Barney goes dark: “Too Many Cooks” creator teases “Buddy, ”his horror twist on the ‘90s kids’ show (exclusive)

Mike MillerWed, July 22, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC

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Cristin Milioti in ‘Buddy’Credit: Roadside AttractionsKey Points -

Buddy is about a children’s show mascot, with a horror twist.

Cristin Milioti, Keegan-Michael Key, Patton Oswalt, and more star in the movie, from director Casper Kelly.

Kelly says The Shining and The Wizard of Oz are among his inspirations.

What if instead of giving great big hugs, Barney the purple dinosaur was committing murder?

That was the basic premise the folks at BoulderLight Pictures (the studio behind films including Weapons, Companion, and Friendship) pitched to Casper Kelly, creator of the surreal, viral sensation Too Many Cooks. With the rising popularity of the so-called “mascot horror” genre, which turns cartoon characters or theme park mascots into nightmare fuel (think Five Nights at Freddy’sor Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey), the lovable, singing, purple T. rex seemed ripe for a twisted parody. And Kelly, an Adult Swim veteran with a talent for exploring nostalgia’s darker edges, seemed like the perfect guy for the job.

But when he first heard the idea, the filmmaker admits, he was skeptical. “BoulderLight was interested in doing a Barney-type horror movie, and I wasn’t so sure,” he tells Entertainment Weekly for our 2026 Comic-Con preview. “There are a lot of those sorts of mascot horror movies.”

Delaney Quinn in ‘Buddy’Credit: Roadside Attractions

It wasn’t until he started thinking about his own childhood memories of TV shows that the concept for what would become his upcoming film, Buddy, began to take shape. “When I was a kid, I thought the people lived in the show,” Kelly says. “So I would always wonder, why don’t they go to the bathroom? Or what would happen if they do something that’s not part of the story, and why don’t they?”

Building off that thought, he reasoned, the kids living inside the world of a show 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 equipped for that,” he adds. “And I think that’s a good metaphor for a lot of things in life, unreliable authority figures and so forth. So that, I thought, was a deep vein to mine in this genre.”

Enter Buddy, a bright, bubbly orange unicorn voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, who hosts his eponymous ‘90s children’s show similar to Barney & Friends. A group of adoring kids stars alongside him, playing and learning life lessons together in a colorful, wacky clubhouse surrounded by a white picket fence. Other adorable humanoid animals, like Betty Bunny, and anthropomorphized objects, like Strappy the bookbag (Patton Oswalt), join the cast, along with human guests like Nurse Nancy. At the end of each episode, the credits roll, and the world of It’s Buddy resets for a new day of fun and games.

But when one of the children goes missing after refusing to join one of Buddy’s games, the show’s cheery veneer begins to crack, leading the remaining kids, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick Youbreakout Delaney Quinn, to slowly realize they’re trapped in a strange world ruled by a magical creature with a dark, violent alter ego. Fearing for their lives, the kids escape the confines of Buddy’s playhouse and embark on a dangerous journey to the mythical Diamond City.

If it sounds a bit like Barney meets The Shining, Kelly confirms that was on his mind. “Yeah, I was thinking a lot about that,” he says of the Stanley Kubrick film. “But also, I was thinking of other children’s shows, like Howdy Doody or TheWizard of Oz, of course. Oh, and a little bit of Night of the Hunter as well.”

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Delaney Quinn, Tristan Borders, and Madison Skyy Polan in ‘Buddy’Credit: Roadside Attractions

Still, Kelly says he wasn’t interested in satirizing any one show. In fact, he doesn’t really see the movie as a parody at all. “I do kinda bristle slightly if people say it’s a parody,” he says. “I don’t really think it’s that. I mean, it has that element, maybe. But then also on every line [from Buddy], it’s like, is it sincere? Is it slightly sinister? Is it slightly unhinged?”

Cristin Milioti also stars as Grace, a suburban mom living in the real world who can’t shake an unsettling feeling that something’s missing from her life. Despite pushback from her husband (Topher Grace), she becomes increasingly convinced that a kids’ show with a talking orange unicorn has something to do with it — even though she can’t find any record of the program’s existence. And, though we don’t want to spoil too much, Milioti also plays a role inside the world of It’s Buddy, as you can see in EW’s exclusive images.

“It was a dream to try to get her, and it was a dream that it happened,” Kelly says of casting ThePenguinstar. “I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more like a real person in the industry than when I had that breakfast with her to talk about the role and see if she was comfortable and into doing it.”

Delaney Quinn, Tristan Borders, Madison Skyy Polan, and Cristin Milioti in ‘Buddy’Credit: Roadside Attractions

At the film’s Sundance premiere in January, Milioti told the audience in a post-screening Q&A that she remembered crying with Kelly as they discussed the script during that first meeting. “That could have been,” the director says when asked if he remembers the moment. “I’m not sure what we were talking about, but I think I did get teary. Sometimes I can wear my heart on my sleeve, and I think she does, too. [She has] those eyes that you can read every emotion.”

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Though Buddy has its scares and laughs, not unlike the uncanny humor and horror of Too Many Cooks, it also packs a surprisingly emotional punch. “That means a lot to me,” Kelly says when EW points this out. “Coming from Adult Swim, we don’t do that as much. We kind of traffic more in absurdity. And that was a real goal of mine, for people to have an emotional reaction.”

Buddy, also featuring Michael Shannon and Clint Howard, hits theaters Aug. 2.

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

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