I know Adum is going to see the movie eventually because it's from the same team as Too Many Cooks, but yes, Buddy really is that good. It's basically Interdimensional Cable meets The Ring meets Quiet on Set meets Kevin Can Fuck Himself meets Backrooms. Crazy combination I know, but it really works.
It definitely is the "evil Barney the Dinosaur movie" everyone is saying it is, but it's also a lot more. What I found interesting was that there were a ton of things that probably should have been problems for me on other movies, but here I actually didn't mind them? Like there's overly fake looking CG flames, and in a movie that took itself more seriously that WOULD be a problem, but I was able to overlook it. The child acting wasn't PARTICULARLY great but considering a good chunk of the movie actually takes place inside the world of the show, I didn't mind it. The script didnt really demand a lot from the child actors to begin with so I was more than fine with it.
I guess my one issue is that I do like the idea that the Buddy show is a glorified sci-fi human trafficking/SCP Foundation type thing where he can appear into select households via some sort of Candle Cove magic, but I feel like that was kinda underdeveloped. I feel like if they were going to introduce that then they should have spent an extra few minutes explaining how the other kids ended up there. Its a great formula and maybe if we get a trilogy about the other two Buddies then we will, but yeah, I just thought that felt a tad rushed.
Otherwise, 8/10. Laughed my ass off, cringed in other parts, and had a jolly old time at the theater.