Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is one of the rare films in history which received a shocking 3% on Rotten Tomatoes. Films that are considered some of the worst films ever made have never got to that low of an RT score. The film has been memefied all over the internet and became the laughing stock of cinephiles in 2023.
Despite the overwhelming backlash and criticism, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield is set to release the sequel of the film this year. In a recent interview, he reflected on the negativity that the film got. He also defended it by citing the conditions it was made under and weirdly comparing it with Marvel films.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey Director Defends Backlash Over the Film
When Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was released last year, audiences had no idea what to expect from the film. A slasher film with Winnie the Pooh was not something they were clamoring for and the concept was a weird one. When the film was released, it was a cinematic misfire, with many criticizing its inability to provide an entertaining film.
Now the director of the film Rhys Frake-Waterfield has come out and spoke to SFX Magazine about the backlash that the film received. He stated that an independent filmmaker like him has to have thick skin to take on criticism that might come his way. He found the criticism of his film to be strange and claimed that the film failed due to comparisons with Marvel films which have a much higher budget than his film. He said (via GamesRadar),
“It’s a really strange one for me. To be honest, you’ve got to have a really, really thick skin to be a filmmaker because you get heavily, heavily criticized regardless of the means and the resources you have. When your film is out there like that, it literally gets directly compared to Marvel films, even though you’re on 0.01% of their budget.
We probably didn’t have their catering budget! They’re substantially different. But because of the scale Winnie went to, a lot of the critics did almost like-for-like comparisons.”
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was made under a budget of $100,000 in 10 days (via Variety). However, his statement is not a valid reason for the poor reception of his film. Audiences found the film to be bland, lazy, and incoherent. The film managed to make a profit compared to its budget by making at least $5 million. A sequel is already coming this year titled Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.
Rhys Frake-Waterfield Planning a Shared Cinematic Universe of Disney Characters
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was director Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s first attempt at making a shared universe of horror/ slasher versions of classic Disney characters. With the release of a sequel this year, it was also announced that additional twisted takes on Peter Pan and Bambi will also be made titled Bambi: The Reckoning (via Movieweb) and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (via Movieweb).
Frake-Waterfield told SFX Magazine (via GamesRadar) that he is planning a crazy crossover film between Bambi and Winnie The Pooh and making it a wild adventure. He also expressed his desire to watch Winnie riding Bambi in that film. He said,
“We need to see what the appetite is, but we could do some absolutely crazy stuff, like a crossover between Bambi and Winnie the Pooh. That could go incredibly mad. I need to sit down and think how mad we want to go with it! We could have Winnie riding Bambi!”
This is a crazy and wild concept for a film and it remains to be seen how Frake-Waterfield manages to make a watchable film out of it. People can stream Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey on Peacock or Amazon Prime.
