Last year, the character of Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain, meaning that as long as it was using the original source material and not anything created for the character afterward, it was fair for anyone to create their own Winnie-the-Pooh story.
It did not take long, as by February of that same year, ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ was released. It was terrible and brilliant all at once. A slasher film so awful that it was amazing. Watching two people dressed up as Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet bludgeoning heads and chasing teens throughout the 100-Acre Wood was hilariously amusing.
Since it was made on a shoestring budget and was incredibly novel, it made plenty of money despite the poor critical reception, and now we are here with a sequel out already in just over a year later.
‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2’ follows the events of the first film with Pooh and the gang still out for revenge against Christoper Robin. Christopher himself has to deal with both being accused of being the killer of the previous year’s massacre and new memories of his past surfacing due to hypnotherapy.
Pooh and Piglet are this time joined by Owl and Tigger, thanks to being newly released to the public domain as of this year. While the promotional campaign for this movie highly emphasized Tigger’s inclusion, he was greatly sidelined throughout the film, only playing a big role in the film’s climax, where he shouts his favorite profanities at his victims.
If it was not for this compulsion of his, it would be difficult to tell him apart from the redesigned Pooh, as Pooh went from the bright yellow goofy bear look that was endearing yet cheap in the original to a much more monstrous design for this film. Unfortunately, with both Pooh and Tigger being similar sizes, it is not easy to distinguish these monstrous figures in the dark, as it is for the bloated Piglet and the winged Owl.
Speaking of which, these redesigns play into the biggest thing holding this film back, which is they were given too much money. Unlike the original, which quickly grew on me with its cheap costumes and terrible effects, making it a fun time because you knew the filmmakers were in on it, this film seemed to want to take itself too seriously.
Between the highly detailed redesigns, the more focused plot, and the gore that was more realistic yet also less frequent, it appears that this installment wanted to take itself at least a little seriously despite the filmmakers not being the best.
This newfound seriousness may be a result of how many movies are already in production. Before the film even begins, the audience is greeted with a prerecorded clip by the filmmakers talking about the future movies to come, such as “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare,” “Pinocchio Unstrung,” and the next to be released “Bambi: The Reckoning,” which they even showed a teaser for.
All of these films are to culminate in their Avengers-like team-up film “Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble.” If all of this sounds like a joke to you, then good because these films were built on the absurdity of the idea that once in the public domain, Winnie-the-Pooh could be the next horror icon. Let’s hope the filmmakers do not forget that these films are only fun if they are just that, a joke.
