
DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708080106

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   62 lines

FUN-FILLED FLICK TICKLES OUR FUNNYBONES

A DOGGIE THAT plays basketball?

OK! Bring him on. After a movie summer in which just about everything explodes, we're ready for an old-fashioned Disney flick - the kind in which paint cans sit around just waiting to be tipped over by a raucous doggie. And have you EVER read an unfavorable review here of a movie about a boy and his dog? Even critics have hearts. Really.

His name is Buddy. He doesn't dribble too well, but he might drool.

The TV commercials have been running regularly in early hours when kids can loudly demand to be taken directly to the theater. The real flick, in contrast to the commercial, doesn't have much of that slam dunk move, but Buddy is nonetheless quite a shot - and he wears sneakers on all four feet. (We've a right, though, to be a little worried about his nose. Wouldn't it get sore from all that tipping?)

The setting is Washington state, complete with mountain scenery in the background. Jackie finds a beaten-up golden retriever who introduces himself by passing the ball back. Jackie eventually gets elevated from water boy to team member with Buddy's shooting expertise to help. It's hope for all the short guys, and dogs, in the world.

``Air Bud'' is a shameless Disney formula that smacks back to the era of Herbie and Flubber, when the studio regularly turned out ``live-action'' slapstick stuff. It lacks the heart of an ``Old Yeller'' that would have made it a classic, but as long as the dog is in the house, or on the court, things are hopping.

Buddy takes a bubble bath. Buddy wrecks the house - knocking over paint and furniture. (The kids seemed to like this scene almost as much as the basketball segments).

Michael Jeter (who won a Tony Award for Broadway's ``Grand Hotel'') plays Happy Slappy, the Clown with a Hound, the meanie who wants to take Buddy away and put him back in the slagging act. But even the villain is played pretty much for laughs. Slappy falls about a lot, and drives a car that falls apart. Kevin Zegers, as the resident 12 year old, is a bit too pretty to be everyday. (Why don't they cast ugly, everyday kids as the hero sometime?)

For my money, though, the human side of things is stolen by Eric Christmas as a delightfully droll judge. He's so befuddled and crusty that he takes one look at Buddy and describes him as ``a really ugly child'' before he realizes it's a dog custody case, not a child custody case.

If this isn't the way life is, then maybe it's the way life SHOULD be.

This bud's for you. ILLUSTRATION: KHAREN HILL

Josh (Kevin Zegers) assists his basketball-playing dog Buddy in the

Disney family comedy ``Air Bud.''

MOVIE REVIEW

``Air Bud''

Cast: Buddy, Michael Jeter, Kevin Zegers, Wendy Makkena, Bill

Cobbs, Eric Christmas

Director: Charles Martin Smith

Screenplay: Paul Tamasy and Aaron Mendelsohn

MPAA Rating: PG (some references to animal abuse; should be OK

for most children)