Winnie The Pooh’s Original ‘Horror’ Movie Came Out 26 Years Before Blood And Honey

Although Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey made headlines for its irreverent treatment of A.A. Milne’s beloved source material, the film was not the first time the franchise has veered into horror territory. The 2023 movie’s premise sees beloved characters Pooh and Piglet transformed into horrific caricatures of themselves, embarking on a murderous and vengeance-fuelled rampage. While this is a far cry from Disney’s child-friendly depictions of the classic characters, one earlier movie does predate Blood and Honey‘s horrifying setup.

Made for a budget of just $50,000, Blood and Honey is a subversive distortion of the classic Winnie-the-Pooh story. Focusing on Pooh and Piglet’s quest for revenge after they were abandoned in the Hundred Acre Wood by Christopher Robin, the movie is a brutally dark slasher that utilizes extreme violence from the outset. In this regard, it is completely unlike any other Winnie-the-Pooh adaptation. However, despite its copious gore, the movie is not the only Winnie-the-Pooh project to incorporate horror elements into a traditionally innocent narrative.

Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin Is The Original Winnie The Pooh Horror

Despite not being a typical out-and-out horror movie, the 1997 direct-to-video Winnie-the-Pooh movie Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin is nonetheless the character’s first true horror appearance. Like Blood and Honey, the movie explores the trauma felt by Pooh and the rest of the Hundred Acre Wood inhabitants as Christopher Robin leaves for a mysterious destination. However, instead of eating Eyeore, the group decides to try and find Christopher Robin, embarking on an epic quest that will take them far beyond their comfort zone.

Billed as a “Grand Adventure“, the movie is, for a certain generation of viewers, a genuinely traumatic journey into the heart of darkness. The group’s mission sees Piglet abducted, Rabbit experience an existential breakdown, and Pooh become trapped in an inescapable crystal cave, all while the group is stalked by the mysterious and terrifying Skullasaurus. Featuring some of the most striking imagery seen in any Disney Pooh film, Pooh’s Grand Adventure is as potentially traumatic as any true horror movie.

Pooh’s Grand Adventure Is Scarier Than Blood And Honey (Despite Being A Kids’ Movie)

Part of the reason Pooh’s Grand Adventure is so unsettling is the bizarro way in which its world is depicted. Once the group leaves the safety of the Hundred Acre Wood, the animation takes on a surreal, disturbing quality, where sinister shapes are grotesquely exaggerated. Memorably, the group has to enter a cave in the shape of a hideous skull, while another scene distorts Pooh himself into a horrifying monster. As an adult, the scenes are an uncomfortable corruption of childhood comforts. For younger viewers, some of these moments are genuinely scary.

It’s this awkward facsimile quality, like an animated version of Jordan Peele’s Us, that makes Pooh’s Grand Adventure a more effective horror than Blood and Honey. Where the 2023 slasher relies on buckets of gore and violence for its impact, Pooh’s Grand Adventure takes the innocent essence of beloved characters and changes them – a move that is fundamentally more disturbing. It might be much less explicit, but that doesn’t mean Pooh’s Grand Adventure isn’t unsettling.

Pooh’s Grand Adventure Highlights A Major Problem With Blood And Honey

In many ways, Blood and Honey represents a missed opportunity to do something genuinely transgressive with the Winnie-the-Pooh characters and setting. The film scored an abysmal 3% positive score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, highlighting that it failed to deliver on an interesting premise. This failure is further highlighted by the comparative acclaim of the film’s 2024 sequel, which currently stands at 52% on the site. However, while critics pointed out the film’s flimsy dialogue and ludicrous story, the biggest problem was its complete abandonment of the original stories.

Part of the reason Pooh’s Grand Adventure is effectively scary is that its characters and setting are recognizable. The movie takes familiar, comforting elements and turns them into something threatening – an approach that Blood and Honey failed to replicate. Where the 2023 slasher’s villains are unrecognizable, Pooh’s Grand Adventure sees beloved characters struggling with difficult, existential issues. Pooh’s Grand Adventure is not a masterpiece, holding just 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, by retaining the essence of the original series, it was much more successful in unsettling its audience.