Buddy (2026 film)

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 wacky clubhouse. When the children begin to defy their captor after one of the kids disappears, Buddy grinds his teeth and sends them on a perilous journey to the mythical Diamond City. Meanwhile, in the real world, traumatized suburban mother Grace is drawn into Buddy's abomination.

• Keegan-Michael Key as Buddy the Unicorn, the main host of his once-popular live-action children's television show called "It's Buddy!".
  • Sergey Zhuravsky provides motion capture.
• Johnathon Yurco as Dark Buddy
• Cristin Milioti as Grace
• Topher Grace as Ben, Grace's husband
• Michael Shannon as Charlie the Train, an anthropomorphic train, and Willie, a ventriloquist doll.
• Patton Oswalt as the voice of Strappy, a backpack
• Clint Howard as George, a deranged Howdy Doody-like cowboy puppet who had his own show alongside Willie.
• Delaney Quinn as Freddy
• Luke Speakman as Josh
• Phuong Kubacki as Nurse Nancy
• Seamus Flynn as Timothy
• Tristan Broders as Oliver
• Madison Skyy Polan as Hannah
• Bryson JonSteele as Derek
• Bennie Taylor as Mailman Miles
• Tory Jacqui Malone as Tyler
• Caleb Williams as Wade
• Lynette Eklund as Benny
• Conner Stumm as Mailman Justin
• Frank Brown Jr. as Father
• Cedwan Hooks as Betty Bunny
• Rachel Appelbaum as Clocky and Mr. Mailbox

On July 22, 2025, it was announced that Cristin Milioti would star in the independent film Buddy, which will be directed by Casper Kelly, who wrote the screenplay with Jamie King. J. D. Lifshitz, Raphael Margules and Tracy Rosenblum will produce the film under their BoulderLight Pictures banner while Tyler Davidson and Drew Sykes produce for Low Spark Films, which co-finances the film. Roberto Linck, Sipur Studios and Substance serve as executive producers. Principal photography began on the week of July 22, 2025.^[1] Later that month, Topher Grace joined the cast.^[2] In August 2025, Delaney Quinn was cast in a lead role.^[3] In December 2025, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon, and Patton Oswalt were revealed to have joined the film.^[4] Filming took place in the Northeast Ohio locations of Brooklyn, Solon, and Burton.^[5]

Buddy premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah on January 22, 2026.^[4] 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.^[6]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 31 critics' reviews are positive.^[7]

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[8]