Alex Arger
How Public Domain Made Way For A 'Winnie The Pooh' Horror Movie
'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey' is a real, upcoming horror movie with familiar characters, but adapting them is no easy legal task.
LEARN MOREPosted: 5:35 p.m. EDT Oct 18, 2023
A school movie day can be an exciting treat for rambunctious youngsters, but a class of Florida fourth graders tasked with choosing the day's flick were confronted with a trick instead.
Students at the Academy for Innovative Education in Miami Springs decided the class would watch "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" when a math teacher allowed them the choice on Oct. 2, according to CBS Miami.
Although anything with Winnie the Pooh in the title may sound like a suitable watch for a kid, "Blood and Honey" is anything but.
Instead of the typical happy adventure story of a lovable bear and his friends, the unrated slasher film follows the familiar character and Piglet as they become murderous monsters, a transformation sparked by Christopher Robin leaving for college.
Michelle Diaz, a parent to fourth-grade twin students at the Academy for Innovative Education who were 'distraught' after the movie, told CBC Miami the "careless teacher" allowed the film to play for 20 to 30 minutes before turning it off, despite alleged requests from students.
"He didn't stop the movie, even though there were kids saying, 'Hey, stop the movie, we don't want to want this,'" Diaz said.
The mom said she and other parents felt "completely abandoned" by the school and the teacher who allowed the students to choose the movie without knowledge of its plot.
"It's not for them to decide what they want … It's up to the professor to look at the content," she told CBS Miami.
In a statement to Scripps News, the school said the film was "mistakenly shown" during an indoor lunch and that the situation has been handled with all involved.
"Only the first 20 minutes of the movie was played. During those first 20 minutes, there was a scary scene that was shown. At that point, the teacher turned off the video," the statement read. "The issue was promptly addressed with the teacher, students and parents that were involved … The school has followed all school district policies and procedures in response to the incident and will continue to support the student's safety and well-being on a daily basis."
The school also told CBS Miami that students who have expressed concerns have already met with its mental health counselor and a principal.
The horror film was released in February after the original Winnie the Pooh book entered the public domain the year before. Though Disney still owns the interpretations of the story's characters, small changes in "Blood and Honey" allowed it to avoid copyright issues, such as a change in Pooh Bear's shirt and omitting copyrighted characters like Tigger.
