Movie Review: Buddy

4 stars out of 5

In 2014, I was absolutely delighted by sitcom-opening-credit-spoofing viral video “Too Many Cooks.” I even built an internet radio episode around it. I don’t think anything since has captured my imagination even a fraction as much until Six Seven. So when I learned that Cooks director/co-writer Casper Kelly had a feature film, I didn’t waste Too Many Days going to see it!

This time, Kelly sets his twisted satirical eye on TV’s Barney (which I have a slight connection to, as my cousin Steve directed the original Barney movie). Except, instead of a purple dinosaur, Buddy is an orange unicorn. And the movie begins with consecutive episodes of this seemingly 90s era children’s TV show, which made me howl with laughter. And I thought, if Casper Kelly has the cojones for this to be the whole movie — an hour and 36 minutes of just episodes of Buddy, slowly spelling out the plot — this is perfection. This is 5 stars out of 5.

Pero Casper Kelly no tengo los cojones.

So we’re going along in our Buddy episodes, where some of the kids begin to wonder if maybe things are just a bit askew. Like, perhaps Buddy isn’t the loving unicorn that he seems to be? But Casper Kelly cuts away from these Buddy episodes to show a perfect suburban family, headed by Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace. Except Milioti begins to wonder if maybe things are just a bit askew. Like, did they perhaps used to have one more kid? And does this Buddy show — which of course there is no trace of on the Internet or on YouTube, maybe you just need a little rest, Cristin Milioti — have something to do with her missing kid?

Keegan-Michael Key brings a Pee-wee-esque pandemonium to his voicework as Buddy, and Patton Oswalt is effectively earnest as Strappy the backpack. It’s fun to see Clint Howard show up in a later sequence. And they were lucky to cast rising kid star Delaney Quinn — from If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and The Roses — as one of Buddy’s buddies.

This has all the makings of a cult favorite, especially if you grew up on Barney or Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

Will you join the cult?