So, in recent years, we’ve seen a new trend in the horror movie genre – transforming beloved characters from children’s stories into bloodthirsty monsters. The Twisted Childhood Universe franchise began in 2023, with Winnie-the-Pooh being the first target. Yes, Winnie-the-Pooh. The sweet bear that has been a part of childhoods for decades.
All I can think, as I see new articles pop up about more movies that are planned for this franchise, is…why? Just why?
Who thought it was a good idea to take such lovable characters and transform them into unrecognisable monsters?
A. A Milne’s stories are no longer copyrighted in the US, with Winnie-the-Pooh entering the public domain in 2022. This means that anyone could have taken these wonderful characters and created more stories for children to enjoy.
But no. That didn’t happen.
Instead, we got a horror movie where Winnie-the-Pooh wants to kill Christopher Robin. I can just picture the people who created this movie sitting there, drumming their fingers on the table, waiting for that exact moment when the characters entered the public domain, and then nearly tripping over their own feet as they rushed to write down their idea of the beloved Pooh and Piglet becoming killers.
Unsurprisingly, the critics hated it, and the movie didn’t do well. But did that stop a sequel from being made? No, no, it didn’t.
Rather than the production company taking note and thinking: Well, clearly people hated seeing Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet becoming feral murderers and terrorising Christopher Robin and young women, they thought: Let’s make another one!
Enter Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, where Pooh and Piglet continue their bloodthirsty rampage, still killing university students (why is it always university students?) and hellbent on getting revenge on Christopher Robin for whatever reason. This time, Tigger and Owl get involved, and we’ve got a whole collection of murderous animals.
If these animals weren’t Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Owl, then maybe, just maybe, I’d be fine with it. Maybe the critics would have been fine with it.
I love horror movies. Always have done. But when that horror movie involves characters that have been a huge part of many people’s childhoods (including mine and my own children’s childhoods) for many years, it’s just…wrong. So wrong.
And so pointless.
To me, it feels like a violation of A. A. Milne’s wonderful work.
There’s no creativity in it. Absolutely nothing that compels me to sit down and watch characters that have brought so much joy to children for decades being rewritten as evil, murderous monsters.
And to make the whole thing worse, there are more of them.
Peter Pan is the latest character to get the Twisted Childhood Universe treatment. Now, I can understand why someone might want to explore the world of Neverland from a different perspective. We had that with Steven Spielberg’s Hook in 1991, which focused on an adult Peter Pan (beautifully portrayed by Robin Williams).
But again, Peter Pan is a character from many people’s childhoods, and to put a horror spin on it is, again, pointless. Admittedly, the idea of Peter working at a circus called Neverland does sound a little more interesting than Winnie-the-Pooh becoming a bloodthirsty killer. But it’s not enough to convince me that turning Peter into a child killer is a good idea. It just isn’t. Like with A. A. Milne’s work, it’s just simply taking JM Barrie’s characters and making them unrecognisable.
The producers are basically taking wonderful work, which is now in the public domain, saying “f**k you, I can do whatever the hell I want with these characters now” and butchering them completely.
It’s just not compelling in the slightest.
I haven’t seen Wicked or Wicked: For Good, but I have seen clips of both movies, and my daughter has seen them. The movies are based on the musical, which itself is based on the 1995 novel.
Wicked is an example of an author taking another author’s work and doing something interesting and creative with the characters, exploring different themes and perspectives. Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, takes the Wicked Witch of the West, a villain in Frank L Baum’s stories, and makes her a sympathetic, somewhat relatable character.
It’s a much more appealing concept than the ones presented to us in the Twisted Childhood Universe.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey could have been interesting. Pooh is angry because Christopher abandoned him and his friends and went to college. As a result, they become feral and eat poor Eeyore because they are starving. Ok, fair enough. It’s what some animals do.
But rather than Pooh developing a hatred for humans, we could have had an interesting story about Pooh and his friends in the woods. We could have seen the animals having adventures, and most importantly, we could have had a movie that helps children to learn about maintaining friendships.
We could have seen Pooh eventually reuniting with Christopher and the two of them continuing to remain friends, like they did in the books when Christopher went to school.
It sounds overly sweet. But sometimes, just sometimes, it’s nice to watch stories like that. And we would have had a brand-new adaptation that remained respectful to the source material and suitable for children.
But no.
Instead, Pooh and his friends become violent, with a penchant for killing young female university students. Oh, and *spoiler alert* they also kill Christopher’s fiancée.
It just all seems so…unnecessary. There’s just absolutely nothing enjoyable about watching a bunch of beloved characters carrying out various methods of murder. Nothing is entertaining about watching a young woman being decapitated and another one being tossed into a woodchipper. And I say that as someone with a dark sense of humour who loves horror movies with creative deaths. But those movies appeal to me because they contain new characters that were not part of my childhood.
There is no end in sight for this twisted franchise.
Guess which other character is on the list?
Bambi.
Yep, Bambi.
In this version, Bambi tries to get revenge for the death of his mother. Fair enough, I can kind of get my head around that concept.
But again, it just feels pointless.
The death of Bambi’s mother is one of the most memorable scenes in cinema history (go watch that scene without crying, I dare you!). It’s kind of understandable that someone would want us to see the beloved deer seeking revenge for his mother’s death.
But the original story taught us a lot. It showed us that Bambi was able to learn about life from his father and that he was able to gain many experiences without becoming a bloodthirsty, revenge-seeking killer. The novel has been considered a little dark for children, but still, there was absolutely no need for anyone to take this sweet deer and turn him into a mutated, revenge-seeking killer.
There’s no creativity there.
Surprisingly, this one received better reviews from the critics. I’m not usually one to listen to critics (if I did, then there would have been many enjoyable but critically panned movies that I would have missed out on). The same applies to movies that receive good reviews. Just because a movie receives good reviews, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good. And so, once again, I won’t be listening to the critics!
These movies just feel flat and unnecessary.
And worst of all, children are sure to notice these horrific versions of the characters they love, especially when there are movie posters with the faces of these evil versions plastered on them.
I’ve had to explain Winnie-the-Pooh’s brand new menacing look to my daughter, who has stumbled across photos of the character. Imagine the conversations between parents and their children:
Child: “Why does Winnie-the-Pooh look like that, Mummy?”
Mummy: “That’s not Winnie-the-Pooh, it’s someone else. Pay no attention to it.”
Translation:
“Because the writers and producers seem to think that us grownups will find enjoyment in watching an evil-looking Pooh and Piglet killing young women in brutal ways in our spare time.”
Mary Poppins is also on the Twisted Childhood Universe’s hit list. Yep, you heard right, the loveable nanny with the lovely singing voice and the awesome carpet bag will be completely butchered and transformed into a kidnapper.
All I can do right now is shake my head at the state of today’s cinema. Is it an age thing? Have I become boring since hitting my 40s? Do I have less tolerance for nonsensical storylines?
Maybe.
But it’s just so tragic to see. Gone are the days of creative cinema, with awesome movies such as Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and Edward Scissorhands, and fun family films such as Jumanji and Hocus Pocus, with us now being presented with the steaming pile of poo that is the Twisted Childhood Universe.
And no matter how much they fail, they just keep on coming, with two (yes, two) more Winnie-the-Pooh movies set to be released.
What’s next? The Mad Hatter becoming a stalker? Alice becoming a sex worker? Oh wait…That is actually going to happen. Sigh.
Obviously, some people enjoy these movies, and that’s fine. But I’ll stick to the original stories, thanks!
