For reference, when I mention Chucky in this article I’m referring to the 1988 version, as Chucky is Charles Lee Ray; for the 2019 remake, I’ll refer to Chucky as Buddi, his brand.

When I heard about the Child’s Play reboot, I was skeptical. I heard the original creators had plans to make Child’s Play Classic into a TV series – although I’m not sure on the progress with that – and wondered how a 2019 version could follow in the footsteps of our favourite killer doll.

Personally, I find it lacks what Classic Child’s Play’s main theme was about: a soul.

For those unfamiliar with the Classic, Child’s Play centers around Charles Lee Ray who voodoo’s his soul into a Good Guy doll after being injured in a botched robbery; that Good Guy doll ends up in the hands of innocent Andy, and Chucky’s mission from there is to transfer his soul back into a human vessel. He also happens to kill everyone who gets in his way.

Reboot Child’s Play can be summed up in one picture…

What I love about Chucky is how well he’s designed and made for a 1988 film. It was the early stages of animatronics thanks to Disney, and they hadn’t been as fine tuned as they are now; deeper research led me to facts such as: it took three people to work the expressions of Chucky’s face. The jaw movement itself was fascinating, revealing how fluid movement was with precise timing with joysticks on the lip movement, combined with the engineer wired up to mimic jaw movement.

You can tell a lot of love went into each Chucky that they had to use for filming. Movement was allowed to be a little janky because it was a doll, but not so much that it would cause problems in filming. Things couldn’t be fixed with CGI back then.

The Behind the Scenes footage is fantastic to watch, do see for yourself below!

Of course, I don’t mean to insult the creators of Buddi. Technology has come a long way since Chucky, and I imagine there were some restraints on Buddi’s design (due to the tv series); however, the design doesn’t fit in with 2019 technology – or further beyond that with Kaslan’s AI tech that does everything for you. Scenes where the doll may fumble are quick fixes with CGI.

Is Buddi creepy? Yes, but in more of a design that will give children nightmares – ironic as it’s a doll meant for kids; I can’t imagine any parent would look at Buddi and think it’s a suitable look for kids to enjoy; a Good Guy doll looks sweet and innocent, which is why no one would suspect Chucky of anything, but Buddi looks like Hannibal Lecter and Joker’s love-child.

There are also some scenes where he looks like a giant bobble head toy.

Let’s talk about the Andys for a moment. Chucky’s Andy looks to be at the age Good Guy was designed for (7 or 8?), the pair are roughly the same size and Chucky’s attachment to Andy is that he has a good, young body to swap into before the doll becomes human.

Buddi seemed to be advertised around that same age as well, and maybe even up to 10; however, Andy here looks to be a (pre?)teen, towering above Buddi like and older brother trying to help their toddler sibling walk. I can’t imagine why a teenager would want a Buddi – because it connects to the wifi? Because it’s voice activated? I get that Andy has just moved, is a little lonely and hasn’t made friends yet, but give him some time – not a kids toy! Also, Buddi’s attachment to Andy is simply friendship via a deleted protocol in his programme; it’s a jealous toddler with a kitchen knife.

Speaking of knives…

I find that another flaw with Buddi is his kills. He’s linked to Kaslan like E.T and, towards the end of the film, mostly inflicts harm with products that are linked to Kaslan; it hits too heavy on the ‘evil AI’ theory that people obsessed about for decades. I get it, technology has flaws, but Buddi’s flaw only happened because some guy in China didn’t like being told how to do his job. The Child’s Play image of a killer doll with a knife is only there because Buddi decided ‘monkey see, monkey do’; the kids actively teach him to stab someone, his altered AI concluded that was a good thing, something else to please Andy with.

Chucky, on the other hand, has more creative flair in his work; he’s human, so he can plot and execute and no one would suspect him because he’s a cute little doll – that’s the scary aspect of Chucky, he will make everyone else think you’re insane for pointing the finger at him – he will lay in wait and strike when he’s ready. A knife is easier for Chucky for obvious reasons, but he’s blown up vehicles, pushed people out of windows, used various tools over the years to get what he wants; there’s a charm to Chucky while he does things and that makes him a villian you want to love.

My final nitpick is the lore. Chucky is a human soul trapped in a doll, the more times he’s destroyed and rebuilt the longer he will live; Buddi’s makes less sense, the Buddi line is recalled and tested, surely then his broken AI would be fixed and his switch flipped back to good – so how can he exist further as evil?

In conclusion…

Did I hate 2019 Child’s Play? No. Did I like it? Also no. If the 2019 reboot didn’t have Child’s Play attached to it it would be an ok film and an interesting twist on our killer doll; it had potential, but it was ruined with a bad design and a lazy ‘killer AI linked to everything’ plot.

In an actual battle between Chucky and Buddi, my money is firmly on Charles Lee Ray.