Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is a British independent slasher film directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and written by Matt Leslie. It serves as a sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and continues that film's concept as a horror re-imagining of A. A. Milne's classic Winnie the Pooh stories following their entrance into the Public Domain. It serves as the second installment of the Twisted Childhood Universe (although due to the first film to have been retconned as a dramatisation movie within this one’s universe, this can be considered the true start of the franchise).
Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Owl find their home and lives endangered after Christopher Robin reveals their existence. Not wanting to live in the shadows any longer, the group decides to embark on a rampage through the town of Ashdown and get their revenge on Christopher once and for all.
Set in production immediately after the surprise success of the first movie and with an increased budget stated by the director to be "ten times bigger" than the first Blood and Honey, the sequel was theatrically released on 26 March 2024. It features a completely new cast from the first movie (which is revealed to have actually been a film within the film), with Scott Chambers taking over from Nikolai Leon as Christopher Robin, Ryan Oliva taking over from Craig David Dowset as Winnie-the-Pooh, and Eddy MacKenzie taking over from Chris Cordell as Piglet. The new characters include Tigger and Owl, who join this movie after being absent in the first.
On 28 March 2024, a third film was confirmed to be in development.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Ugliness: The young Winnie-the-Pooh sports a sinister appearance (down to being a human-animal crossbreed), a heavy contrast to the plush and cute bear as seen in the original books and other adaptations of the character.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the source material, Pooh and friends were plushies brought to life through Christopher Robin's childhood imagination. Blood and Honey implies that these versions are simply anthropomorphic animal creatures, but this one reveals that Pooh and his friends were once human children involved in experimentation which turned them into human-animal hybrids.
- Big Bad: Despite what the title suggests, Owl is this film's true mastermind, not Pooh who is instead The Heavy. Being easily the most intelligent of the crossbreeds, he manipulates the gang by further feeding into their hatred against the humans and enacts a plan to destroy Ashdown and everyone in it. When Owl is the only one to escape Ashdown unscathed, he resurrects his friends to start a war against all of humanity.
- Broad Strokes: Since the first film has been retconned into an in-universe movie, its events may not have occurred in exactly the same way. Nevertheless, anyone who was killed in it remains dead here, including the cannibalization of Eeyore that occurred before the films began.
- Chainsaw Good: Pooh brings a chainsaw on fire in the finale intending to use it on Christopher.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: The first movie's prologue described Rabbit and Owl as among Pooh and Piglet's friends, but they were never seen or mentioned at all afterward. Owl returns for this movie, turned into a feral murderer like the rest, while Tigger (who was completely absent) also makes his debut, having entered the public domain in 2024.
- Death Is Cheap: Piglet is back, after having been killed in the previous film; then again, since that's now established as a fictional film in-universe, its makers may have merely assumed he died. He doesn't last very long thanks to a band of hunters, but the ending implies all of the crossbreeds that died will return, since they already came back from death with their creation in the first place. This hints that he did die in the events represented by the fictional film but ended up resurrecting.
- However, given that Eeyore is still dead, it can be assumed the crossbreeds' regeneration doesn't work as well if they are already starving and/or if their flesh is completely devoured.
- The Dreaded: Even among the vicious crossbreeds, Tigger is considered utterly vile and unhinged, to the point that they have to lock him up until the time is ready. He doesn't just kill to eat like the others, he tortures his victims before he does so.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: While not exactly a happy ending, Christopher Robin is finally cleared of all the murders that he was blamed for and manages to save his girlfriend Lexy and little sister Bunny.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Both Owl and Tigger have very deep, guttural voices that emphasize their feral, sadistic personalities.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Piglet has a wheezing, rasping voice and is no less misanthropic or violent than his fellow crossbreeds.
- Expy: Tigger's personality, behavior, and voice make him similar to Freddy Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise, as he relishes in scaring, taunting, and torturing his victims.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Crossed with Predecessor Villain, Dr. Gallup is the Mad Scientist who kidnapped several children, including Billy Robin, and turned them into the crossbreeds. He is long dead by the present day, having killed himself when he thought his experiments failed.
- The Heavy: While Owl is the Big Bad, being the one to mastermind the attack on Ashdown, the titular Pooh is still the film's most prominent villain and is the one who has the most personal connection to Christopher.
- Informed Species: While the other crossbreeds are at least somewhat recognizable as the animals they're supposed to be, Owl looks more like a vulture.
- It's Personal with the Dragon: Owl may be the Big Bad who drives the plot with his planned massacre of Ashdown, but the titular Pooh still has a far more personal connection to Christopher Robin.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: Owl kills a birdwatcher by carrying him off into the air and ripping him to pieces.
- Meta Sequel: The first movie is established to have been a fictional film in-universe, depicting the real events of the "Hundred Acre Massacre" that Christopher Robin is now blamed for. This is likely meant to explain why Christopher and all the Hundred Acre Wood residents look different and excuse the first movie's lower-budget look.
- Mythology Gag:
- The colour scheme of the young Christopher Robin's clothes matches what he wears in the Disney adaptation (yellow and blue).
- Before his death, Pooh's final line is, "Oh, bother," his most common catchphrase.
- Owl refers to Pooh as a bear of little brain, which is a quote from the original 1926 novel by A. A. Milne: "For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me."
- Pooh and Owl play a morbid version of "Poohsticks" with the remains of the above mentioned murdered bird watcher. The original game was invented by Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne, and first mentioned in his 1928 book The House at Pooh Corner.
- Christopher’s twin brother being named "Billy" is probably a reference to the real Christopher Robin Milne's childhood nickname "Billy Moon".
- Not Quite Dead: Piglet returns, having apparently survived the events detailed in the first film. Or, as seems to be the case by the end of this one, he was revived thanks to his Healing Factor.
- Police Are Useless: While they actually are present here unlike the predecessor, one cop absolutely underestimates how dangerous Pooh is and choosing not to hunt down Pooh much further allows several innocent lives to be slaughtered.
- Production Foreshadowing: While Chris is researching online, we briefly see an article suggesting the existence of mutated deer. This is clearly a tease for Bambi: The Reckoning.
- Related in the Adaptation: Winnie-the-Pooh is revealed to have once been Christopher Robin's kidnapped twin brother Billy, who was turned into a crossbreed through Gallup's experimentation.
- Self-Made Orphan: With the reveal that Pooh is Christopher Robin's brother, his killing of Chris's parents is in fact him killing his own parents.
- Sequel Hook: The movie ends with Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger starting to regenerate while Owl maniacally laughs about how they'll be coming for Chris again. The credits show promotional concept art for all of Jagged Edge Productions' announced movies (Bambi: The Reckoning, Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare, Pinocchio: Unstrung, and Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble) in rapid succession.
- The Smart Guy: While the crossbreeds aren't stupid, they certainly let their feral nature and anger dictate their actions more than their brains. Owl, however, stands out as the most intelligent guy on the team and acts more noticably more methodical and pragmatically than the rest of the team. He is capable of speaking in a sophisticated yet still threatening manner and is the one who masterminds the entire plan to destroy Ashdown.
- Suddenly Voiced: In the first movie, Pooh and Piglet were almost completely silent with Pooh only speaking one line at the very end: "You left." This time, they're far more talkative.
- Was Once a Man: All of the crossbreeds were once human children who were experimented on by a Mad Scientist.
