<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $27,771,629 </Td> </Tr> <P> Air Bud is a 1997 Walt Disney Pictures comedy film that sparked the franchise centered on the real - life dog, Air Buddy, a cross-bred Golden Retriever, who shoots basketball hoops and appears as Old Blue / Buddy, The film was financially successful, grossing $4 million in its opening weekend and totaling $27.8 million in its run, against an estimated $3 million budget . </P> <P> Norm Snively, an alcoholic clown, and his Golden Retriever, Old Blue, are doing a show at a child's birthday party . After Old Blue causes havoc at the party, Snively angrily takes him in a kennel to a dog pound, until the kennel falls out of his truck . Old Blue is homeless until he meets 12 - year - old Josh Framm . After the death of his father, a pilot who died in a plane crash during a test flight due to fuel shortage, Josh has relocated with his mother Jackie and two - year - old sister Andrea from Virginia to Fernfield, Washington . Due to heartbreak over his father's death, he is too shy to try out for his middle school's basketball team and to make any friends . He instead becomes the basketball team's manager, an awkward offer by Coach Joe Barker which he accepts . He practices basketball by himself in a makeshift court that he sets up in an abandoned allotment, where he meets Old Blue and renames him Buddy . Josh soon discovers that Buddy has the uncanny ability to play basketball, and decides to let Buddy come home with him . </P> <P> Jackie agrees to let him keep Buddy until Christmas and she plans to send him to the pound if his rightful owner is not located; however, she sees how loyal Buddy is and how much Josh loves him . On Christmas, Jackie lets Josh keep Buddy as a present . </P>

Where does the movie air bud take place