WINNIE THE POOH IN A STICKY SITUATION

The Beloved Bear Wobbles His Way Into The Public Domain

By Ian Dotson

    Winnie The Pooh has been a household name for as long as I can remember. I had a Winnie The Pooh stuffed animal growing up as well as a pretty substantial collection of bootleg VHS tapes. (Thanks dad!) He is still a staple in many children's lives all over the world. Today however, with Alan Alexander Milne's creation entering the public domain, we've seen a new film surface that is quite different from the tender films I grew up with.

    Though some could argue his inception came sooner, the first time the famous bear appeared by name was in a publication called the London Evening News in 1925. The piece titled "The Wrong Sort of Bees," Christopher Robin appears with a yellow stuffed bear he named "Winnie The Pooh." The tale features the boys father regaling his son with a fanciful, made-up tale about his favorite toy. Though his looks and demeanor have changed over the years, his bubbly attitude and silly antics were present even then. Since Milne's character has aged out of it's copyright, the work has become public domain and technically now "belongs to everyone, without restriction." In the United States, the standard length for copyright protection of for works created by or after January 1st 1978 have a copyright term that expires 70 years after the death of the author. So Winnie The Pooh, Christopher Robin and many other characters from the franchise are fair game for whatever spinoffs we may see in the coming years. One such spinoff however, I will make sure to avoid entirely.

    Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey is a horror film that takes place in the Hundred Acre Wood. Released in February of this year, it features Christopher Robin, now a young man, returning to his old stomping grounds to find things have changed. Piglet and Pooh, after being left to fend for themselves, have become feral and developed a taste for blood. What happens next plays out like your traditional slasher flick: gore, bloody messages scrawled on the window, friends becoming separated, etcetera. I may still check it out for the novelty, but with a Rotten Tomatoes Score of 5%, I won't be in any hurry.

SOURCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3E74j_xFtg

https://news.temple.edu/news/2022-01-24/winnie-pooh-and-hundreds-other-works-are-now-public-domain 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/winnie-pooh-became-household-bear-180967090/

https://guides.library.cornell.edu/copyright/publicdomain 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/winnie_the_pooh_blood_and_honey