Air Bud: Spikes Back

OK, this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I mean, why do these people even bother to do a FIFTH one of this. What's next? Tennis? Roller Blading? These movies are like exactly the same as the MVP series. Everything they can't teach a dog to do, such as play hockey or snowboard, they teach the monkey to do. It's the same freaking story every time, I feel sad for the people who actually pay money to go see these movies in a theater because these movies are completely obvious and I would rather spend my money on some other movie that is actually interesting. Also, I wouldn't recommend seeing and MVP movies unless you find it more amusing to watch a monkey play numerous sports.

ho lee crap. why did this get made? on top of crappy dog-spiking-the-ball effects, air bud 5 also tries to make us think anyone cares about competitive beach volleyball. sure, the activity is fun, and could be the basis of a bad episode of bay watch, but it isn't a movie. the movie also has a substory in which bud unwittingly steals a big diamond. that's great, only for the fact that it eliminates the chances of "air bud: k-9 catburglar" getting made. on the plus side, slower kids might like it because the dog does things that a normal dog wouldn't do. the smarter kids would say 'big deal', as he proved that when he dunked a basketball over five years ago. my opinion is, let the dog eat his alpo, shoot some hoops for old times sake and live out the rest of his life minus the well-digging, third-rate, kid-grabber sequels.

By the fifth film in the Air Bud series you'd think the well of sports might run dry, but Air Bud: Spikes Back cheerfully proves there's still one more court for Buddy to conquer: beach volleyball. Released direct-to-video in 2003 and directed by Mike Southon, the movie shifts the focus from longtime human lead Josh to his younger sister Andrea Framm (Katija Pevec), and then wraps her "I miss my best friend" coming-of-age story around the franchise's two reliable engines: Buddy discovering a brand-new athletic superpower and a pair of bumbling crooks trying to exploit him. It's gentle, formula-driven, and unmistakably early-2000s Disney-adjacent, but there's enough sincerity in Andrea's plot and enough goofy energy in the dog-napping subplot that younger viewers will get exactly what they came for.

The plot is split cleanly in two. On the personal side, Andrea is down after her best friend Tammy moves to California; when Andrea realizes the prize for the local volleyball league is a trip to California, she joins her neighbor Connor's team and ropes Buddy into playing, because of course he can set and spike. On the crime-capers side, two small-time crooks, Doug and Gordon, posing as plumbers, hatch a plan to steal a valuable diamond from the town museum-only they need a nimble dog to help them, so Buddy becomes their target. While Andrea trains and the team climbs toward the championship, the crooks get closer, eventually dognapping Buddy so they can use his athletic paws in the heist. A talking parrot, a sheriff, and Andrea's extended family all get pulled into the rescue, and the movie times Buddy's return to line up with the all-important match. It's very much "sports movie plus Scooby-Doo-lite caper," and it moves fast enough that kids are never far from either volleyball or pet-rescue antics.

Andrea is a sensible choice for the main human this time. Katija Pevec plays her as earnest and slightly lonely, a kid who isn't rebelling so much as trying to keep her life from shrinking after a friend leaves. Joining a team, caring for Buddy, even pet-sitting to save money all track with what a girl her age would do, and because this is the Framm house we've seen in earlier films, the family warmth around her-mom Jackie (Cynthia Stevenson), stepdad Patrick, little brother Noah, and Gram Gram-keeps the tone light and familiar. Connor (Tyler Boissonnault) is there to provide a hint of tween crush and to pull her into the team, but he never overshadows Andrea. Buddy, of course, is the franchise star; his volleyball competence is stitched in with the same straight face as his previous talents, so the film never winks at itself, which is part of what makes these movies work for kids. On the villain side, Doug and Gordon are deliberately broad: they bicker, they underestimate the dog, they fumble the museum job. Their silliness keeps the dognapping from getting too scary, and it gives the movie a convenient set of "bad guys" for Buddy to outsmart.

The themes are simple but tidy. First is coping with change: Andrea's whole motivation-win the trip to California so she can see Tammy-comes from loss. The film tells young viewers that it's okay to be sad when people move away, but also that joining something new (a team) and leaning on family and pets can help. Second is community through play. Once Buddy is on the team, the volleyball league matters to everyone; it's classic Air Bud "small town rallies around improbable dog" energy. Third, continuing from earlier entries, is kindness versus exploitation. Andrea and her family treat Buddy like family; the crooks see him as a tool to steal a diamond. That moral line-love animals, don't use them-is drawn clearly for kids. There's even a light responsibility thread: with Josh away at college, Andrea is effectively Buddy's person now, and when he's taken, she steps up to get him back. None of this is subtle, but children's films rarely need to be.

Cinematography is where the movie has a tiny spark of personality. Because volleyball is an open-court sport, Southon (who also handled cinematography on earlier Air Bud projects) keeps the camera fairly wide so we can watch Buddy actually track and hit the ball-crucial for selling the illusion. When Buddy jumps or digs, the shot often stays on him a beat longer than it would on a human player, just to "prove" the gag is real. The beach or outdoor settings are shot in bright, even daylight, making everything look summery and safe, and indoor family scenes are warm and uncluttered, keeping the focus on faces and pets. During the museum-heist bits, the lighting tightens and colors cool slightly, so kids can tell "we're in sneaky mode now," but it never goes dark enough to be threatening. It's not ambitious cinema, but it's purposeful: the camera's job is to let kids see the dog win points and escape bad guys, and it does.

When you weigh strengths and weaknesses, Air Bud: Spikes Back lands where many late-series family sequels land. On the plus side, it delivers the promise on the box art-Buddy really does play volleyball, and he does it in multiple matches, not just a single novelty scene. It refreshes the human lead by putting Andrea front and center, which keeps the franchise from being stuck in Josh's childhood forever. It maintains the gentle, supportive family tone fans expect, so parents can put it on without worrying about sudden meanness. And it adds kid-friendly jeopardy (the dognapping, the diamond) to break up the sports beats, which helps pacing for younger viewers. On the minus side, the film is extremely predictable-every story turn has appeared in earlier Air Bud movies, only with a different sport. The villains, while funny, are pure cartoon and never feel like real threats, which lowers the stakes. Because the movie has to juggle Andrea's emotional goal, the team's volleyball goal, and the crooks' diamond goal, none of them get deep exploration; Andrea's sadness about Tammy resolves via tournament win rather than an actual emotional conversation. And visually, it's serviceable but flat-you won't remember individual shots the way you might remember, say, the soaring basketball moment from the 1997 original. Some reviewers have even noted that by this fifth film, the novelty of "dog plays sport" has worn thin, which is fair.

Conclusion Air Bud: Spikes Back isn't trying to reinvent family entertainment, and it doesn't. What it does is preserve the exact mix that made the earlier films Saturday-afternoon staples: an earnest kid with a relatable problem, a golden retriever who can inexplicably master any sport, a town ready to cheer, and villains silly enough that you never worry for real. If you come to it after four previous Buddy adventures, you'll spot the seams and feel the formula; if you come to it as a younger viewer who just wants to see a good dog win a volleyball tournament and outwit some dognappers, it does the job. And if the series really does circle back with Air Bud: Return in 2026, this film shows the blueprint is still there: keep Buddy at the heart, give a kid a problem that kindness can fix, plug in a new sport, and let the crowd go wild.

Buddy is back as a volleyball player. This movie is not the greatest movie if you want to see a lot of volleyball, this is a movie you would see for the cute golden retriever. I liked this movie not for the volleyball but for cute Buddy. If you like dogs you will love this movie.

A piece of fluff to play as background audio visual while teenagers make out...they won't miss anything important during prolonged kissyfaces because the movie contains nothing important, just a cute dog, cute girls and a no-brainer plot. My brain enjoyed finding the factual errors, which are numerous, including how air head's team win a volleyball game while the opposite team is serving...screenwriter obviously has never played volleyball. The main character is a teenage girl but IMD for some reason list the principal "actors" as her parents, who appear only briefly at the beginning and at the end. The IMD reviewer might be related to the screenwriter, neither seem to have a clue what they are writing about...