it seems be the film for animals lovers. and only for theme. because , against the premise than it reflects real facts, the story is far to be interesting or plausible, the end too sweet and Rene Russo in a role for she has a huge effort to do coherent. sure, the eccentric rich people stories are a good subject but it is not comfortable to answer yourself why the director has need by Rene Russo, Robbie Coltrane or Alan Cumming for his film. a noble message like this could be better with not great actors. the only good point - the performance of Irma P. Hall. short, a film with very precise target. only a fan of animals can ignore the errors of logic and the too obvious message and could discover the purpose of film, out of a sentimental story about incompatibility between different species.

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.

I was lucky (?) enough to receive free tickets to Buddy during its opening week. I stood in a line with other people who were too cheap or too bright to spend money on this bomb.The question that came up in the movie most in my mind was, "Why?" Not, "Why did this woman try to raise a gorilla?" or, "Why did this woman dress chimpanzees in little outfits?" but rather, "Why was this movie released to the public?"If you want a rampaging gorilla movie, there's always any of the King Kong movies. If you want beautiful people, check out anything on MTV. If you want a fish out of water movie, check out any of thousands of other movies from roughly 1900 through today.

Buddy is an entertaining family film set in a time when "humanizing" animals, and making them cute was an accepted way to get people to be interested in them.Based on a true story, Buddy shows the great love that the main characters have for animals and for each other, and that they will do anything for each other.While not a perfect movie, the animated gorilla is quite lifelike most of the time and the mayhem that occurs within the home is usually amusing for children.This film misses an opportunity to address the mistake of bringing wild animals into the home as pets, but does show the difficulties.A recommended film which was the first for Jim Henson Productions.