The Razzie-winning Pooh horror movie: Why is it banned in Hong Kong?

Winnie is back and this time he wants revenge. The 2023 independent slasher film, 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey,' was crowned at the 2024 Razzie Awards with 'prizes' for Worst Movie, Worst Director, Worst Sequel, Worst Screen Combo, and Worst Screenplay. But it's not the quality of the film that got it banned in Hong Kong. What did?

In the 2023 horror film, Winnie and his friends turn from lovable childhood characters into something much darker and incredibly sinister. That’s right, independent filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield directed and produced this dark tale about A.A. Milne’s much-loved children’s characters.

Follow Showbizz Daily to stay informed and enjoy more content!

We all know of the wonderful story of Pooh and his friends who live in a 100-acre wood, but what happens when Christopher Robin abandons them for college?

Photo: Jagged Edge Productions

Cristopher Robin heads off to pursue his studies and leaves them to fend for themselves. The result is far from bedtime reading.

Photo: Jagged Edge Productions

Christopher isn't around to feed them or give them guidance, and winter is fast approaching. Pooh, Piglet, and the others starve and resort to killing and eating poor Eeyore in order to survive (at least now he really has a reason to complain).

Photo: Jagged Edge Productions

The group is so traumatized by what they were forced to do that they turn their back on humanity and vow never to speak again. Something has clearly been broken; can Christopher Robin save the day?

Photo: Jagged Edge Productions

Years later, Christopher, now an adult, returns to the Hundred Acre Wood, with his fiancée, Mary. In an attempt to reunite with his old friends, however, he finds the place in a desolate state.

Photo: Jagged Edge Productions

Mary, Christopher’s fiancée, is spooked and wants to leave but the adult Robin wants to discover what has been happening in his childhood playground. Christopher Robin is then dragged into the woods after Mary is murdered by a crazed Piglet.

Photo: Jagged Edge Productions

The Winnie the Pooh horror movie was not shown in Hong Kong and Macau. According to the BBC, VII Pillars Entertainment apologized for the "disappointment and inconvenience" to viewers in the Chinese special administrative regions. However, the film isn't canceled for the violence alone...

In fact, the main reason the film stopped screening was due to the film's main character, Pooh. Chinese censors have been targeting this lovable bear since 2013 when memes started comparing him to President Xi Jinping.

Follow Showbizz Daily to stay informed and enjoy more content!

In fact, references to the comparison between the President and the bumbling bear have been used to protest against President Xi Jinping in recent years. This is the placard of Winnie the Pooh representing Xi Jinping held by pro-democracy supporters during a rally outside of the Chinese Liaison Office on May 24, 2020.

This protester was photographed wearing a Winnie the Pooh and Xi Jinping mask during the demonstration on Halloween in 2019. The bear has been blocked from being posted on Chinese social media, according to a report from the BBC.

Taiwan protesters gathered in Taipei, asking 'Chinese Media' to leave Taiwan in 2019. Thousands of Taiwanese took to the streets of Taipei (despite the heavy rain) to protest against the 'Chinese Media' in implanted Taiwan and also to claim their opposition to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) authoritarian rule in China.

In November 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand, a protester put an image of Xi Jinping's face on a stuffed Pooh bear.

Protesters were snapped in Thailand wearing Winnie the Pooh masks in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila in 2018, coinciding with the visit of China's President Xi Jinping to the Philippines.

Hong Kong's Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration denied the film had been censored, saying it had issued a certificate of approval for the horror movie.

The film's director Rhys Frake-Waterfield told Reuters: "The cinemas agreed to show it, then all independently come to the same decision overnight. It won't be a coincidence."

"They claim technical reasons but there is no technical reason," the director continued. "The film has showed in over 4,000 cinema screens worldwide. These 30-plus screens in Hong Kong are the only ones with such issues."

Perhaps in 2024, after it won so many Raspberry Awards, people in Hong Kong and Macau will finally satisfy their curiosity and check out the Pooh horror film. It's bound to be somewhere on the web, in streaming.