August 28, 2026 – Popped!

Release date: August 28, 2026 (USA)

Executive producers: Gideon Tadmor, Roberto Linck, Dexter Braff, Adam J. Wilde, Geoff Yaw, Kevin Flanigan

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, combined with Barnie….. Let’s discuss!

I had a good time with this one despite there being a potential rant for those interested :D. Alas, Buddy got a 7.5/10 Popped score, missing the 8 on it’s final acts.

You start within a kids’ show (Barnie of sorts or Blue Clues), watching episodes with a narrative focus before resetting with a song of loving Buddy. That’s until you get to see the behind-the-scenes of the show and expand on what occurs with Buddy when the cameras aren’t on him. Creating cracks within the seams that continue to grow each episode, affecting those who saw.

This had the inner makings of creating something epic on the scale of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. Sadly, they focused on adding some trigger-warning scenes for some viewers, which, within the setting of a kids show (yes, despite it being R-rated horror), felt really unnecessary and could have better been spent on setting up more of the lore / behind the scenes of how this all came to be. Possibly set up for sequels if popular, but I really would have preferred that over (Spoilers Rant).

Regardless, this was a good time with a 7.5/10. I can see it doing well on streaming for sure.

Appreciate you coming by Popped for your movie Reviews!. We just hit 10k views on the site since starting this project :D. Appreciate you all taking the time! Stick around as we’re just halfway through this week’s batch of movie “Reviews”.

Release date: August 28, 2026 (USA)

Director: Alicia MacDonald

Running time: 1h 50m

Producers: Olivier Kaempfer, Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan

Production companies: Parkville Pictures, Focus Features, Working Title Films

Screenplay: Rachel Hirons

Thought this would be cute… never thought I’d fall in love with it 😀 Legit! Let’s Discuss!

I loved pretty much the entirety of this movie.

From the characters, their personal journeys, the connections between one another, from strangers, friends, and family, I absolutely loved it all. Owen (Played by Spike Fearn) sees Emily one night while at work and falls for her. Due to having to rush out of the club for a birthday party, she misses a number entering it on Owen’s phone, and thus the movie Finding Emily exists :D.

Emily Raine (Played by Angourie Rice) is an Emily but not the Emily. Aiding Owen in the search for Emily, even if it results in her own personal gains.

Along the way, we meet Owen’s family, which I freaking loved; the connection between Owen and his brother. We also meet several dozen other Emily’s which have their own motives, agendas, and journeys within the movie. This is such a feel-good movie, and I ate it up. Angus Thongs & Perfect Snogging may be the last movie where I didn’t touch my popcorn due to loving everything on screen.

I haven’t even mentioned the music yet! From start to end, the music track and selections/usage were superb! Stay to the end for a music video amongst the credits 😀 So good.

Popped score of 9/10 I seriously loved it!

Apologies for this week’s batch being rather large and uploaded in one day. WordPress was having issues… well, at least on my end. Found out the ad blocker was preventing the page from loading… never occurred before, but alas, I’m back :D.

Stick around for Buddy coming up next here on Popped!

Day: August 28, 2026

Buddy “Review”

Finding Emily “Review”