Whew, public domain has been all the rage the last year or so. Earlier this year a milestone moment happened when Mickey Mouse, or more specifically Steamboat Willy hit the public domain. This wasn’t the first we heard of beloved characters becoming free for all to use in any way they’d like, nope, that honor belongs to Jagged Edge Productions and their disturbingly odd Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey which saw everyone’s favorite pooh-bear go on a homicidal rampage.
While ‘Blood and Honey‘ was not well received by critics (or most audiences) it lit enough of a spark to start what’s being called the “Public Domain Horror Universe’. Jagged Edge (not to be confused with the awesome late-90s/early 00’s R&B group) not only has a sequel to Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey but also has Bambi: The Reckoning (a title worthy of Mel Brooks), Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and, as we learned today, Pinocchio Unstrung.
The news was released via BloodyDisgusting.com with a promise from the filmmakers that even more “Unannounced characters from the universe will be revealed in sketch drawings in the closing credits of Pooh 2”. While I wish these were handled with a little more polish, I absolutely love what these guys are doing. If you think about it, it’s a real full-turn moment where we get back to the original fairy tale stories of The Brothers Grimm, which we all know were not full of sunshine and rainbows. Honestly, the more I think about it the more I can’t believe that it took this long for someone to do a horror take on Pinocchio…I mean, killer dolls have been a thing forever and if you take one look at the sketch Jagged Edge released to show their take on the marionette that just wanted to be a “real boy” you’ll see that the results are terrifying.
