquid and gets very happy. But it's also possible that was water and he was happy because of the music played and his dancing. By the way, Bader is not exactly terribly believeable as a Russian. His accent comes and goes frequently.

All in all, a pleasant movie to watch on a Saturday evening in March where huge snowflakes are unseasonally falling. Kids will enjoy this. Parents will not be annoyed by it. And everyone will get a laugh or two here and there all in a good healthy manner.

The DVD has a bloopers reel as bonus feature.