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Something about me? I have been a nerdy cinephile for as long as I can remember. Putting the two together is living my best life. That notwithstanding, I was born to express, not to impress, so I blog because I don't have friends. In other news, I like hashtags because they look like waffles, prefer my puns intended, and I always give 100% unless I'm donating blood. Thanks for reading.
In a generation that has witnessed ridiculous movie ideas like sharks with ‘roid rage, bad remakes of worse films, and schmaltzy streaming romantic comedies hails children’s books with a slasher flair, like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
With a staggering quadrumvirate of low scores–3% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2.9 on IMDb, 2.0 on Google, and 16 on Metacritic–, someone should have picked up the Hundred-Acre Wood like a 2×4 and swung like Babe Ruth. Of course, it would have been nice if the swing aimed for the noggin of whoever’s bad idea was to create that profane lunacy.
Thanks to an exclusive IndieWire interview, Rhys Frake-Wakefield and Vince Knight (director and producer of this teeming mass of twaddle, respectively) pretty much dared The Walt Disney Company to stop them from making it.
Of course, that never happened, much to the surprise of Wakefield and Knight and the chagrin of everyone else. However, there is a good–and legal–reason.
“Blood and Honey” Made Winnie Step in Pooh
As anyone can tell, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is one of the worst movies ever made. And, by the looks of its dazzling lack of antipathy for protecting its copyright, Disney knew it.
Well, actually, as the article points out, there was nothing for Disney to protect. It turns out the A.A. Milne classic was published in 1926, so the depravity it required to make Piglet, Pooh, and Eeyore psychotic killer frat boys in rubber masks wasn’t a risk. The book, along with many surprising works, entered public domain early last year.
Disney, even if they wanted to stop the madness, couldn’t do a thing.
“There was a moment where I was like, ‘Oh, wow, everyone’s gonna see this film!’” Frake-Waterfield said. “And then the second moment was ‘Oh f*ck, everyone’s gonna see this film.’”
Vince Knight
In short, Disney’s version of Pooh is always protected by the evil empire. But Milne’s version–the source material–is not, so the movie was made a deranged reality. To avoid any comparison to the Disney happy-go-lucky version, the duo had to think hard–and a slasher movie was born.
I was purposely very, very conservative with how much I had [Pooh and Piglet] speak, mostly because it was kind of concerned from a legal point of view of what I could get myself into. The more I’ve got them speaking, the more likely I can get into legal trouble. So I kind of limited myself there. And we didn’t really follow Christopher Robin much. In the first film, it went down a route… I had some other hands steering me in that direction. And I didn’t think it was fully right.
Rhys Frake-Wakefield
Even when Christian Zilko admitted his excitement to see it, Knight gleefully said, “Don’t expect too much. We spent a lot of time working on it but not a lot of time shooting it. It’s … you can have a lot of fun with it.”
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey wasn’t, as they say in the business, a “big investment.” However, there was a “big return” on that investment.
- Run time: 100 minutes
- Budget: $100,000 USD
- Shoot time: 10 days
- Opening Week: $652K
- Revenue to Date: $4.9M
Seriously?! What the Hell is wrong with movie fans? And yes, a sequel is coming. It’ll be great to see Tigger’s ADHD in a murderous killing spree.
Something about me? I have been a nerdy cinephile for as long as I can remember. Putting the two together is living my best life. That notwithstanding, I was born to express, not to impress, so I blog because I don't have friends. In other news, I like hashtags because they look like waffles, prefer my puns intended, and I always give 100% unless I'm donating blood. Thanks for reading.
