The answer comes down to a quirk of copyright law. The Walt Disney Company still owns the rights to their depiction of Pooh Bear, including the now iconic image of the cuddly fellow in a red shirt sans pants (hence Blood and Honey's fully clothed Pooh).
Frake-Waterfield continued to explain that Pooh is part human, part bear, and part stuffed animal. He said: "Inside they are a mix of human and a kind of Pooh bear interior. So they've got the blood, the've got the guts, but there's a bit of fluff floating around as well.
Disney acquired the rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh books and their characters from Milne's estate back in 1961 and Disney has turned the franchise into a multibillion-dollar industry. Now, Disney won't be able to sue anyone that uses A.A. Milne's original Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
The copyright protection for Winnie the Pooh will expire in 2022. Disney has made billions over the years from author A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books since the company acquired the rights in 1961. While others can use the characters after the copyright expires, they can't just copy the Disney trademarks.
The copyright on Mickey Mouse will expire just next year in 2024, 95 years after his first appearance, sending him to the public domain. This copyright applies explicitly to the very first iteration of Mickey Mouse in his animation debut, Steamboat Willie (1928).
Any future iterations of Mickey Mouse – including any showing Mickey Mouse in color – are still under Disney's control. But the copyright on the Steamboat-Willie-version will run out in 2024 after 95 years. Initially, copyrights only lasted 28 years.
The script itself is full of the most boring and cringe-worthy dialogue ever heard by man. It felt like the characters were indirectly talking and narrating to the audience as a result. The plot was also incredibly boring with an unnecessary side story.
Walt Disney Co. has controlled the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh since 1961 and kept depictions of Milne's talking animals true to the spirit of the family-friendly material. The copyright expired in January 2022. Since then, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends have been available to the public for other purposes.
Since Tigger, in particular, is still covered by copyright, the director said: "Tigger, for example, isn't in the public domain. So he wasn't allowed to be used in the story."
The answer comes down to a quirk of copyright law. The Walt Disney Company still owns the rights to their depiction of Pooh Bear, including the now iconic image of the cuddly fellow in a red shirt sans pants (hence Blood and Honey's fully clothed Pooh).
The film is called Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, and it's a slasher. Within the Pooh canon, the movie stands out, but conceptually, it's pretty derivative.
Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Pooh Bear, or simply Pooh) is the titular main antagonist of the 2023 British independent slasher film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey written, directed, and co-produced by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and is loosely based on the Winnie-the-Pooh book series by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard.
When Pooh, Piglet, and the other Hundred Acre Wood residents are abandoned by Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon), they struggle to fend for themselves. While suffering extreme starvation, Pooh makes the decision to kill and eat Eeyore.
On Jan. 1, 2022, numerous works entered the public domain, including A.A. Milne's original Winnie-the Pooh stories. Although Disney's version of Pooh is protected by copyright, the company no longer exclusively owns the rights to Winnie the Pooh.
Disney acquired the rights to this original Winnie the Pooh and then created a newer version a few years later, which featured Winnie the Pooh in his iconic red shirt. The timing of this matters, as the 1926 Winnie the Pooh is what has entered the public domain after 95 years of protection.
Well, the studio had no choice. That's because the 1926 storybook, titled Winnie-the-Pooh, which introduced the titular character, passed into the public domain at the start of 2022, voiding its copyright, and thus Disney's media exclusivity over the character.
In an interview with Variety, Frake-Waterfield confirmed that he's already in the process of writing the Blood and Honey sequel. While there's no official release date, he's aiming for a February 2024 release.
Pooh and Piglet were traumatized by what they did to Eeyore, so if they had done that to Owl and Rabbit too they would be sure to provide the same memorialization for their friends. The complete absence of Owl and Rabbit suggests they escaped The Hundred Acre Wood to avoid the cruelties of Pooh and Piglet.
Piglet is the secondary antagonist of the 2023 British independent slasher film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey written, directed, and coproduced by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and is loosely based on the character from the Winnie-the-Pooh book series by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard.
On January 1, 2024, the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse will become public domain. However, don't expect to see any horror movies based on him. Anyone coming close to the trademark or the copyright of the more modern version will be shut down instantly.
Among the stories they told in their famous fairy tale collection were Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and other stories that inspired Disney. Stories of Cinderella and these other princesses are in the public domain with a major caveat — it depends on the iteration of the story and Disney's Cinderella et al.
The reason is that copyrights have limited lifespans under federal law and copyrights for works created by corporations (like Disney) are only protected for 95 years from the date of first publication. This is why the Mickey Mouse copyright is coming to an end.