Buddy
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Movie Reviews of Buddy
Movie Review: Cute, but inaccurate
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a fine retelling of Dr. Doolitle, based on some true aspects of Gertrude Lintz's life. Buddy was best known worldwide as "Gargantua" after his sale to the Ringling Brothers circus in 1937 by Ms. Lintz. There was no nature preserve, and no putting him out to pasture. Buddy had been rescued by Ms. Lintz as a baby after he fell victim to an attack by a disgruntled sailor aboard the ship that was carrying him away from his home in the lowlands of Africa. The sailor emptied the contents of a fire extinguisher containing acid into the baby's face and left him for dead. Ms. Lintz bought the once valuable cargo from the captain at a bargain and nursed him back to health. As the movie shows, she raised Buddy along with a menagerie of other creatures as her own child. When he became unmanageable and dangerous, she contacted John Ringling North and Henry "Buddy" Ringling North with a proposition to sell Buddy. Their account of the meeting and sale is vastly different than anything shown in the happy ending of this movie. They characterize Ms. Lintz as an eccentric middle aged woman whose mansion in Brooklyn resembled the drawings of Charles Addams. They sat in her parlor sipping tea for a long time before John broached the subject of the gorilla. They were led to an area in the basement where they saw a man standing guard over a large wooden box that looked like an oversized coffin. The wood had been reinforced with steel, for very good reason. The box was held in place by sturdy wooden timbers on the top and both sides to prevent the gorilla from breaking free. When the door was opened they saw what was later billed as "The world's most terrifying living creature". The grossly disfigured face and hostile behavior meant that Buddy was no longer able to live outside a cage, among men. Both men knew they had to buy the creature and struck a deal to pay $10,000.00 for him. They later had him picked up at Ms. Lintz' home. Henry Ringling North made the suggestion to change his name, since his own nickname was "Buddy", to something more sensational. He came up with the name "Gargantua", adding the term gargantuan to the popular lexicon in the process. Read more about this exchange in the book "The Circus Kings" (out of print) by Henry Ringling North and Alden Hatch, Doubleday Press.Movie Review: Mildy entertaining for animal lovers
Summary: 3 Stars
Set in the 1920s, Buddy follows the true adventures of loopy lady Gertrude "Trudy" Lintz (Rene Russo) who likes to take her menagerie of animals to the movies (and you thought the crying baby two rows back was bad). After one such outing, she has occasion to adopt a sickly baby gorilla. She names him Buddy, and takes him home to her M.D. husband (Robbie Coltrane) to see if he can cure the petite primate. Buddy is never portrayed by a real gorilla; the infant version was animatronic and the adult gorilla was a human in gorilla suit. However, there are several other real animals in the movie including dogs, cats, horses, and chimpanzees. The chimps are seen riding a pony, pouring themselves a drink, shaking hands, and even using a key to unlock a door. Based upon the memoir by Gertrude Davis Lintz.
Staci Layne Wilson
Movie Review: GORILLA MY DREAMS
Summary: 2 Stars
BUDDY starts out pretty good, but then misfires and becomes a self-parodying, rather improbable movie. Director Caroline Thompson wants to make several points about animal cruelty and how important animals can be. But in the preposterously ditsy Gertrude Lintz, she gives us a woman who is so obsessed with turning her animals into human playthings. The chimpanzees are cute, but dressing them up and treating them as children may show some underlying psychological problems for Ms. Lintz. Inspired by true events, which according to other reviewers is far from accurate, BUDDY gives us a refined Rene Russo in an uncharacteristic role as Lintz. Russo does fine in the role, but Lintz seems so out of touch with reality that it doesn't ring true. Robbie Coltrane is charming as her doctor husband, and he and Russo do have a nice chemistry. Alan Cumming is good as the "nanny" but his role is too underdeveloped to really matter. The film does have some humorous moments and I particularly enjoyed the parrot, particularly when maid Irma P. Hall is running a blender and the parrot is mimicking her. The contest is funny. The problem with BUDDY is Buddy himself. The animatronic baby is about as convincing as an Ed Wood movie, and when Buddy grows, we know there's a human in a gorilla suit. Buddy loses credibility; if this was an animated film, then maybe I could have bought it, but without detracting from Jim Henson's crew, it is obvious even to children that we're not dealing with a real gorilla. Buddy himself becomes so violent and uncontrollable, I lost interest in his fate.
Children will probably enjoy the animal antics, but BUDDY doesn't leave me with any kind of message or impact.
Movie Review: Found it irritating
Summary: 1 Stars
I thought it would be cute but it's just a crazy rich woman who indulges her love of animals by turning her home into a zoo. For some reason, instead of amusing me, it annoyed me. Dressing chimps as people and treating them like spoiled children. And she does the same with the gorilla, Buddy. She first saved Buddy but instead of using common sense, she decides to try to make it as human as possible. Of course, he turns on her later and she finds out that yes, gorillas are wild animals.
People who want to see animals in human terms annoy me sometimes. I remember once reading about a woman who was kicked in the face by a moose up in the mountains. Well, what did she think "Hey, it's Bullwinkle!" and try to pet it?
I think it also upset me because I was thinking she could have adopted children instead of making chimps into kids. But perhaps it was best she didn't. She would have messed them up by indulging their every whim.
BTW, this movie is based on a true story.
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