Buddy Director Reveals Deleted Scene That Was ‘Too Far’ For Producers [Exclusive]

If you happen to’ve seen “Too Many Cooks,” Casper Kelly’s brain-melting quick that took the web by storm in 2014, you already know Kelly is eager about interrogating nostalgia and showcasing the twisted results it may have. After tackling a secret Christmas film and its surprising sequel for the small display screen, he is exploring that very same theme on the massive display screen in “Buddy,” his first theatrical function movie, which is a few ’90s youngsters’s present hosted by a titular Barney the Dinosaur-style unicorn who appears cute and cuddly till the child forged members uncover his true malevolent nature. 

As the analog horror-forward trailer hints, the film goes to some disturbing locations, exposing the darkish underbelly of kids’s leisure alongside the way in which. I had the prospect to talk with Kelly forward of the movie’s launch, and I requested him how shut the ultimate film ended up being to the preliminary draft of the screenplay.

“I had one scene that the producers did not love, so we ended up reducing it,” he teased. “And so they had a pair different scenes they weren’t positive about, however I fought for them and saved them.”

It seems the excised scene concerned Buddy (voiced by Keegan Michael-Key) taking out his frustrations on a puppet that, if the remainder of the movie is any indication, would have appeared like one thing out of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” (Notice: I do not suppose his reply is spoilery, however if you would like to enter the film realizing completely nothing, then bookmark this web page and are available again after you see it.) As Kelly defined:

“I had one scene of Buddy within the lavatory speaking to the mirror — and the mirror is a puppet — proper after issues had gone south and him going, ‘Why are they doing this? Why aren’t they behaving?’ After which [Buddy] does not just like the mirror’s reply and pops his eyes. He simply places his finger and pops his eyes, and [then] turns the mirror round. However yeah, possibly that was one bridge too far.”

As somebody who cannot actually deal with eye trauma on display screen (or in actual life), I thank these producers for stepping in to take away what seems like a fairly disturbing second. However frankly, “Buddy” incorporates imagery that is far extra tousled than that — the truth is, film’s premise is constructed on presenting a juxtaposition between a candy-coated child’s present vibe and an uneasy sense of violence and darkness that forces its means in. This eye-gouging scene will need to have felt particularly egregious if the producers insisted or not it’s reduce whereas permitting the entire different unsettling content material to remain within the closing reduce.

Maybe we’ll get an opportunity to see it as a deleted scene on a bodily media launch at some point. Within the meantime, “Buddy” — which made it onto our Better of Sundance 2026 checklist earlier this 12 months — is in theaters now. You’ll be able to hear my full dialog with Casper Kelly on the September 2, 2026 episode of the /Movie Weekly podcast.