Buddy

Plot

It's Buddy! is a 1990s-style children's television series hosted by the titular Buddy, an anthropomorphic talking unicorn with magical powers. Other cast members include child actors Freddy, Wade, Josh, and Oliver; Buddy's co-host Betty Bunny; supporting adult characters Mailman Miles and Nurse Nancy; and sentient objects Mr. Mailbox, Couchy the Couch, Clocky the Clock, Strappy the Backpack, and Charlie the Train.

Despite an increasingly angry Buddy coercing him, Josh refuses to participate in a dance party and inexplicably disappears. He is replaced with another child, Hannah, while Buddy assures everyone that Josh is traveling to utopian Diamond City. When Freddy finds Josh's bloodstained book in the trash, she consults Nancy, who promises to talk to Buddy. Freddy later witnesses Buddy bludgeoning Nancy to death before fatally punching Clocky off the wall. She convinces Wade, Hannah, and Oliver to escape to Diamond City inside Charlie, but their attempt fails when Buddy kills Charlie.

As Buddy stabs Miles to death, Wade uses a cleaning spray and a lighter to set him on fire, severely injuring his face. Freddy, Oliver, and Hannah escape with Strappy and Mr. Mailbox, whose mouth has been torn off by Buddy after seeing him killing Josh, while Buddy impales Wade with his horn. Meanwhile in the real world, a woman named Grace hires a psychic who leads Grace, her husband Ben, and their sons Timothy and Derek in a ritual to contact a spirit supposedly haunting their house. The television turns on to an It's Buddy! episode, and Grace becomes convinced that she had a third child they cannot remember, but Ben dismisses her. That night, Buddy emerges from the screen and pulls Grace into It's Buddy!, where she takes Nancy's role.

Freddy, Oliver, and Hannah gradually realize that they cannot remember their lives before meeting Buddy, though Freddy recalls vague memories of her childhood. The children meet elderly cowboy George and his foulmouthed marionette Willie, who were on a previous Western-themed version of It's Buddy! and have been hiding from Buddy for many years after he killed another child who jokingly sang a profanity-laden version of the series' theme song. The children pass out after eating flower petals, which are secretly laced, and awaken to find that George and Willie have left and stolen Strappy.

Buddy finds and kills George with an axe before drowning Willie. He begins to rip Strappy to lure the children, who arrive on bikes and save him. The children reach Diamond City, only to discover it is a miniature model. Buddy arrives and embraces them, ending the "episode" and re-setting It's Buddy! with other children, Tyler, and Miles's replacement, Mailman Justin. When Freddy seeks out Grace for a cut on her arm, Grace recognizes Freddy as her missing daughter. Outside, the children antagonize Buddy by singing the profanity-laden song, causing Buddy to mutate into a larger, monstrous form. He kills Justin, Couchy, and Betty before attacking Freddy. Grace sacrifices herself to allow the remaining children to escape.

Cast

Cristin Milioti as Grace, a woman who gets drawn into the series It's Buddy!

Delaney Quinn as Freddy, Grace's missing daughter who was made into a character in the show

Clint Howard as George, a former child from a previous version of the show with Willie

Topher Grace as Ben, Grace's husband

Caleb Williams as Wade, a child who was made into a character in the show

Tristan Borders as Oliver, a child who was made into a character in the show

Madison Skyy Polan as Hannah, Josh's replacement who was made into a character in the show

Luke Speakman as Josh, a child who was made into a character in the show

Tory Jacqui Malone as Tyler, Wade's replacement who was made into a character in the show

Seamus Flynn as Timothy, Grace's son

Bryson JonSteele as Derek, Grace's son

Brooke Bloom as Dr. Deborah Burr, a psychic investigator

Voices

Keegan-Michael Key as Buddy, an anthropomorphic orange unicorn who stars on It's Buddy!

Sergey Zhuravsky as the in-suit performer of Buddy

Jonathan Yurco as the in-suit performer of Buddy's monstrous form (credited as "Dark Buddy")

Patton Oswalt as Strappy, a talking backpack

Michael Shannon as Willie, a marionette that was on a previous version of Buddy's show

Jimmica Collins as:

Betty Bunny, an anthropomorphic rabbit and Buddy's co-host

Cedwan Hooks as the in-suit performer of Betty Bunny

A scared flower

Devon Hawkes Ludlow as Charlie, an anthropomorphic train

Eric Bauza as:

Mr. Mailbox, a talking mailbox

Worry Well, a magical well

Couchy, a yellow couch in blue glasses

Trashy, a bow tie-wearing trash can

Pee Flower, a purple flower that Oliver urinates on

Production

Development

In 2025, producers J. D. Lifshitz, Raphael Margules and Tracy Rosenblum approached filmmaker Casper Kelly to develop a horror film based on Barney & Friends. Kelly's concept for the independent project was informed by his experiences as a parent watching television programs from his childhood with his own children, including Barney, Pee-wee's Playhouse, Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans, Little Einsteins, Thomas and Friends, and Victorious. He noted that as a child, he believed that the characters actually lived within their respective series and often wondered about their unshown everyday activities, a premise that ultimately formed the narrative basis for the film. He was struck by the characters' unnaturally idealised behaviour and spontaneous musical numbers, which he jokingly likened to a form of psychological conditioning.

Kelly directed the film, initially titled Arnie and later renamed Buddy, and wrote the screenplay with Jamie King. During development, Kelly and King wanted to expand on themes of forced cheerfulness and the anxiety of being trapped inside a surreal media environment, expanding on elements previously explored in the former's 2014 short film Too Many Cooks. Lifshitz, Margules and Rosenblum produced the film under their BoulderLight Pictures banner, while Tyler Davidson and Drew Sykes produced for Low Spark Films, which co-financed the film. Roberto Linck, Sipur Studios and Substance served as executive producers.

Casting

On July 22, 2025, it was announced that Cristin Milioti would star in the film. Later that month, Topher Grace joined the cast. In August 2025, Delaney Quinn was cast in a lead role. In December 2025, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon, and Patton Oswalt were revealed to have joined the film.

Filming

Principal photography began on the week of July 22, 2025, shot by Zach Kuperstein using the Sony CineAlta Venice 2, and lasted 25 days. Filming took place in the Northeast Ohio locations of Brooklyn, Solon, and Burton. The production design and story development leaned into concepts of conformity and psychological survival, with the set dynamics drawing parallels to the institutional compliance found in historical youth programs.

Release

Buddy premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, on January 22, 2026. In April 2026, Roadside Attractions and Saban Films acquired North American distribution rights to the film, scheduling it for a theatrical release on September 4, 2026. It was later moved up to August 28.

Reception

Box office

As of September 8, 2026, Buddy has grossed $16.7 million in the United States and Canada.

The film made $2.2 million on its first day and debut grossing $5.4 million.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 125 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Buddy weaponizes the cheery conventions of children's entertainment into an inventive, hilarious, and creepy descent into pop culture madness." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.