Buddy's current Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer sits in the low-to-mid 80s based on roughly three dozen reviews, driven primarily by its January 2026 Sundance Midnight premiere and subsequent festival screenings. Early critical response highlights the film's inventive horror-comedy premise—a homicidal orange unicorn voiced by Keegan-Michael Key terrorizing children in a twisted 1990s kids' show format—while noting uneven execution and patchy pacing that keep the Metacritic score near 64. Director Casper Kelly's viral pedigree with Too Many Cooks fuels industry interest and trailer buzz ahead of the August 28 wide release, when additional mainstream reviews could shift the certified fresh threshold. Trader sentiment reflects the tension between strong genre-concept appeal and the risk of score erosion once broader critical and audience data arrives post-theatrical launch.