Summary
- Turning kid-friendly stories into horror films is a failed trend oversaturating the genre.
- Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’s commercial success didn’t equate to quality.
- The upcoming horror crossover Mickey vs Winnie shows the potential end of this unsuccessful trend.
An upcoming horror crossover proves a modern horror trend has gone too far without good results and needs to stop. The film industry is defined by trends, and the horror genre, in particular, has been kept afloat through some of them in recent years. Reboots and legacy sequels (or “requels”) have successfully revived popular franchises, but there’s another trend that has given a horror twist to non-horror stories and characters: making horror movies of characters and stories made for children, which has been possible thanks to these becoming part of the public domain.
Although turning kid-friendly stories into horror movies isn’t new, this trend gained force with the release of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey in 2023. Blood and Honey benefited from the curiosity around it and became a commercial success, even though it was panned by critics and general audiences. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey made way for a sequel and a shared universe of horror versions of kids’ stories named Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble. Now, this trend is about to see its first crossover, proving it has gone too far and should end as soon as possible.
Every Upcoming Movie In The Winnie-The-Pooh Horror Crossover Universe
The Winnie-The-Pooh Horror Universe is set to bring new terrifying twists on classic tales; here’s every confirmed movie in the franchise so far.
Mickey Mouse & Winnie-the-Pooh Are The Next Horror Crossover
This Horror Crossover Is Separate From The Poohniverse
A group of friends is haunted by two convicts who (somehow) mutated into twisted versions of Mickey Mouse and Winnie-the-Pooh.
There are many horror adaptations of kid-friendly stories currently in development, but one character who is being squeezed to the max by this trend is Mickey Mouse’s Steamboat Willie version. Along with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Steamboat Willie is now part of the public domain, and many filmmakers are taking advantage of it. Now, iHorror is bringing together Mickey Mouse’s Steamboat Willie and Winnie-the-Pooh in a horror crossover, simply titled Mickey vs Winnie. The film will follow a group of friends who venture into a dark forest, but their getaway soon turns dark and deadly.
While this isn’t the first crossover in the horror genre between two well-known characters, it is the first one with children’s characters.
Back in the 1920s, two convicts escaped and went into that same forest, where they were consumed by the darkness of the woods. Now, a century later, the group is haunted by the convicts who (somehow) mutated into twisted versions of Mickey Mouse and Winnie-the-Pooh, but they also clash with each other. Mickey vs Winnie is separate from the Poohniverse, but it’s already similar to the origins of Winnie-the-Pooh and company in Blood and Honey. While this isn’t the first crossover in the horror genre between two well-known characters, it is the first one with children’s characters.
In the first Blood and Honey, Pooh and friends were creatures Christopher Robin met at the Hundred Acre Wood and who became feral after Christopher Robin abandoned them to go to college. The sequel retconned this by revealing Pooh and the rest are humans who underwent genetic experiments that turned them into half-animal and half-human hybrids, and Pooh is Christopher Robin’s kidnapped twin, Billy. Mickey Mouse’s side of the story in Mickey vs Winnie isn’t like other horror Mickey Mouse movies in development, but the project shows this trend needs to stop.
Horror Versions Of Kids’ Tales Haven’t Succeeded (& Might Never Do)
Despite Sparking Curiosity, These Horror Movies Haven’t Really Succeeded
No horror adaptation of a children’s story has succeeded so far, but
Blood and Honey
unleashed a wave of adaptations that are oversaturating the horror genre.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’s impressive box office numbers don’t equal good quality, and it’s now regarded as one of the worst movies of all time. No horror adaptation of a children’s story has succeeded so far, but Blood and Honey unleashed a wave of adaptations that are oversaturating the horror genre. Mickey vs Winnie shows the trend has gone too far, and it’s unlikely it will be a critical success, as its premise doesn’t even make sense nor does it sound interesting. These adaptations also face the audience’s memory of the original tales of the characters, adding to their failure.
Taking these kid-friendly stories and characters as inspiration rather than making adaptations of them would be a lot better path for this type of movies, but if they continue doing the latter, none of the upcoming horror movies in this trend will go past the quality of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. Mickey vs Winnie is one of the weirdest crossovers in the horror genre, but it isn’t an exciting one.
