Trailer
Plot summary
Set in the 1930s, Trudy is an eccentric millionaire whose mansion holds a brood of animals, among them two chimpanzees, Joe and Maggie, raised as her children. Her husband, Bill, calls her to the phone, and she leaves Dick, the animal handler, in charge while she drives to Philadelphia. There she finds a sickly baby gorilla and brings him home. Bill determines that Buddy has severe pneumonia, and Trudy feeds him from a bottle. She asks Professor Spatz about gorillas, but he offers no real insight, and she decides to raise Buddy as her own son.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Buddy (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was based loosely on a real gorilla called Massa, mixed with Gertrude Lintz's other gorilla Gargantua, who was called "Buddy" at the time. In real life Massa was sold to the Philadelphia Zoo after attacking Lintz, while Gargantua died young as a circus attraction and his remains are on display in a museum.
- Animal rights activists objected to the film's depiction of chimpanzees as docile pets happily wearing human clothes, among their concerns being that it perpetuated the idea of chimps as acceptable pets.
- Rene Russo, who played Gertrude "Trudy" Lintz, began rehearsing with the chimpanzees a month before principal photography even started.
