Trivia / Air Bud

• Billing Displacement: Eric Christmas' billing is relatively high in the film (fourth during the main titles), despite his character Judge Cranfield only appearing during the film's climax in a relatively small role.
• Channel Hop: An odd corporate example. Miramax, then owned by Disney, initially picked up distribution rights for the first film in the United States and any sequel production company Keystone Entertainment would produce. Air Bud ultimately ended up being released under the regular Disney branding. When Golden Receiver hit theaters, it moved over to Miramax's Dimension Films label only to go back to the Disney banner for its home video release. This back-and-forth continued until the Air Buddies spin-offs, at which point the series became a regular Disney property, keeping it out of Miramax's reach. Eventually, Air Bud Entertainment, the joint-venture company of producer Keystone Entertainment, took back the rights to the initial films and Air Buddies and released them on their own.
• Corpsing: As Snively is apprehended by security guards after the custody hearing for Buddy has been closed, one guard can be seen smiling and laughing as they take him away.
• The Danza: The dog who played Buddy in the first two films was actually named "Air Buddy".
• The Other Darrin:
  • To be expected due to the aging process of dogs, but starting with the third film, Buddy was played by a different dog due to the death of Air Buddy at age 9 in 1998.
  • Patrick Sullivan is played by four different actors in the sequels.
  • Josh's mom and sister Andrea were played by different actors through out the sequels.
• Pet Fad Starter: The film boosted the popularity of the (already pretty popular) Golden Retriever breed to new heights.
• Referenced by...: The "ain't no rule" quote is referenced in two mathematics videos on YouTube, which appeared within a week of each other:
  • there are 48 regular polyhedra by jan Misali (of Conlang Critic fame), and
  • The Odd Number Rule by Vsauce.
  • Roasted to hell and back by John Oliver on a web exclusive.
• What Could Have Been: Kevin Dicicco had plans to do his own sequel in 1999 (after having fell out with producer Robert Vince due to him making "Golden Receiver" without his involvement) called "Air Bud: The Next Generation" which was described as a "cross between Ferris Bueller and Home Alone", but for whatever reason it never came to pass.

---