“Oh, bother.”
A nightmarish version of beloved characters Winnie the Pooh and his best friend Piglet is on its way — and it’s not made by Disney.
The trailer of the most horrifying depiction ever of A.A. Milne’s famous fun-loving stuffed animals was released on Thursday (US time), depicting Pooh Bear as a vengeful killer.
The slasher film, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, is the first major adaption of the author’s classic characters in years, and it transforms Christopher Robin’s cuddly best friends into the stars of a horror film.
The trailer opens with Christopher Robin heading back to Hundred Acre Woods after leaving for university, having abandoned his friends for years.
When he returns, he finds his once-loveable pals have turned “wild” in their quest for food and survival – and revenge.
Another beloved childhood character, Eeyore, has died, and Winnie the Pooh and Piglet are silent – seen only wielding knives and chloroform and seeking revenge on Christopher.
“Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral,” director Rhys Waterfield, from British-based Jagged Edge Productions told Variety earlier this year.
“So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”
This film, and other adaptations, are possible because Disney lost the exclusive rights to Milne’s original work when Winnie-the-Pooh, published in 1926, lapsed into the public domain.
Under US copyright law, authorship rights are protected for 95 years from the first publication or 120 years after its creation, whichever is soonest.
Disney acquired the rights to Winnie the Pooh in 1961, five years after Milne died.
However, there are a few limitations.
Disney still maintains exclusive rights to its interpretations of Pooh Bear and friends. It also has rights to sequels to Milne’s original story, which includes the introduction of Tigger the tiger.
Waterfield said Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey producers had to be “extremely careful” not to infringe on Disney’s ownership of its version of the famous stuffed bear.
“We knew there was this line between that, and we knew what their copyright was and what they’ve done,” he said.
“We did as much as we could to make sure [the film] was only based on the 1926 version of it.”
Disney’s version of Pooh, which includes his famed red shirt, is not seen. Instead, the once honey-addicted bear is clad in a lumberjack shirt for his deadly pursuit, while his pink buddy Piglet wears all black.
The looming slasher film has divided opinion, with social media users variously hailing it as everything from appalling to enthralling.
“My God, you destroy my childhood memory for kindness with this new movie,” wrote one user on an Instagram post from Jagged Edge.
“This is gonna be extremely fun,” wrote another – followed by a plea from a third: “I wanna help on the sequel!”
Waterfield is unrepentant.
“Fans shouldn’t be expecting this to be a Hollywood-level production,” he told Variety, and also “when you see the cover for this and you see the trailers and the stills and all that, there’s no way anyone is going to think this is a child’s version”.
Merlin Alderslade, the executive editor of alternative music publication Louder, says it is Pooh and Piglet as we’ve never seen them before
“Literally: They both look about six feet tall and terrifying,” he writes.
“You can finally stick the nail in the coffin of that childhood you’ve been so desperately clinging onto in recent years.”
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey does not yet have an Australian release date.
