BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

vip_ebriega My Take: More proof that decent special effects and pretty sets can't tell the story. BUDDY is the film that BABE could have easily been, but while that harmless, little achievement took to a different direction (and succeeded as a great, little film), BUDDY takes off on the wrong track. The story elements are easily predictable, but that's rarely the worst part since the film, despite some imagination and style which went into the production design, the story drags on. It's dully paced and slow-moving, it's pretty hard to care for a somewhat interesting character (a domesticated ape, no less).Rene Russo plays, and is actually fine as, eccentric wealthy animal lover Gertrude Lintz, who adopts all sorts of animals, chimpanzees mostly, and grooms them into civilized beings, dressing them up and teaches them to walk upright and eat on a table (with a spoon and fork, no less). Alongside her and her menagerie of trained (and well-dressed) apes is her husband (Robbie Coltrane), a helpful maid (Irma P. Hall) and her assistant (Alan Cumming). But when she decides to adopt a harmless orphaned gorilla, her confidence is slowly loosing as Buddy, as groomed and as attentive an animal he is, he's still an animal.Russo and co., thankfully given some decent roles, are actually good, and the ape (cheesy as ape suits are today) is pretty endearing. But unlike BABE, the focus pitched on the animals are pretty tedious. This time, I think, giving the animals the gift of speech is a welcome asset. Director Caroline Thompson seemed to be distracted by the overall look of the film (the production design, from costumes to sets, are spontaneously elaborate) to strongly develop the script. The story lags a long in a drowsy, monotonous pace that could even put a few children to sleep.What could have been an eagerly acceptable fantasy with touches of engaging tragedy is an elaborate and fancy bore. BUDDY isn't a failure, but it fails more than it succeeds. At best, it's a promise that never really got off the ground.Rating: **1/2 out of 5.

PuppyP Comment from Japan was so bad I felt compelled to write. I saw this movie and thought it was a sweet, gentle film. I do not look to movies for education or enlightenment. I just want a movie to entertain me, and Buddy did. Rene Russo really pulled off this role and was very likable. It was fun to watch how an eccentric household functioned so normally, with animals and humans co-existing in lovely surroundings. However, the movie did show the strength that animals possess and the destruction they can do out of their natural habitat. Buddy was a delightful way for an animal lover like me to spend a Saturday afternoon. This movie is very suitable for families.

moviewavs I was waiting for it to be over. There were a few scenes that evoked emotion but soon fell flat. It had a few moments that were a little funny. That, that's all I have to say about that.

orangemaze My Aunt Gertrude did own a gorilla named Buddy, but she also owned another named Massa, and they combined the lives of the 2 together. First let me give you the true ending, Buddy was sold to the Ringling Bros circus, his name was changed to Gargantua, Massa was sold to the Philedelphia Zoo, and lived to be the oldest living Gorilla in captivity.The story was hollywoodized to the extreme. If they had stuck to the facts, maybe it would have been better.Gertrude also raised prize winning Saint Bernards, having over 100 on her estate in Brooklyn. She won the Westminster Dog show blue ribbon 5 times in a row. She helped to develop the "modern" pet foods. Since before then people just fed their pets scraps.Also just one more minor note, my family is Jewish, yet in the movie, she wore a cross, and as far as I know, no-body in my family was paid or had given permission for the movie to come out.