SPOOKY BUDDIES [2011]

 THIS MOVIE IS DEFINITELY NOT MY JAM. 

I mean, I am a couple centuries past it's target audience age.  Having said that, it's not really appropriate to go into this movie as if it's meant for a 450-something year old ghoul. THAT being said, SPOOKY BUDDIES is still pretty terrible in half it's aspects and not so bad in others.  When I WAS the target age for this movie, I still would've thought it was pretty stupid.  I mean, when I was 5, I was watching grown-up movies as well as kiddie films and . . . . well, kiddie films from my day . . . .well, they didn't treat kids like idiots.  And that's what SPOOKY BUDDIES does with a quintet of lead character kids who are bland, cardboard characters spouting what some middle-aged guy's idea of "trendy slang the kid's are all saying".  With more "you dawgs" than you can shake a golden retriever's tail at and almost every line of dialogue ending with "comma yo", it's pretty annoying.  But who are we fooling; nobody's watching this to see the kids -- it's all about the puppies.  Sadly, the puppies sound EXACTLY like the bland, personality-less kid actors; in fact, they're voiced by what can only be described as bland, personality-less kid actors.  When the puppies talk, there's nothing to distinguish them from the kids' voices.  The puppy "buddies" don't have any defined character either.  One of the puppies' entire character is "oh, that's the female one" and another's personality is that he likes to eat.  If you think THAT'S bad, at least they have THAT!  I can't recall ANY defining character traits of any of the other puppies (or any of the kids, either).  If I randomly take a kiddie film (with spooky elements) from when I was around 5 years old -- let's say BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS . . . . another Disney movie to boot-- the three kids in that film, while not exactly written by Tolstoy, have much stronger drawn personalities. B&B also is written MUCH better and can be enjoyed by adults as well as children.  This is where many "kids" movies fall down, I think; any GOOD kids movie can be enjoyed by kids AS WELL AS adults.  Anything less, as in SPOOKY BUDDIES, is talking down to children as idiots and I kinda don't have any time for that.  The premise of this film has a great deal of potential but it sadly is let down by really stupid, unfunny dialogue and writing of the lowest common denominator.  This is a Disney film and Disney used to know better than that! 

What we have here is a flashback opening from 1937 where the evil Warwick the Warlock, in league with the terrifying Howloween Hound, is attempting to take the souls of five puppies in order to unleash monsters upon the world.  This is a good premise.  All but one of the puppies is taken before dawn so the plan fails.  Warwick is trapped along with the Howloween Hound in a magic mirror without his magic staff and magic book and the fifth dog Pip is turned into a statue while his doggie-ghost floats around trapped inside Warwick's condemned house (looking like that 1995 CGI Casper)

as Warwick's final FU.  Cut to today and we have our five golden retriever puppy buddies (established in a previous film) and their horribly-written owner kids preparing for Halloween.  The puppy buddies naturally end up inside the boarded-up Warwick house and release Warwick and the Howloween Hound by saying the latter's name thrice in the mirror as they mistake Pip's ghost for the Howloween Hound.  Warwick goes off to recover his magic staff (in the possession of one of the kids -- don't ask) and the Howloween Hound goes off to find five puppies of the same blood (a.k.a. our Buddies) to unleash the monsters upon the world.  All of this sounds fine and it would've been with some better writing.  Sincerely, the movie looks fantastic; director Robert Vince  (who apparently only directs talking CGI animal movies) and his set designers really ramp up the Halloween vibe with a terrific atmosphere of houses loaded with Halloween decorations, a full moon, wispy clouds and the whole bit.  This would seriously be a Halloween classic if the writing (Vince is a co-writer so . . . ) had been better.  Warwick looks great; played by Harland Williams in make-up reminiscent of Paul Reubens in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and acting somewhere between Tod Slaughter and over-the-top Vincent Price. 

There's a really cool owl named Hoot under Warwick's thrall who is great because . . . . well, owls are cool.  The Howloween Hound (admittedly a GREAT name) also looks great; a big, black hound often spewing black smoke and with glowing eyes.  Honestly, it's almost as if I'd recomment watching this film with the sound turned off because it looks sooooooo good.  It's a real shame because the film will gain your attention with a beautifully spooky scene and then torpedo it all with stupid dialogue from the puppy buddies or their teen owners.  So, I really don't know how to judge this one.  I really don't think any kid over 5 will find it anything but corny and anyone older will probably not be able to take the stupid dialogue.  But yeah, it looks great.  And oh yeah, the wonderful Rance Howard and Tim Conway are in it; their talents mostly wasted.