5/5 My son loves these buddie movies
  by Anthony Harris (Dallas, Tx)
This is mainly in response to the previous reviewer complaining about this movie. This movie is obviously not for you because your an adult and you probably don't have children. Because if you did, you would see that kids love these movies, my son watches them all the time(he's 4). The target audience is obviously children, not some grumpy old man with internet access and extreme distaste for Golden Retrievers.

4/5 Any kid who loves dogs will adore this movie
  by Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
I just finsihed watching a preview copy of this and I believe that it will be a Christmas must film for any family with very small children. This is not a movie for adults. It is, I repeat, a movie for kids. (Though I know of dogs that enjoy watching dogs on TV, so perhaps it is also a movie for dogs and their owners. I do not have a dog, but I recently dog-sitted an absolutely magnificent German Shepherd -- Hi Lion! -- for a couple of weeks with my daughter. I noticed that he liked seeing dogs on TV, so this might have been something that he would have found fascinating.) I mean, what kid wouldn't flip out for a movie with talking puppies?

The story itself will make a Scrooge-hearted adult cringe a bit. I frankly didn't quite follow it. Somehow or other Puppy Paws, Santa Claus's puppy, who has fled to some town in Washington in an effort to be a regular puppy and gotten himself caught by pound owner Stan Crudge (Christopher Lloyd), must be found and returned to the North Pole or Christmas will be in danger. And there is something about a melting icicle in a cavern that also has to be saved so Christmas can be saved, though how this relates to Puppy Paws escapes me, though maybe this has something to do with the necklace around Puppy Paws's neck. But hey! This isn't about story. It is about cute talking puppies who are able to fly at the end pulling a sleigh that takes Puppy Paws back to the North Pole. And a poor kid who is sick and needs to a puppy to feel better (and gets the puppy named Tim). And when Santa's reindeer are unable to pull Santa's sleigh, the Buddies (from Robert Vince's various Bud and Buddie movies) step in and pull a smaller one, with Puppy Paws dropping down chimneys to deliver the toys, to save Christmas. And Tiny gets to sing a couple of songs.

Best scene: a Golden Retriever puppy and the all white dog (not sure of the breed) who plays Puppy Paws roll around in moist dirt, enter the house, go into an all white room, and get dirt over everything.

Look, adults are not going to like this (except in cases noted above). The plot is pretty hard to take (to the extent that it makes any sense at all) and it milks every emotion possible, but anyone who has had a small child or simply knows the taste of very young children (I'm talking ages 3 to 7) will recognize how they will get a kick out of this. So remember, this movie is all about the kids. And puppies.

This is another one of the Disney's dual packs, which contains both a DVD and Blu-ray copy of the film. I think this is a great idea. The one package is appropriate for any household. And if a kid watches this at home on Blu-ray can watch it on DVD if they take it over to a friend's house. Of if you watch it at home on Blu-ray, you can watch it on DVD in the car. I don't know how much longer Disney will keep this up, but it is a great idea.

3/5 Cute but just so so
  by Morganna Wolf (Pacific NW)
Granddaughter who is 5 was mildly interested and the adults were less than engaged. I thought that since this was a dog focused movie granddaughter who is puppy and horse crazy would love it. She was only mildly interested.

This story ebbs and flows as does the acting. The most consistent acting comes from Christopher Lloyd who plays the dog catcher.

I do like that this package has both at blu-ray and standard DVD disks.



3/5 Didn't hold my son's interest for long
  by Jay (Orlando, FL United States)
I had high hopes that this movie would be a huge hit with my 2 year old son, but sadly that wasn't the case. Santa and puppies seemed like a sure win around Christmas time but within 30 mins my son was asking to watch his favorite movies (Cars). I watched thru the rest of the movie for the purposes of this review but in the end I was pretty disappointed in this for a Disney film. This was more of a made for TV special in my opinion, I was recently surprised to see that there is another movie called Space Buddies so I can only assume that this is a successful franchise. The acting was "eh" and the special effects were hardly special. It is what it is, it's a holiday movie about puppies who can talk, and with the same tired story, need to save Christmas by pulling Santa's sleigh. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this but I really expected my son would. Since it failed to hold his attention I'd have to say it was a failure. Perhaps he'll appreciate it more when he gets older, but for now I will stick the Pixar movies which he always loves. I will applaud Disney for their angle on including the Bluray and the DVD together, this is really awesome for people with DVD players in the car but nice Home Theaters at their house. If I have to sit thru a bad movie, I can at least appreciate it in high def.

2/5 Not a classic by any measure
  by J. S. Green
From the distribution (Disney) and the cast (especially Mr. Lloyd), and based on the previous "Bud" movies, I had hoped this movie would combine the charm of Christmas with the attraction of puppies. Unfortunately, it never gelled, and the movie has a number of problems. Here it is, the good and the bad.

- In general I found the acting to be adequate. Mr. Lloyd put in some of his best work ever, and those moments really worked.
- The plot was not very logical. Where in the world did they come up with the idea that dogs have such an important part of Christmas at the North Pole? My kids watched this with me, and were also puzzled. Ditto with the piece of Christmas "magic ice" in a cave. The concept of having an elf drive a mail truck was very funny.
- The special effects were tragic. The reindeer didn't look at all real, and one could immediately tell when the movie switched from live action to computer animation. I expected far more from Disney, and it was so obvious that it detracted from the movie experience.

Overall, the combination of the above meant that one could not get "caught up" in the plot. The few occasions when Mr. Lloyd put in some excellent portrayals almost got me crying. They something stupid would come up, either bad animation or some strange plot twist, and everything was ruined. The other good moments revolved around the head elf driving his mail truck around.

The puppies are cute, and there are some good portions. Sadly, the execution, animation, and plot make it a poor choice for Christmas viewing.