The Air Bud Movies Are Coming to Disney+ — Whether John Oliver Likes It or Not
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Disney+ announced Friday that the original Air Bud franchise — consisting of 1997’s Air Bud, 1998’s Air Bud: Golden Receiver, 2000’s Air Bud: World Pup, 2002’s Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch and 2003’s Air Bud: Spikes Back — will be available to stream for the first time on Sunday, Oct. 1.
Air Bud’s Disney+ debut coincides quite perfectly with the return of HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, whose host previously went on a must-see tangent about the rules and moral intentions of the original Air Bud — a film described by Disney+ as the story of a “shy young student (played by The Rookie: Feds‘ Kevin Zegers) who meets a stray golden retriever named Buddy with amazing basketball skills.”
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But as Oliver points out in his increasingly unhinged argument, Buddy isn’t a stray. He just happens to belong to an unsuccessful, alcoholic party clown named Norm Snively.
“I’m not trying to be controversial here. Air Bud loves to position itself as a celebration of rules,” Oliver deadpans, reminding audiences that “‘there ain’t no rule that says a dog can’t play basketball.’ But as long as we’re all pretending that rules, or the absence of them, are the most important thing in the world, how is it that there are rules about dog ownership that it seems Air Bud the film is so keen for you to forget?” — such is the case when a judge rules in favor of Josh keeping Buddy.
“Here is a thought exercise for you: Let’s say the disease that Snively suffers from isn’t alcoholism, it’s… diabetes. Now, should that count against him as a dog owner?” Oliver asks. “Here’s another variable: Let’s say instead of being good at basketball, [Buddy] sucks at it. Do we now care where Buddy ends up if he’s a dog who’s bad at basketball? Where’s the line here? Does Buddy only deserve a better home if he’s good at basketball? And if the answer to that is yes, what does that say about us as a society?”
Plus, is Buddy really all that good at basketball? “Here’s what we know… based on the game tape that is available to us: Two steals, five assists, two free throws and four field goals. That is it. That is his entire box score,” Oliver points out. “Now, I’m not saying that that’s bad — no one is saying that that’s bad — but is that dog an asset to the Fernfield Timberwolves? I’d submit that he’s not. And it’s honestly shocking to me that a coach so focused on teamwork, cooperation and ball movement would allow such a distraction to dominate the team’s narrative.”
You’ve really got to see Oliver’s argument for yourself, so be sure to press PLAY on the video above, then hit the comments and tell us if you’ll be revisiting the original Air Bud when it arrives on Disney+.
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