BoulderLight Pictures studio approached the filmmaker Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks) with an idea: What if instead of hugs, Barney had been a murderer?
This is how the horror comedy was born Buddywhich in the hands of an Adult Swim veteran like Kelly, with experience exploring nostalgia themes with dark twists, was ideal.
The EW media outlet shares Kelly's first impressions of the project, and the first images, in a special issue for Comic-Con 2026, which will begin in the coming days.
Kelly told the outlet:
“BoulderLight was interested in making a Barney-style horror movie, and I wasn't so sure. There are a lot of horror movies with mascots like that.
“When I was a kid, I thought the characters lived in the show. So I always wondered, why don't they go to the bathroom? Or what if they did something that's not part of the story? Why don't they do it?”
Building on that idea, he reasoned that children living within the show's world would “get all their information from this authority figure,” like Barney, for example. “And then when they have to start thinking for themselves, they're not as prepared,” he adds. “And I think it's a good metaphor for a lot of things in life: untrustworthy authority figures, etc. So I thought it was a deep theme to explore in this genre.”
The plot of the horror comedy from Roadside Attractions and Saban Films follows a girl and her friends, who become trapped inside a children's television show, where the rules of happiness are deadly.
In the colorful world of “It's Buddy!”, a group of children spend their days singing, dancing and helping Buddy spread happiness. But when one of them refuses to play along, Buddy gets angry and cracks begin to appear in this seemingly perfect world.
Kelly directs the script co-written by Kelly and Jamie King (Jessica Jones).
The main cast includes Cristin Milioti (The Penguin), Topher Grace (How to Make a Killing), Michael Shannon (Nuremberg), Patton Oswalt (Sandman), Clint Howard (Terrifier 3), y Keegan-Michael Key (Only Murders in the Building) lending his voice to Buddy.
Take a look at the official images at the end of the note.
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:
“In 1999, a group of amnesiac children live in the episodic world of It's Buddy!, a children's television show hosted by the tyrannical Buddy, a bright orange humanoid unicorn with a purple heart on his chest who lives in his peculiar clubhouse.
“When the children begin to defy their captor after one of them goes missing, Buddy grits his teeth and sends them on a dangerous journey to the mythical Diamond City. Meanwhile, in the real world, Grace, a traumatized suburban mother, becomes embroiled in Buddy's abomination.”
The feature film is produced by Tyler Davidson, JD Lifshitz, Raphael Margules, Tracy Rosenblum, and Drew Sykes. Executive producers include Casper Kelly, Kevin Flanigan, Dexter Braff, Robert Linck, Nathan McAuley, Emilio Schenker, Gideon Tadmor, Adam J. Wilde, Geoff Yaw, and Ryan J. Kelly.
It is the third feature film directed by Kelly, after Adult Swim Yule Long (2022) and its 2024 sequel, in addition to directing the Fun Size segment of V/H/S/Halloween (2025).
Buddy opens in American theaters on August 28th.
Official images:
Source: https://cine3.com/primeros-vistazos-oficiales-a-buddy-la-comedia-de-terror-inspirada-en-barney/
