Review of Santa Buddies (2009) by Samantha T — 09 May 2016

This film disappoints even from a direct-to-DVD standpoint. The movie seems content to coast on its marketability (fluffy puppies) and though this attribute will likely appease a preschool demographic, anybody above that age is going to grow bored rather quickly.

Let's start off with the plot. If you've ever watched a Christmas movie in your life, "Christmas Magic" probably was the main plot. This rendition of Christmas Magic does not add anything to its borrowed plot except for the fact that there are talking dogs, talking dogs who don't really add anything new to the plot. The character "Cruge" (played by Christopher Lloyd) is another borrowed story element from an extremely well-known Christmas story. The story fails entirely to draw me in emotionally.

Next up: characters. Though young kids might find talking fluffy puppies funny, anybody older will soon grow tired of the cardboard cutout personalities the Buddies possess, each an irritatingly and extremely embellished stereotype of something, such as the fashionista Rosebud or the "punk" B-Dawg.

Next up, the animation. I get that this is a budget movie and also a direct-to-DVD film, but the CGI is not likely to appease even the lightest young critic.

Script is my last complaint. Santa Buddies magically finds a way to combine clichéd lines and unrealistic dialogue evenly. Half of it is the elves and Santa Claus and company spewing out in an unemotional fashion rehashed lines about "Believing in Christmas", while the other half of it is filled with the annoying Buddy-talk.

Lastly, doesn't Santa Claus look, AND talk, like he's OD'ed on something?

All in all, a movie that has enough fluffy action to make your toddlers happy, but don't worry about missing anything meaningful if you doze off.