Snow Buddies is a 2008 American adventure comedy film and the second installment in the Air Buddies series. It was released on DVD on February 5, 2008. The film takes place in the fictional town of Ferntiuktuk, Alaska.

It is the final installment in the series to feature Buddy himself as well as any characters from the Air Bud films.

Plot

Air Bud s five quintuplet Golden Retriever puppies known as the Buddies from the town of Fernfield, Washington are having fun with their new owners before they go to school. The puppies meet up in the park and decide to play hide and seek. Budderball sees an ice cream truck and decides to go in, forcing the others to try and rescue him. However, the Buddies become trapped in a truck heading to Ferntiuktuk, Alaska. Upon arrival, the Buddies meet Shasta, a Siberian Husky puppy whose 11-year-old owner, Adam Bilson, is determined to win the Alaskan sled dog race because of what had happened to his father, due to a tragic accident a year prior. The puppies decide to help Shasta pursue his dreams as well as get to the airport, located at the finish line. Unfortunately, as Shasta s parents are both dead, this puts the puppies in a predicament as there is nobody to teach them how to become snow dogs. Fortunately, Shasta manages to persuade a legendary Alaskan Malamute named Talon, who had taught Shasta s deceased father, into teaching the puppies.

When Shasta introduces Adam to his new sleigh team, the child is delighted at the prospect of his dreams finally coming true and the team pursue vigorous training routines. Adam begins building a new sleigh with his team of hard-working puppies. Talon proudly watches as the team s efforts come to fruition and it seems as though they are cooperating as a team. The older town huskies, however, are not impressed and begin to plan their downfall. Two of the huskies Francois and Philippe, reveal to the Buddies that Shasta s parents were killed during a dog sled race (sitka) last year when the ice beneath them shattered to dishearten them.

Talon calls the puppies to the mountain lake one night to view the Northern Lights (juno) before he goes of telling Shasta that he knows all he needs to know and that he can become the great leader that his father once was; once all the puppies say their goodbyes to him, Talon disappears into the lights. The following morning, the puppies enter the race with Adam. But everyone else laughs at the thought of a little boy and puppies entering a race. The sheriff goes over the rules and sees Adam wrote his own name in the entry list. After being reminded how treacherous the race is by the sheriff, the puppies begin their track while Jean George III, an unscrupulous and arrogant French musher-(who is hated by nearly everyone in town) and last year s champion, cheats his way through every race by sabotaging the other mushers sleds or pushing them off their sleds. Soon only young Adam and Jean George are left but news of a terrible blizzard arrives and it s too late to call off the race as the racers have already gotten past the midway checkpoint.

Meanwhile, the puppies parents, Buddy and Molly follow the puppies to Alaska, after being tipped by Himalayan cat Miss Mittens, where the Saint Bernard dog Bernie informs them of their participation in the race. Sheriff Ryan gets a message sent by Fernfield s Deputy Dan asking for any information on the Buddies. The Sheriff immediately phones Deputy Dan to inform him that the Buddies are in Alaska, who then goes to inform their owners at their treehouse about the good news, much to their delight. A dangerous blizzard forces Adam and the team to take shelter in an igloo provided by an Inuit until the storm subsides. They come head to head with Jean George, and Adam gets injured.

Adam then recovers while Francois and Philippe, the lead dogs of Jean George s team, get into trouble when the ice beneath them shatters. Jean George continues and abandons his dogs while Adam and the puppies begin a rescue operation despite Shasta s fears of his parents death, revealing that they had died from drowning. The puppies pull Francois and Philippe out of the icy waters and Jean George continues the race without any gratitude and abandons their rescuers. Francois and Philippe realize they owe nothing to their owner for leaving them to die, and everything to Shasta and the Buddies for rescuing them, and so, decide to go on strike . They stop and refuse to run any further, causing Jean George to lose the race.

Adam is victorious and the Buddies reunite with Buddy and Molly. Jean George scolds his dogs for embarrassing him, and they respond by chasing him around the Arctic. The Buddies sadly say goodbye to their new best friend, Shasta, as well as Adam, and both groups promise that they will stay in touch with each other. All seven Buddies return home via airplane and are greeted by their owners Sam, Bartleby, Billy, Alice, Pete, Henry and Noah; who were waiting for them. Budderball and his owner, Bartleby, are watching the news the next day and Bartleby is completely dumbstruck when he watches the part about the Buddies, Adam, and Shasta winning the race. That night, Buddy and Molly sit on the roof of their house and discuss their puppies accomplishments, while wondering if they will ever outgrow exploring. The film ends with Adam and a now nearly full-grown Shasta hiking through Alaska on a cold, winter night with five new adult huskies, while Talon narrates a reminder for the audience that life may lead you where you least expect, but have faith, and you ll know exactly where you were meant to be .

Cast

• Skyler Gisondo as B-Dawg
• Jimmy Bennett as Buddha
• Josh Flitter as Budderball
• Henry Hodges as Mudbud
• Liliana Mumy as Rosebud
• Tom Everett Scott as Buddy
• Molly Shannon as Molly
• Kris Kristofferson as Talon, an Alaskan Malamute
• Jim Belushi as Bernie, a St. Bernard
• Paul Rae as Phillipe, Jean George s secondary lead husky
• Lothaire Bluteau as Francois, Jean George s primary lead husky
• Whoopi Goldberg as Miss Mittens, a Himalayan cat
• Christian Pikes as Henry
• John Kapelos as Jean George
• Dylan Sprouse as Shasta, a Siberian Husky puppy
• Richard Karn as Patrick
• Dominic Scott Kay as Adam Bilson
• Cynthia Stevenson as Jackie
• Dylan Minnette as Noah

Home video

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray on January 31, 2012. The disc comes with bonus features which include a narration by the director on the visual effects and an audio commentary by the Buddies and Shasta. Other features include a music video, bloopers and behind the scenes.

Production

An American Humane Certified Safety Representative visited the Snow Buddies set the first day of filming. Fifteen Golden Retriever puppies were on set and fifteen other were being treated by a local veterinarian, and their illnesses were eventually diagnosed as Giardia and Coccidia. On request from the representative the remaining puppies on set received additional veterinary checks. Twenty-five of the puppies were from an American breeder and five were from a Canadian breeder. It was discovered that the puppies were approximately 8 weeks old, which lead to the belief that the puppies were only 6 weeks old when they were brought by the trainer to the movie set. Per the USDA it was at the time illegal to transport puppies under the age of 8 weeks.

After the removal of all 30 puppies, 28 older Golden Retriever puppies were brought in to continue filming. All of the 28 older puppies were exposed to parvovirus, and six fell ill after exposure to the virus.

As a result, the movie was not permitted to use the No animals were harmed… disclaimer and received an Unacceptable marking from the American Humane Association.

Year	2008
ReleaseDate	2008-02-05
RuntimeMins	87
RuntimeStr	1h 27min
Plot	In this spin-off of the Air Bud franchise, five pups follow an ice cream transport truck to a plane and end up flying with the ice cream shipment to Alaska. There they find a pup friend and a boy who needs five dogs for a big race.
Awards	Awards, 1 nomination
Directors	Robert Vince
Writers	Robert Vince, Anna McRoberts, Kevin DiCicco
Stars	Jim Belushi, Jimmy Bennett, Lothaire Bluteau
Produced by	Monica Goldstein, Anna McRoberts, Robert Vince
Music by	Brahm Wenger
Cinematography by	Kamal Derkaoui
Editing by	Kelly Herron
Casting By	Lorna Johnson
Production Design by	Phil Schmidt
Art Direction by	Kerri Elliott
Set Decoration by	Sierra Laflamme
Costume Design by	Allisa Swanson
Makeup Department	Leeann Charette, Colleen Conroy, Ceilidh Dunn, Agnieszka Echallier, Joel Echallier, Heather McLellan, Hayley Miller, Janet Sala, Rebekah Zantingh
Production Management	Daniel Mikolay, Darcy Wild
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Geoff Anderson, Joanne Gerein, Warren Hanna, Kelly Herron, Paula S. Kyan, Rob Larson, Anna McRoberts, Robert K. Rogers, Gisela Schulte
Art Department	Jean Brophey, Doug Brown, Gregory Clarke, Dylan Dowd, Jacqui Dudeck, Sher Edmonds, Marcus Endean, Ide Foyle, Leesa Hanna, Guy Henderson, Rick Law, John McIntosh, Dorian Reese, Hanna Setala, Randy Taylor, Paul Wagner, Alison Walker, Renata Zaleska
Sound Department	Scott Aitken, Scott Benson, Steven Bigras, Chris Egert, Chris Fairfield, Real Gauvreau, Jonathan Helfand, Brad Hillman, Isaiah Hillrich, Jordan Ivey, Kirby Jinnah, Craig Kyllonen, Samuel Lehmer, Jimmy Lifton, Sonya Lindsay, Jonathan McCleery, Martin Mitchell, Maureen Murphy, Dorian Pareis, Jan Petrov, Brody Ratsoy, Shane Rees, David Scott, Hank Shih, Steve Szeto, Graham Timmer, Kerry Uchida, Paulette Victor-Lifton, Cam Wagner, Bruce Young
Special Effects by	Buck Aarons, Maurice Bouchard, Dennis Briest, Chris Davis, Phil Davis, Steve Davis, Don Dolan, Jason Dolan, Viseslav Jurlina, Mike Kruper, John Sleep, Tim Storvick, Attila Vaski
Visual Effects by	Bradley Adams, Simon Ager, Luis Carlos Aguilar, Lee Allan, Kemal Ally, Geoff Anderson, Tom Archer, Don Asido, Richie Basilan, Ori Ben-Shabat, Barb Benoit, Yoav Binyamini, Nadine Blackler, Nicholas Boughen, Grant Bowen, Shauna Bryan, Pauline Burns, James B. Cain, Craig Calvert, Brenda Campbell, Doug Campbell, Jon Campfens, Alexis Chapman, Trevor Chong, Cindy Cleator, James Cochrane, Kennedy Davey, Joe De Michelis, Kristin Dearholt, Peter Denomme, Jason Dowdeswell, Amir Eftekhari, Hanoz Elavia, Chad L. Fox, Robin Hackl, John Haddon, Petra Haluska, Bill Hammond, Zane Harker, Peter Hart, Paul Hegg, Gudrun Heinze, Hans Heymans, Louie Hinayo, Brandon Hines, Jeremy Hoey, Nick Hsieh, Gary Hughes, Peter Hunt, Terry Hutcheson, Chandra Juhasz, Brad Kalinoski, Andrew Karr, Jeremy Kehler, Ronald Knol, Jason Kozsurek, Jaye Krebs, Alex Kyrou, Mark Lange, Jean Lapointe, Petra Lendvai-Lintner, Louis Leung, Willis Lombard, Shelley Maclean, Lisa-Marie Marrelli, Greg Massie, Tannis Mathers, Dan Mayer, Abel Milanes, Fion Mok, Lucio Moser, Brian Moylan, Peter Muyzers, Jason Navarro, Sam Nixon, Rachelle Paquin, Beau Parsons, Anuj Patil, Vasho Pekar, Enrico Perei, Kris Pestano, Christine Petrov, Chi Pham, Jason Pielak, Mario Pochat, Geoff Richardson, Casey Rolseth, Scott Russell, Harrison Rutherford, Mag Sarnowska, Mark Savela, Peter Scott, Joel Shaikin, Drew Shields, Bobby Silman, Rob Sischy, Ronald Siy, Nik Slotiuk, Ben Steele, Naomi Stopa, Toby Taplin, Blair Tennessy, Joel H. Thornton, James Tichenor, Curtis Tsai, Lisa Turner, Shawn Walsh, Troy Weinreich, Mark Williams, Corrina Wilson, Greg Zajac, Marianne O Reilly
Stunts	Mike Ching, Randy Lee, Darryl Scheelar
Camera and Electrical Department	Garry Brook, Warren Bruce, Scott Clark, Kamal Derkaoui, Jay Dryden, Mark Evans, Ashton Harmon, Karl Harrison, Timothy Hedgecock, Carl Jensen, Ariane Jonassen, James Kantola, Phillipe Lacroix, Larry Lynn, John Marilley-Bodner, Chris Martin, Mark McIntosh, Ed McMahon, Aaron Moore, Farah Nosh, Jon Ornoy, Jeff Plecas, Craig Riley, Luna Roth, Christian Rousseau, Mike Sankey, Brian Schultz, Gary Stamford, Ken Sutherland, Eric Vince
Casting Department	Stephanie Boeke, Jackie Lind, Steve Maisel
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Fiona Boyle, Daevina Danyluck, Moira Fentum, Trilby Jeeves, Jessica Kelley, Marcia Mior, Katherine Wigzell
Editorial Department	Flavio Bidese, James Cochrane, Jed Glassford, Julia Iriarte, Erin Mohs, Kristian Olsen, Jason Pielak, Fred W. Richters, Toby Sawyer, James Telfer, Shauna Walker
Location Management	Robert Amar, Peter Pantages, Kirk Renard
Music Department	Steffan Andrews, Hal Beckett, Meagan Carsience, Greg Hamilton, Roger Monk, Gregory Prechel, Vince Renaud, Brahm Wenger
Script and Continuity Department	Deirdre De Butler, Carol Green-Lundy, Shane B. Scott
Transportation Department	Ron Aimer, Suki Ardawa, John Buckley, Ross Dennison, Kam Dhesi, Dean Fitzpatrick, Mike Heagle, Greg Lavier, Rick Menzul, John Motyer, Jim Papadogambros, Brent Simpson, John Sorensen, Carl Thiessen
Additional Crew	Alece Anderson, Devon Ash, Lori Boyle, Georgina Bradley, Mia Carriconde, Chris Day, Ian Doig, Linda Dubuc, Jordan Fines, Jamie Florence, James Forrester, Dana Gallagher, Diana Gauthier, John Genzel, Brendan Gonty, Anne Gordon, Sarah Griffiths, Rowan Harland, Alan Homma, Dylan Jenkinson, Darren Kelly, Christine Knight, Daniel Kredell, Dean Lamont, Tricia Leigh, Spencer Hon Lui, Eric Lyde-Stad, Grace MacLeod, Kim Marosovich, Rose McLeod, Jill McQueen, Graham Moffatt, Dee Morita, Peter Mulholland, Donald Munro, David Neil, Laurie Niedermayer, Chris Obonsawin, Chris Olech, Niki Perry, Celina Petrin, Jody Petrovich, Sherri Potter, Zeta Reid, Christine Reyes, Sandy Reynolds, Dona Robbins, Lisa Rowson, Anthony Sabatini, Gail Schacht, Eva B. Schmieg, Carmen Siegers, Dan Sinclair, Gene Stevenson, Randy Thomas, Ann Troyer, Laurie Watt, Roger Williams
Thanks	Louie Schwartzberg
Genres	Adventure, Family
Companies	Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Keystone Entertainment, Key Pix Productions
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	G
ImDbRating	5.1
ImDbRatingVotes	4438
Keywords	snow adventure,husky,husky dog,duty,siberian husky