In their effort to relate cinematically the true story of a 1930s socialite who raised a gorilla in her home, the folks at Jim Henson Pictures have tried to make a movie that crosses age boundaries — a kids picture that adults can enjoy . . . or an adult picture kids can enjoy.
But as is often the case with films like this, trying to please everyone results in pleasing no one.
Not that "Buddy" is horrible. It's just ordinary.
Let's face it, if you've seen one comedy with dressed-up chimpanzees doing stupid human tricks or a guy in a gorilla suit terrorizing crowds of people, you've seen them all.
It's the early '30s when we meet Gertrude "Trudy" Lintz (Rene Russo), who has turned her New York estate into a menagerie, complete with horses, championship Briard dogs, tropical fish, a kitten, a wisecracking parrot and a trio of antics-prone chimps.
She also has a long-suffering husband (Robbie Coltrane), a physician who finances her private zoo, as well as an assistant (Alan Cumming) to care for the animals and a cook/housekeeper (Irma P. Hall) to react wildly to the animals' hijinks.
The plot kicks in as Trudy is called to a local zoo, where a baby gorilla is dying after being separated from its mother. In a huff, she takes the creature home and nurses it to health.
Naturally, the gorilla, now dubbed "Buddy," bonds with Trudy. But as the months pass and the gorilla grows to monstrous proportions, things get a bit dicey. (Her consultation with a cold-hearted big-game hunter, played by Paul Reubens, of "Pee-wee Herman" fame, here sporting a pencil-thin mustache and a shaved head, briefly shifts the movie into a level of camp the filmmakers probably did not intend.)
Initially, Buddy adapts to the human characteristics Trudy instills in all of her animals. But after a time, its jungle instincts begin to surface.
When Trudy is invited to the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago to show off her anthropomorphic chimps, she brings Buddy along as well. But at the fair, Buddy escapes from his cage and wreaks havoc.
This ruckus notwithstanding, Trudy brings Buddy home again — and he goes on a rampage through the house. Eventually, Trudy comes up with a humane way of integrating Buddy with his own kind and keeping her relationship with him alive.
Some of this is oddly touching, and some is overly sentimental — especially the film's protracted ending. But much of the way, it's just silly, in much the same way "Every Which Way But Loose" or "Going Ape" or last year's "Ed" and "Dunston Checks In" are silly. Chimps who brush their teeth, a gorilla serving deviled eggs on a silver tray and a parrot who imitates their every sound — it doesn't take much for these kinds of jokes to wear out their welcome.
Still, Russo tries hard to make all this work, and her relationship with Coltrane is sweet and ingratiating. Cumming is also a charming actor, and it's nice to see Hall again (though after her highly praised performance in "A Family Thing," she certainly deserves better than a role as a wide-eyed domestic).
Too bad there isn't more of the human story to make the childish animal gags more palatable.
"Buddy" is rated PG for violence and mild vulgarity.