Mickey vs. Pooh: The dark twist no one saw coming

Last year, the budget horror film "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" made its way to theaters. Its characters, lifted from A.A. Milne's beloved children's books, took a dark turn, with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet morphing into murderous creatures haunting visitors to the Hundred Acre Wood. Despite receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews, the movie raked in five million dollars and secured a sequel, which premiered in American cinemas this year. Moreover, it's been confirmed that a third installment is in the works.

The transformation of Winnie the Pooh into a slasher film protagonist occurred after his story entered the public domain. Stuart Heritage of "The Guardian" made an ominous prediction early last year: "Just wait until Mickey Mouse starts killing women in bikinis in a similarly tacky movie." His foresight was accurate; following Disney's loss of the earliest rights to Mickey Mouse's image, a horror film titled "Mickey’s Mouse Trap" was produced.

An upcoming film, "Mickey vs. Winnie," promises a low-budget horror showdown between Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Although not directly tied to the Pooh series, this movie, produced by the Hundred Acre Wood studio, pits the two characters against each other.

Directed by Glenn Douglas Packard, "Mickey vs. Winnie" tells the riveting story of two bandits who stumbled upon a cursed forest in the 1920s, only to be consumed by its darkness. A century later, a group of friends ventures into the same woods, encountering the now-mutated versions of Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh, setting the stage for a horrifying nightmare. The dynamic shift as Mickey and Pooh confront one another adds an unexpected twist to their fight for survival.

Could "Mickey vs. Winnie" rival classics such as "Alien vs. Predator" or "Freddy vs. Jason," albeit with a tighter budget? Only time will reveal. For now, the movie's release date remains undecided.

In a nod to Marvel's expansive universe, the minds behind the Winnie the Pooh horror series aspire to create a monstrous ensemble including Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Bambi, Tinker Bell, Pinocchio, Piglet, Tigger, Mad Hatter, and Sleeping Beauty, tentatively titled "Poohniverse." However, given the modest box office performance of "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2" in the US, which grossed $680,000 on a budget of half a million dollars, it remains to be seen whether this ambitious project will come to fruition.