Remember Buddy, the friendly orange unicorn created to teach kids about right and wrong, sharing, and caring? Casper Kelly’s feature debut, so named for its mascot, doesn’t actually expect you to (Buddy is fictional, after all), but it helps to be familiar with the kids’ shows that Buddy is so eagerly skewering here.
Kelly is best known for his tenure with Adult Swim, directing shorts disguised as sitcom openings or infomercials that, if you woke up in the middle of the night and caught them on TV — as many a Millennial did — you’d think you were losing your mind. Buddy’s strongest moments follow that brief to the letter: the film reads as a few lost episodes of Barney & Friends twisted into a bloody fever dream. The bulk of Kelly’s debut takes place within the fictional realm of It’s Buddy!, where the eponymous unicorn (voiced capably by Keegan-Michael Key), a handful of mascots and animated objects, and a cast of sweet kids live in perfect episodic harmony. That is, until Buddy’s “aww shucks” placidity gives way to a brittle temper, sparking explosive, violent acts that occur just off-screen and will undoubtedly trigger a “WTF?!” from a rowdy audience. (If you’re lucky enough to catch this in theaters.)
