Buddy (2026)

By: Mike Ward on Friday, August 28

R Running Time: 95 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Buddy is bold and daring, with an impressive recreation of 1990s low-budget, message-heavy children’s television programming
Keegan-Michael Key delivers an extremely entertaining voiceover performance as Buddy, the giant orange unicorn who lives in Happy Town.
This is all a bit crazed and inspired, a novelty of a horror film, with some inspired moments and Key and child actor Delaney Quinn committing 100% to the bit.

NO

The novelty wears off after awhile and the feature-length concept becomes repetitive and stale.
There’s nuances to develop, but Buddy becomes pretty predictable despite all the chaos and mayhem unfolding in the final act.
Buddy does hint at, or dance around, a really interesting idea around how children consume and interpret media and the role parents play in letting these programs shape and form their child’s worldview. But no one’s hear for that conversation. We just want the orange unicorn on a rampage.

OUR REVIEW

In 2014, writer/director Casper Kelly went viral with his blood-soaked 1990s family sitcom parody, Too Many Cooks. Brilliantly conceived, bizarre, and as ridiculous as it is funny, the 11-minute short film debuted with no fanfare at 4 a.m. on cable channel Adult Swim. Within a couple of weeks, the video racked up millions of views before Adult Swim brought it back to the network each night at midnight for an extended run.

With its infectious song, silly mockery of extended openings to 1980s and 90s family television shows like “Full House,” “ALF,” “Family Matters” and more, the joke just keeps going and going and going, until we realize a sadistic serial killer has been lurking in the background of several shots. Eventually, the machete-wielding madman takes over the film and slices and dices numerous cast members.

Now, Kelly has finally landed at the multiplex with Buddy, a twisted, wicked slasher flick featuring a giant orange unicorn who resembles 1990s children’s television character Barney. Buddy hosts “It’s Buddy!” - a song-filled, lesson-heavy children’s series that features kids dancing and singing together, a cast of humans including a friendly mailman (Bennie Taylor) and a nurse (Phuong Kubacki), and fun additions like a chatty mailbox (Eric Bauza), “Strappy” the talking backpack (Patton Oswalt), and a talking train (Devon Hawkes Ludlow).

During one episode, a boy named Josh (Luke Speakman) decides he doesn’t want to wear Buddy’s dancing shoes and would rather just read a book and be left alone. Buddy’s efforts to change his mind are met with defiance. Soon, the episode ends with his castmates learning that Josh has left for a place called “Diamond City.” When Freddy (Delaney Quinn) gives Buddy an end-of-episode hug, she sees Josh’s book in the garbage, covered in blood. The credits roll. And the next episode begins with a new cast member replacing Josh.

For a while, this is a spirited, fun, rather gonzo viewing experience. The production design is pretty amazing, as Kelly’s team recreates all the flimsy, cheap sets commonplace with low-budget children’s television. The film looks at times like we are watching a poorly tracked videotape, and there is a flat, fake look to the set decoration, while cinematographer Zach Kupenstein frames the scenes from the television show in the 4:3 aspect ratio commonplace to 1990s television.

As Freddy detects changes in Buddy’s behavior with Josh’s departure, Kelly’s musical cues and shot selection further replicate the look and feel of “Barney & Friends.” The original songs, written and composed by Shawn Coleman, are as silly as they are catchy. Kelly, as he did with Too Many Cooks, finds a way to pay homage, satirize, and make something that appears benign feel dirty, creepy, and unsettling.

Without spoiling things too much, Buddy pivots away from its magical world of television into a story involving a family of four at their breaking point for reasons not initially disclosed. Grace (Cristin Milioti) and Ben (Topher Grace) have two children but Grace begins experiencing unexplained events involving the “It’s Buddy!” television show. Eventually their two worlds collide.

As the movie goes along, Kelly loses his grip on the novelty of his concept. Buddy, brilliantly voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, becomes a rather boring and predictable character. Key never becomes boring. His character does. His motivations are convenient, obvious, and cruel, reminding us of course that this is a slasher-flick first and a parody second. Key’s performance, which can best be described as ‘Psychotic Barney,’ leaves us at least curious about what chaotic, vicious behavior will be unleashed next.

For those sensitive to extreme violence and/or seeing kids in peril, Buddy will push some people’s limits. There’s a fairly high body count by the time Buddy’s final credits appear on screen and it’s not as if this ends on the happiest of moments either.

But there is something that keeps nagging at me the more I think about Buddy: the film’s exploration of how children are impacted by the media.

Buddy raises questions about what it means to have kids sitting in front of a big, purple dinosaur’s (or big, orange unicorn’s) television show when that character establishes rules and norms and defines what is appropriate behavior for children watching. Parents can believe that 22 minutes of brightly colored visuals and singing is harmless entertainment while the child is actually absorbing instructions about how the world works.

What stops the program from influencing a child’s behavior or worldview when parents don’t pay any attention to what’s actually happening during that program?

The thing that made Too Many Cooks such a clever concept was Kelly’s ability to find new, inventive ways to spin variations on the same joke. Buddy seeks to accomplish something similar, but over the course of 95 minutes, the film falls victim to repetition.

Buddy doesn’t really focus much time on those deeper themes it skirts around. Instead, Kelly prefers axes and blood-spurting wounds, children running in terror, and sudden bouts of violence. That will please a lot of folks, as it did me for a fair amount of time. But the schtick wears thin. The movie burns off its gimmick and, by the end, I was ready for the series finale.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Delaney Quinn, Tristan Borders, Madison Skyy Polan, Cristin Milioti, Caleb Williams, Luke Speakman, Phuong Kubacki, Topher Grace, Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, Clint Howard, Seamus Flynn, Bryson JonSteele, Bennie Taylor, Tory Jacqui Malone, Eric Bauza, Jemmica Collins, Devon Hawkes Ludlow, Sergey Zhuravsky, Jonathan Yurco

Director: Casper Kelly
Written by: Casper Kelly, Jamie King
Release Date: August 28, 2026
Saban Films/Roadside Attractions

Buddy is bold and daring, with an impressive recreation of 1990s low-budget, message-heavy children’s television programming

Keegan-Michael Key delivers an extremely entertaining voiceover performance as Buddy, the giant orange unicorn who lives in Happy Town.

This is all a bit crazed and inspired, a novelty of a horror film, with some inspired moments and Key and child actor Delaney Quinn committing 100% to the bit.

The novelty wears off after awhile and the feature-length concept becomes repetitive and stale.

There’s nuances to develop, but Buddy becomes pretty predictable despite all the chaos and mayhem unfolding in the final act.

Buddy does hint at, or dance around, a really interesting idea around how children consume and interpret media and the role parents play in letting these programs shape and form their child’s worldview. But no one’s hear for that conversation. We just want the orange unicorn on a rampage.