Barney the purple dinosaur was everywhere in the 1990s and aughts, courtesy of the children’s TV series Barney & Friends. Nonetheless, while that show’s target audience adored the affable and educational T. rex, anyone over the age of 12 couldn’t help but be creeped out by his indefatigable cheer, gratingly goofy laugh, and bouncy physicality. Perpetually huggy, sing-song-y, and over-the-moon optimistic, he exuded the sort of radiant happiness that suggests derangement.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Buddy shares the same opinion of the beloved character, eviscerating him as a demented predator whose aww-shucks charm and positivity are part of a façade masking his ulterior motives. The brainchild of Too Many Cooks mastermind Casper Kelly, it’s a horror-comedy that takes a scalpel—or, more accurately, several weapons—to its jaunty protagonist, all while reveling in his darkly disturbed spirit.
As demonstrated by his viral short, Kelly is fascinated by the creepy underbelly of classic TV fictions and formats, imagining their bright, colorful settings, incessantly smiling inhabitants, and sunshiny vibes as less adorable than maniacal. Whereas Too Many Cooks was a parody of ’80s and ’90s sitcom opening credit sequences, Buddy situates itself in 1999 kids’ TV—in particular, the clubhouse of Buddy (Keegan-Michael Key), an orange unicorn whose stomach features a giant heart and whose neck is decorated with a red bandana.
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