Following the viral release of its predecessor, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield made many promises about his plans to make Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. A bigger budget and more recognizable characters were some of the more notable of his desire to build on the novel concept of the 2023 slasher, but the most important of them all was a drastic improvement over it. While he may not have crafted a cinematic masterpiece, the sequel certainly shows a lot of lessons were taken to heart from the original, which holds an abysmal three percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The sequel to the horror parody of A.A. Milne’s children’s story, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, picks up shortly after the first film’s events. The new movie will continue the murderous rampage of the residents of the Hundred-Acre Wood, with Tigger joining the carnage as the character enters the public domain in January 2024.
- A better script and better focus on character development.
- Solidly builds out The Twisted Childhood Universe without feeling overstuffed.
- A bigger budget leads to grislier kills, better production design & decent CGI.
- Scott Chambers’ acting takes a while to become convincing.
- The monsters’ dialogue devolves into schlocky & cartoonish clichés.
- The movie’s self-awareness is welcome at times, but goofy in others.
Picking up one year after the events of its predecessor, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 finds Christopher Robin shunned by the town of Ashdown, who refuse to believe his claims about the titular character and Piglet perpetrating the prior movie’s massacre. Meanwhile, with Pooh, Piglet and Owl now being hunted by the few who believe Christopher’s story, the group set off to kill him and protect their home, resulting in another relentless bloodbath. With the exploration of Christopher and Pooh’s past and developing the world of The Twisted Childhood Universe, the sequel is a big step in the right direction.
An Improved Script Leads To Better Character Work & Assured Tone
Christopher Robin & the monsters feel more fleshed out and self-awareness leads to some decent gags
Despite having a relatively quick turnaround time between productions and being the creative head of the franchise plans, Frake-Waterfield made a smart move with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 by bringing in Matt Leslie to pen the script. Largely working as an assistant in the past, there is one feature-length title to Leslie’s name with Summer of 84, a horror-thriller in the same vein as The Goonies or Stranger Things, in which a group of teenagers investigates their neighbor being a suspected serial child abductor.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 shows a better grip on its overall tone and character development than its predecessor. Rather than relying on the novelty of its premise, Leslie’s script properly fleshes out Christopher and the rest of their monsters, including introducing a unique twist explaining the latter group’s story. Additionally, the tone finds a way to allow audiences to laugh at the absurdity of the concept without undermining the thrills Frake-Waterfield seeks to deliver with the movie.
Though these take better steps forward, there are still some issues with the movie’s overall pacing and balancing of its tone. Meta gags like an in-universe movie titled Blood & Honey: The Christopher Robin Story become a little too on-the-nose as footage is used from the original, while some of the movie’s kills feel dropped in at random to keep audiences hooked. Furthermore, some of the monsters’ dialogue — already a drastic change from the predecessors’ no-talking rule — becomes cartoonish and reminiscent of the bad Nightmare on Elm Street sequels.
The Cast Relish In Their Roles (Even If One Takes Some Time To Land Their Performance)
Owl’s Marcus Massey & Tigger’s Lewis Santer chew up plenty of scenery, but Scott Chambers starts off on rocky footing
Writing duties aren’t the only major change to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2‘s creative team, as Frake-Waterfield has brought in a whole new cast for the various returning characters in the movie. The introductions of franchise newcomers Lewis Santer as Tigger and Marcus Massey as Owl largely prove welcome ones, with the duo relishing their roles as the iconic childhood characters-turned-vicious monsters. Santer, in particular, shines as Tigger. And though Tigger is kept hidden for much of the movie, Santer makes every scene count.
The biggest introduction to the roster is Scott Chambers as Christopher Robin, taking over the role from Nikolai Leon in the first movie. With a more substantial part than his predecessor, Chambers needed to infuse plenty of heart into Robin and establish a compelling protagonist for audiences to follow, but unfortunately, it takes a while to feel this. For many of his earlier scenes, the actor/producer puts on an awkward smile, even as he’s faced with learning aspects of his traumatic past and grapples with being the town pariah.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2
- Director
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Rhys Frake-Waterfield
- Release Date
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March 26, 2024
- Studio(s)
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Jagged Edge Productions
- Distributor(s)
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ITN Distribution
- Writers
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Rhys Frake-Waterfield
, Matt Leslie
, A.A. Milne - Cast
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Scott Chambers
, Ryan Oliva
, Tallulah Evans
, Simon Callow
, Eddy MacKenzie - Runtime
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100 Minutes
- prequel(s)
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Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
As the story progresses, though, Chambers does start to find his rhythm as Christopher. Effectively capturing his fears of going toe-to-toe with Pooh and his former friends again, the heartbreak of learning the truth about his and Pooh’s dark past, and losing a few people close to him in the latest bloodbath, the actor does eventually craft a believable performance.
The Larger Budget Delivers More Exciting Thrills
Frake-Waterfield doesn’t forget what audiences want to see and delivers in droves
The most important element for any slasher is, of course, the kills doled out by the movie’s antagonists, and Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 certainly delivers on this front. With a budget said to be 10 times bigger than its predecessor, the sequel utilizes this extra financing well with its production design and effects, redesigning Pooh and the other Hundred Acre Wood monsters and making them far grislier and more terrifying to watch. The kills also feel far more brutal and larger in scale than some in the original movie, generally proving that bigger is often better.
Despite these improvements, there are still occasions where the movie’s smaller budget becomes quite apparent. Unlike the first movie, the sequel incorporates a fair amount of CGI to achieve effects like Owl flying through the sky and taking down victims, or large fountains of blood coming from those who happen to get in Pooh and Tigger’s paths. While there are moments where the effect is quick enough to be forgivable, there are others where the efforts look a bit too goofy.
Following the critical panning of the first movie, The Twisted Childhood Universe seemed it would have almost as short of a shelf life as Universal’s Dark Universe plans, racing to take advantage of its novelty without a thought as to how the movies could work independently. With Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, though, not only have Frake-Waterfield and his team shown a willingness to learn from prior mistakes, but also build on them towards something exciting in the future.
