The nightmare came true for Disney at the start of 2022. After decades of having lawyers and lobbyists getting copyright controls extended, they’d lost hold of one of their most profitable characters. Winnie-The-Pooh was now considered part of the Public Domain. A.A. Milne’s original book from 1926 was now anyone’s to print and adapt into other media. This didn’t mean that any film producer can grab the Disney shorts that started to be released in 1966. Those are still copyrighted. There are rules as to what elements of Pooh can be used. Disney’s lawyers can still knock at your door with a cease-and-desist notice. Your Pooh bear can’t look like the one Walt’s people designed. Your Pooh must resemble the one in the book illustrations by E.H. Shepard. This means the little bare has to be bare chested. Disney owns the red shirted version of the character. Also your Winnie-the-Pooh must have hyphens since Disney uses the character’s name without hyphens. Anything not in the book, but in the Disney Pooh movies, TV episodes and books is forbidden to adapt. If you can follow those rules, you can do whatever you want with Winnie-The-Pooh and his friends. English Writer-director Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Firenado) knew exactly what he wanted to do with the newly freed little bear and his animal pals. He stuck them in a video nasty. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (notice the hyphens) is a bedtime nightmare for Disney and you!
Turns out that Pooh and pals weren’t just simple happy creatures of the Hundred Acre Wood that Christopher Robbin (Nikolai Leon) imagined. They were some sort of Dr. Moreau. When the kid went away to college, the animals got hungry and ate Eeyore. There’s a very creative way of using Eeyore’s detached tail in this animated section of the film. The surviving animals go completely feral at this point. A grown-up Christopher Robin returns to the forest of his youth with his fiancé Mary (Paula Coiz). He wants her to meet his imaginary childhood friends. Instead of a joyful reunion, the couple experience a twisted Pooh and Piglet who give them a grotesque engagement shower present. But the creatures aren’t done yet. Turns out there’s a little vacation trailer park on the property where Pooh has been finding other victims. This weekend there’s quite a few single ladies who want to experience nature without considering nature wants to snack on them. Winnie and Piglet want more then honey from these ladies.
This is exactly what Disney always feared – people turning their sweet characters into killing machines. The familiar friends are made up to be a mix of humans with fierce animal masks. They are not the cute Disney characters on the screen. It’s not the sweet little piglet that wants smash people in the head with a sledgehammer. Rhys Frake-Waterfield has made fine creative choices for this lean and vicious low budget grotesque retelling of a children’s classic. This is a tight film that doesn’t tease us with killer versions of the cuddly characters.
You might be wondering where’s a vicious Tigger character? Turns out that he was in the second book The House At Pooh Corner that didn’t come out until two years after the first. He wasn’t public domain when the film came out on March 10, 2023. But he is now. This ultralow budget film was rather profitable upon release so there’s a sequel out and even more horror films coming out with other Disney characters who have fallen into the public domain. Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey delivers the scares of what happened when Christopher Robin thinks his childhood friends never changed.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer brings the childhood stories to the world of horror. There’s plenty of shadows and gore on the screen. The Audio is 5.1 DTS-HD MA Surround. You’ll hear all the creaks and slashes in the woods. There’s also a 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD MA mix. The movie is subtitled in English.
Something’s Wrong with Piglet – Making of Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey (15:40) deals with how the film got immediate buzz when word got out that the film was in production. They were going to original just release it on home video, but the buzz made them raise the budget to $50,000 Pound and five more days of shooting. The sequel will have five times the budget.
Original Theatrical Trailer (1:55) lets us know that something is not right in the Hundred Acre Word.
Scream Factory presents Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey. Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. Screenplay by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. Starring Nikolai Leon, Maria Taylor, Natasha Rose Mills, Amber Doig-Thorne, Danielle Ronald, Natasha Tosini and Paula Coiz. Running Time: 84 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Release Date: April 9, 2024.
