Working hard today with my good people Nick and Isaac, the heat and humidity swayed the discussion away from our work and towards the great topic of animal movies. The discussion started with my bad impersonation of Hank Azaria’s hilarious Spanish accent in American Sweethearts (a terrible movie, btw, oddly full of Home Alone-style crotch injury humour).
So it began: Speaking of bad movies… Nick claims to have once watched MVP: Most Valuable Primate and House Party featuring Kid ‘n Play in one night. A debate ensued over which sport the athletic primate in MVP played; baseball or hockey. A trip to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) proved Nick to be correct, it was an ice-bound chimp who, according to the cover image “…Skates a little faster… Shoots a little harder… And is driving everyone Bananas!“
Isaac and I, sure we had seem that monkey playing baseball, were perplexed. 
I was convinced that Charlie Sheen had starred opposite a sporting primate.
Nick claimed I was thinking of Emilio Estevez. This lead to a theory that Emilio Estevez was a clone of Charlie Sheen produced for the comedy classic Men At Work, which nick claims to have seen twice.
Isaac assured me that it wasn’t Sheen (or his clone), but the guy from Friends. Back to the IMDB where a search for Friends points us to Matt LeBlanc, whose resume includes Ed, a monkey baseball movie which boasts “Minor league. Major Friendship.“
Other amazing facts learned from IMDB:
- There was a three sequels to Air Bud (the basketball-dog movie): Air Bud: The Golden Reciever, Air Bud: World Pup, and Air Bud IV: Seventh Inning Fetch.
- There is an MVP II.
- Kid ‘n Play is actually Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin, respectively.
Animals don’t get listed in the credits (so we can’t tell if the Ed is actually the same monkey as the Most Valuable Primate).
Aside from hysteria caused by photos of monkeys in sports uniforms, this little conversational aside brought a few other issues to light. First, that the IMDB is a fantastic website. You can search by actor, director, producer, movie, etc. More importantly, it became clear that instead of ‘building powerful web based solutions’ as we do so well, we should be a think-tank, paid to play Mario Cart and extract humour from the mundane.
Never believe a word Steve tells you. I said, “I saw MVP (most valuable primate) on the plane to Calgary.” Later in the conversation I added that, “I watched Men at Work and House Party in one night”. Do you really think I’d rent MVP? Plllease! I rent quality movies that feature garbage men and 80’s hip-hoppers.
The origional Air Bud died shortly after shooting the first film, and a replacement Air Bud was used for the next two films.
I’m pretty sure the above is true, when I worked for Empire Theaters the company president came to visit. We were talking about Air Bud and he mentioned the death of the origional dog, and that the company that made the film was covering it up.
Believe what you want.
=v=
Did you know that Air Bud was the most profitable Canadian movie of 1997?
Not all time? Shoot.
Vince,
I don’t doubt your sources, but I heard that Bud the First had lost a leg to cancer. I remember seeing him bounce along joyfully on ET once. Now, if that cancer remanifested itself, I could see how the amazing 3-point shooting pooch could be dead.
UPDATE
GOOD LORD! MVP 2: Most Vertical Primate is coming out! Skateboarding! MVP 3 is gonna be snowboarding!
This is so good, it called for ALL CAPS. Props to iZak for spotting the link.
By the way, I think this is one of the greatest aov posts ever. That photo of Charlie Sheen and Emelio Estevez is gold!
More good news from our crack team of reporters: MVP 2 stars Bob Burnquist of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 fame.
More good news.
The brilliant artist behind these films is a Mount Allison graduate. I go to Mount A too. Mount A seems very proud of her.
This movie stars Richard Karn (yes, Home Improvement’s Al) too. Between Karn and Burnquist this movie is going to be bitch ass hardcore. Bitch ass.
Saw this box art in a gas station video store, and couldn’t help to post it – looks like the chimp is still getting work, even after MVP 3, aka MXP: Most Xtreme Primate
I show you, Funky Monkey: He’s one high-tech super chimp.
Forgot to link to the IMDB page for funky monkey. It claims the tagline is the awesome: “He’s the best super-Ninja secret agent football star monkey hero around. “
you do know that charlie sheen and emilio estevez are brothers right?