Of all the movies in the "Air Bud" franchise, this is certainly one of them. It has a huge advantage over the other's right up front—Soccer is a sport a dog could legitimately play. It's low to the ground, the ball fits between a dog's legs, it's high speed, and you can use your face. Arguably it's a little physical for them but seriously who is going to slide tackle a dog? I was very concerned he wasn't wearing shin-guards though, and maybe a mask. There could have been a serious injury to our beloved Buddy.

But we should get to the movie itself. The baddies here are dog catchers I think. They drive a dog catcher van and seem to be at the beginning. But then their motivation is unclear later. They make it their mission to catch "Baby" the lady dog of the film. Why? Initially because she loses her collar, and then… I don't know. I can't figure out when they switch from doing their jobs to being baddies but they are suddenly jamming puppies into a hamper to sell. It's very confusing.

Not as confusing as a Swiss Army knife with a dog whistle in it. But that exists in this movie. No, it seriously does. It's vital to the plot. I searched the internet but couldn't find one, if someone does I would love to have it. Why didn't he just give him a standard whistle around his neck like every other dog movie? He never uses the knife function.

Cruella Deville would have been a more effective villain.

To the rest of the movie… so Buddy meets a girl dog! Baby is a darker lady (Buddy got that jungle fever) in a rich family (Buddy is a gold diggah). He dates her behind his family's back, because as cool as Josh has been about Buddy being the only one competent in sports, he knows they'd never approve of their relationship. Though at least they'll be pure-breds am I right? I can't imagine the shock if Buddy met a black lab.

So, the current oldest child has to play a sport already. Josh is still around so we'll have him do it. First, Andrea has started playing on the soccer team. And that team has zero dogs the entire movie because she isn't the oldest. YOU WAIT YOUR TURN ANDREA!

She's coached by "megahottie" (according to Josh) Elizabeth Tudor. Elizabeth is a rich British girl with a terrible fake accent. The actress was born in Florida, I have trouble believing she's even been to England. It's just… terrible. I can't even tell why she's British. Because she's rich and likes soccer?

Anyway, Josh is immediately smitten (or terrifyingly obsessed depending on your point of view). He watches her. Non-stop. Every practice. Well, the camera acts like it's her. Maybe it was actually one of the little girls.

Then they form a soccer team. They're not good. Josh joins so that he can watch Elizabeth some more.

Later, Josh finally goes to a party at her house (discovering she was rich) and takes advice from a kid who might literally have a mental delay. He spends every game standing in front of the opposing goal (no off-sides call?) hoping the ball bounces of him in a beneficial way. Luckily, it seems to do so a surprising amount. It's a terrifying look into the world before you could search the internet for "how to talk to girls".

Anyway, Buddy decides to play soccer. I skipped a bunch but I'm on a word count limit here, and it's a Buddy movie you can fill in the details. He's great. As well he should be for the reasons discussed supra. They win games. BUT WAIT! There's something in the rulebook that says that dogs can't play soccer! Or, they add it to the rulebook. Or something. The point is when one player can't play they disqualify the entire team. After letting them drive all the way to an away game. "This dog has played for two other Fernfield High teams!"

This is short lived as the evil commissioner has a change of heart after his kid calls him a wimp. Dogs can play soccer again! This entire exchange has all the tension of finding a jersey for Buddy. We all know he's going to play, it's in the title. You never think "will he or won't he" you think "how much of the movie are we going to spend with this?".

Also, Buddy has puppies in this time. No one questions the fact that he's been sleeping with this dog secretly while they aren't married. No one questions either family for not spaying or neutering their pets. Baby is just suddenly "not feeling well" and then crapping 8-week-old puppies all over the place. They come out 8-weeks-old and grow to be a year old within the next two weeks of soccer tension. The cover indicates that they might play soccer, but they never do. They just get their own jerseys and play amongst themselves. Why not? Josh's team has zero subs and we've established dogs can play. Might as well flesh out the rest of the team. I can't imagine how they're running so much otherwise.

Thing happen with the puppies, the Brit, Buddy, and Josh are late. How did they even play without them? They don't have any subs. Anyway… They win the championship! Shocker. Buddy is always such a hero. So now he can be called upon by adults. It's World Cup time luckily (if he had to wait three years for the next World Cup he'd die). It's a shootout which leads you to think we're going to have Buddy take that final shot. But he plays goalie! Which… WHY?!?! He never played goalie before! I died a little inside right then.

At least if you're a Disney fanatic (well, of the variety who loves their live-action films as well as the animated stuff), if you're a kid, if you're a kid at heart almost to the extent that you hardly realize you're an adult, if you love absolutely any film that features animals, especially when they're doing tricks, or if you're just not too demanding, Air Bud: World Pup is somewhat enjoyable to watch. I'm a Disney fanatic. I enjoyed this film enough, and I'll gladly watch it again.

But boy does it have a lot of problems. The main flaw arises from a combination of too many characters, too many plot threads and not enough time to take care of them all. In the space of 82 minutes, we've got adults getting married, teens falling in love and trying not to be awkward at it, teen competition for love and jealousy, preteens playing spy games, dogs falling in love, dogs playing soccer, dogs having puppies, manipulative parents who'll do anything to make their kids win being taught a lesson by their kids, housekeeper dilemmas, and crooks cooking up and executing elaborate plots. I'm probably forgetting something, but that's 10 big plot issues to be dealt with, with less than 10 minutes per thread to deal with them, and presumably weave them into a coherent whole that's both not too complicated--this is a kids' film, after all--and that's also humorous and heartwarming. Not surprisingly, director Bill Bannerman, on his first turn being completely in charge (he has a lot of previous second unit experience), wasn't quite up to the task. I'm sure it didn't help that there were at least three screenwriters involved, and probably dictating producers, as well.

The end result is that Air Bud: World Pup is extremely choppy. Events occur with little justification, and worse, often little explanation. People figure out and do things primarily because they need to--and fast--so that everything can arrive where it needs to arrive in less than 90 minutes. From one cut to the next, time might jump ahead six months or so. We have both adults who seem like maybe they're mentally disabled and kids who just intuitively figure out what a dog is thinking and rush into some unexpected action. Some of the threads should have simply been removed, because it's difficult to become too engaged in the film when as soon as you're introduced to an idea, it's already passed you by.

Also not helping is the fact that one of the threads is basically a rip-off of One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), minus a Cruella De Vil character. And another problem is that given the way the film is edited, I have to assume that the dog, Air Bud, probably couldn't do much with the soccer ball. Unlike the first two films, a dog playing a sport is almost an afterthought here, and when we see him, it's in very quick glimpses; every once in a while, these snippets appear to be even aided by computer animation.

Yet, for someone like me, there's a cheesy charm to Air Bud: World Pup. The script and performances often teeter between ridiculous, hokey and kinda clichéd. I tend to like that combination. It makes the film both a bit predictable and subtly bizarre. And at times, like the ending, when the film completely abandons consistency and basically becomes a commercial for the U.S. Women's Soccer Team, Air Bud: World Pup is so blatantly tacky that you can't help but love it.

You guessed it...it's soccer this time. Little Sister Andrea has grown up and her new English female coach intrigues young Josh so he and his buddy Tom join up with the soccer team, only to learn quick that Buddy is a great player. Would you be shocked to find that there is someone trying to dog-nap Buddy..wow! yes, a dog catcher is trying to steal him, for some strange reason. Buddy has met soccer girl Emma's dog Molly (the dogs real name is Emma - hmmm weird)and he knocks that bi-atch up (hey thats not a curse word she is a female dog). Anyway 6 puppies come along and the dog nappers are in Heaven. The kids go on a mission to save the doggies and just like parts 1 and 2 Buddy comes last minute to save the team and take them to the championship...awe how sweet.

This was horrible, Kevin Zegers is the only reason to watch it. All of the rest of the cast has been replaced anyway except the referee's and his sidekick Tom played in all 3 films by Shayn Solberg. Shane returns later too, but this is Kevin's farewell to fur film. They even have a different house here, which might be because Patrick is in the picture (but in later films you will see the old house is back and a whole different story told as if this film didn't even happen). I hate how cheesy this film is. It's so much like those crappy Disney TV shows with kids that can't act and bad music and cheesy songs that even Miley Cyrus would gag at. The direction was so basic and dull and the dog can't play soccer and the editor must have had to work like crazy to make it look like he could be a goalie. The whole game scenes are ridiculous, the people playing doesn't even try, it's so cheesy. At least in the first two films they tried to make the games believable.

All three are basically the same movie with minor differences. This movie was silly, it ripped off 101 Dalmatians AGAIN. The whole dog catcher side story was stupid. At one point the dog catcher is setting outside the mansion wanting a dog and Josh blows a dog whistle and dozens of dogs come to the mansion and the catcher doesn't even notice them. Another stupid thing was when everyone was looking for the missing dogs and the kids were missing their game to look, the parents go on to the game...umm yea, you just know the dog's gonna come and join the team the last few minutes and win don't you? Oh wait thats right you have seen this happen before at the basketball as well as the football game..my bad! Kevin Zegers is the only reason to add this film to your collection, he is an amazing actor, most of the cast are once again a bunch of nobodies, Miguel Sandoval did do a great job as the coach..

worst of the three, just for kids, nothing new....2/10 stars