Credit: Edited by Inside the MagicFrom Snow White to The Wizard of Oz, many of our favorite childhood characters have met horrific fates upon entering the public domain. Now that beloved figures like Pooh, Tigger, Peter Pan, and even Mickey Mouse have fallen into the hands of wicked minds, audiences are staring down the barrel of the Twisted Childhood Universe.
After the arrival of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023), making horror versions of fairytales and stories produced by Disney seems to be the popular thing to do. Since making Blood and Honey, Jagged Edge Productions and ITN studios promised horrific variants of Bambi, Peter Pan, and more coming down the production pipeline, and it’s all leading up to an MCU-level crossover event that turns multiple Disney classics into murderous monsters.
Related: Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Isn’t Public Domain, Ub Iwerks’ Is
Given the fact that Blood and Honey received genuinely poor reviews and was critically panned by critics and casual viewers alike, it’s downright bizarre to know that it’s getting not just a sequel involving a carnivorous Tigger but a full-on cinematic universe involving Pinocchio, the Mad Hatter, and even Sleeping Beauty.
“Twisted Childhood Universe” Mangles Disney Classics
An official report from Animation Magazine revealed that the “Poohniverse” would pull together multiple horror versions of classic childhood characters for an ultimate battle of the monsters.
Related: Original ‘Peter Pan’ To Join Mickey Mouse in Public Domain
Jagged Edge Producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield shared the following,
“It will be complete carnage. We are heavily influenced by Freddy vs. Jason and The Avengers…We would love to see a horror movie where the villains group together and are going after their survivors. We have some incredible set pieces in mind and some sequences I think will truly shock people. The movies we are working on now as standalones are all building towards Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble.”
Although that might sound like the typical set-up for direct-to-video horror schlock, things get more than a little complicated when the works of Disney are thrown into the mix. The aforementioned characters might belong to the public domain, but it’s the resemblance to the variants created by the House of Mouse that could land Jagged Edge and its producers in a bloodbath of litigation.
Can They Do That?
Once Winnie the Pooh hit the public domain, it didn’t take long for Blood and Honey to burble to the surface. The reason the studio got away with making the willy-nilly-silly-old-bear into a bloodthirsty killer in the Hundred Acre Woods was that they were adapting A.A. Milne’s original work (now public domain), which existed years before Walt Disney ever put ink to animation cell.
Related: New Disney Horror Reboot Shares Disturbing Images of Iconic Character
That said, Disney’s version of the character is highly protected, and venturing too close to the chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff could result in a strongly-worded cease-and-desist letter. Although Rhys Frake-Waterfield and his production team are well within their rights, they are still walking on thin ice in the eyes of Disney’s network.
With his chubby face and yellow ears, there’s no denying that Disney’s influence over the bloodthirsty Pooh Bear is clearly a significant element in his design. Moreover, it can also be assumed that the so-called “Twisted Childhood Universe” will presumably take inspiration from even more of Disney’s classic characters once the blood truly starts to flow.
Related: Mickey Mouse Horror Film Is a “Love Letter” to Disney, Report Claims
That being said, Disney took no action against the production and (at the time of writing) still has made no comment. However, many might be surprised that even Waterfield was shocked by Disney’s lack of response.
The producer told Indie Wire,
“If they wanted to, Disney could have shut us down,” he said. “Like, the company is so ******* massive, they could have just gone — even if they had no grounds for it — ‘Well, we’re suing you and we’re just gonna throw the book at you. And we’re just gonna tie you up legally. And this will not go out there.’ So there was that, that risk that even if we did everything 100%, they could just intentionally be litigators. But they didn’t.”
Disney might not have done anything for Blood and Honey, but it’s going to be impossible for the House of Mouse not to notice once more and more of their characters get gruesome and gory redesigns. Although characters like Sleeping Beauty and even Pinocchio have indeed been reimagined as horror retellings, there’s no denying that the “Poohniverse” is a direct jab at the Walt Disney Company.
The reason films like these have the following that they do is the same reason entities like Rob Zombie have amassed a legion of fans: it’s all about the shock. As if the horrific imagery of a beloved childhood icon splattering teens across a camera lens wasn’t appalling enough, Jagged Edge is pulling more of our favorite animated friends in for the slaughter.
Related: The Psychological Horror of the Disney Parks
They might not be proper adaptations, they might not even be good movies at all, but the fact that they are getting a response cannot be denied. Whether that response includes an investigation from the Walt Disney Company is another matter.
How do you feel about your favorite characters getting turned into murderous monsters? Tell Inside the Magic what you think in the comments below!