Film Theory: This is Disney’s WORST Fear! (Winnie the Pooh)

Matpat literally taught me more about public domain, copyright and trademarks, than any of my schools could.

Gotta give it to Disney - Trademarking literal frames of animation was genius

Ok now I'm officially convinced he can turn anything into a theory.

This might actually explain why they're doing all these live action remakes. A means to maintain rights to their versions of these characters.

I don’t know why, but I absolutely love it when the theorist channels start talking about copyright, trademarks, and the public domain and seeing the lengths companies are willing to go to keep their IPs in their control.

To be fair, Reimagining characters without their iconogrophy sounds like a great way to get to the core of a character in creative ways.

Someone is 100% going to make a horror movie based on all of the Disney characters 😂

I actually sort of wish that would happen. Disney seems to only care about money nowadays, they haven't been faithful to Walt's dreams for the company and there's no doubt Walt would rather see Disney go out of business, then let it continue to continue going down the way it has been because of greed and poor management and business choices.
Disney may have and make a lot of money, made more modern classics like The Lion King, Toy Story, Frozen, Zootopia and etc., but they're just being lazy and greedy acquiring other companies and their IPs and making all those live-action remakes of classic Disney films, which Walt himself surely would've hated and been furious with them for!
-NightFang100 Clash10
*Disney has always cared more about money since Walt died. Their greed and politics are going to wreck them hard.*

I’m not gonna lie, ‘Bambi: The Reckoning’ made me laugh so hard I had to pause the video in order to collect myself. I had heard there may be a Bambi horror movie, so that in and of itself didn’t shock me. For some reason, the title just caught me by surprise and absolutely sent me

As someone who was nicknamed Winnie the Pooh as a small child (due to my name being somewhat similar), I cannot tell you how weird this is. Even weirder than it is for everyone else.

Omg i actually need to thank matpat for this. I thought i would be confused asf while he was talking about copyright and trademark laws, but its actually far from it. Seriously, Matt has a strange gift to explain things so well. Thank you for teaching me and keeping me entertained in the process. Peace.

I love how mat manages to stay consistent with all his channels

Disney sued and threatened a childrens hospital for having a peter pan themed room/playcenter to help the kids cheer up and socialize even though they were using it based on public domain and werent even using the disney characters.
Its nice seeing someone use the public domain to scare disney like this

I know Jakeneutron has already covered it all, but I want to see more people talk about Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. Jake currently made a whole new look, with the name Public Ozwald. It isn't a "theory-must" but if anyone on the theory team is reading this, definitely look into it. It's an interesting thing going on right now-

This is way off topic, but I'd love to see a theory on Osmosis Jones, and what kind of real world virus that Thrax could be representing. I think the movie is kind of hinting at Thrax being scarlet fever, given that Frank's symptoms start with a sore throat, the other germs are calling him, "muerte rojo" or Red Death, and he seems to be humming Peggy Lee's "Fever" in one scene. The problem with that theory being that he's referred to as a virus, and scarlet fever is a bacteria. So what virus looks like the common cold, and attacks DNA like Thrax does in the movie? Help! The internet needs Dr. Matpat, M.D.

Honestly, as a new creator, this terrifies me, as I have a serious trigger and paranoia about people taking my dedicated work and creations, and the fact I can lose all of it and it be possibly warped is truly horrifying

Props to Mat and the team for bringing such engrossing theories

Not sure if this was a theory vid so much as a legal lesson vid but I enjoyed it none the less. Great work as always! 👍

A horror movie with Mickey Mouse would be quite unique

This made me think about that one Mickey Mouse "cameo" in the game No Bodies: After Dark. They made an in-game joke about not having the rights to the character at all while "Morkey the Rodent" is clearly the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey.

As soon as a bunch of the more modern depictions of characters are out, I can’t wait for the creepypasta horror movies to be made. It may be somewhat cheesy, but Abandoned by Disney would be an entertaining horror movie.

I feel like a whole new horror movie series would be made about Disney Characters by the same company.

ANYTHING is full of legend and even more sinister than ever. Disney's worst nightmare is in the public domain. Thanks to Mat and team for delivering such fascinating theories.

I think some good works could come out of this. Imagine a Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse movie where instead of a edgy horror bloodbath there are more adult and deep themes that Disney isn't brave enough to depict. Something like Del Toro's Pinocchio but with disney characters.
The fact that they necessarily have to distance themselves from the modern depictions of these characters to avoid copyright could ironically become an advantage instead of a limitation.

from chuck e cheese to winnie the pooh, this man can make ANYTHING full of lore and even eviller than it should ever be. thanks mat.

Love how Disney would rather these extreme interpretations exist than multiple loving creators who want to add to the current iterations.

Finding out the Mickey mouse would ever hit public domain at any point in time is traumatizing on its own 😭

Awesome video guys! Copyright it such a complicated thing and its nice to have an amazing team putting these issues at the front! I just wanted to say that Adam Ruins Everything actual had an episode about the last time Mickey Mouse and the Grimm Fairy tails were almost put into the public domain. I believe it was in 2019.

Peter Pan has a huge potential as an horror movie if you know the true story

I had absolutely no idea this movie existed and I am excited to Watch it honestly this whole project that they have sounds phenomenally

hey, Quick idea for a film theory. You guys should do a video on the owl house. The last episode comes out in two weeks and it would be nice for the show to get some recognition from you guys since it's ending way too soon. No pressure if you have seen this but it would still be nice.

i think video game developers need to keep an eye out on these domains opening up.
being able to make collabs without the years of communicating towards how the collaboration works out could be really good for some games.

I love how matpat & team have made these videos impossible for Disney to copyright claim unless they want to make it canon that their mascot is a deranged evil kidnapping serial killer.

2:37 After Mickey has entered the public domain, his place for the new Disney mascot will likely go to either Jiminy Cricket or Tinker Bell, since they have been represented very clearly in past Disney marketing and logos. The modern Disney logo even features references to both of them: two bright stars next to each other, akin to the line "second star to the right and straight on till morning" from Peter Pan, and the melody from Pinocchio's "When You Wish Upon A Star". There's also Casey Jr., the circus train from Dumbo, but that's beside the point.🦗🧚‍♀️🌟

A perfect example of this is Jake Neutron working his way around and creating Ozwald (a version of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit)
I highly recommend watching the video on his channel about it

I've noticed the addition of the Steamboat Willie animation into the Disney logo, but I always thought it was just a fun reference and callback to the origins of the company, a way to honor their heritage. I never realized that it was a skeezy way to dodge copyright law. That kinda makes me feel bad.

If Disney ever needs a new Mickey voice they can look no further

Same. These works and characters entering the public domain is good for creativity and inspiration and that helps new generations of artists and creators create new and original works, not just the original companies and estates, who's creators died long ago!
-NightFang100 Clash10
*Obviously, horror Winnie the Pooh, shows the Devil's Advocate of the public domain, but in the end, public domain has more positive than negative.*

Don’t know who else has seen it but I feel like Liminal Land is something that I would love to see a video about

Ok, we NEED a stop motion animated adaptation of the original Winnie the pooh

I've literally been saying this for years and mattpat put it in a much more cohesive argument. Thank you mattpat, we love you

Didnt realize the characters of Winnie the Pooh were under public Domain, theirs so many old horror movies that are under it like Night Of The Living Dead, Nosferatu, and almost any Silent horror movie

12:01 There is no way Disney can copyright Darth Vader breathing. It is literally just SCUBA gear noises.

While I definitely agree with you, this is still generally untested in the courts. From what I have seen there are copyright experts who are skeptical to say the least about the ideas of using trademark to restrict the access to public domain works. Even if Disney’s interpretation ends up being future precedent , there are still thousands of works entering the public domain every year.

disney’s worst fear is the kung fu panda franchise, it’s going to put disney out of business

It’s funny that I can understand both sides. I get wanting it to be fair for everyone, being able to use characters and the like. But at the same time, I understand that creators and their companies don’t want their characters to be butchered.

As crazy of a legal minefield this is I'm still excited to see how new creative people will interpret these characters yeah some if not most will probably be bad but I'm sure there will be some gems in the rough

Matpat is the only person who can convince me I’m a crayon and I’d believe it wholeheartedly.

I started watching this guy’s channel just six months ago and finished watching all the videos on film AND game theory and am working on style and food theory

Every film theory I watch gives me a few more brain cells😂

Ok. I was literally a mentally unstable child then found you and your channels then just fell in love. You have been there for me and you still make amazing videos! ❤️

Hi #TeamTheorists, I was just watching Hotel Transylvania 2 and I got curious upon seeing a scene that happened in the film. In the scene, Dracula tried to teach his grandson, Dennis, how to fly by throwing him off a tall building, this got my wondering just how tall was the building in the first place and would Dennis actually manage to not hit the ground in all the time Drac waited before going to save him? After all, gravity pulls acts very fast over a short period of time, so wouldn't Dennis end up getting killed from this? I know this is a kids film, but then again, this is what Theorists do so what do you guys think?

Not gonna lie, I kinda wanna see MatPat do a Film Theory on Battle For BFDI.

By next year, I fully expect someone to make a horror movie about Steamboat Willy

Not Only the Original Mickey will be in the Public Domain, people forget about the original Minnie and Pete will also too.

Sure there's a lot of restrictions but I can't wait for people to go crazy on this stuff. They always surprise me how far they're willing to go and I love it.

I've been binge watching every theory channel ever since I stopped 3 months ago due to exams. I'm watching in the toilet and anywhere possible you can imagine. I'm loving this

Interestingly enough, last year I started volunteering online by narrating public domain works to be turned into audio books for fair use and was considering narrating the original Winnie the pooh.

I'll never understand Disney's fear of Mickey mouse entering the public domain. At some point he has to become public domain

This reminds me of Hasbro's relationship with the word 'transform'. You'll notice in most of the recent toy packaging and instructions, they advertise that the figure "converts in X number of steps" because if they overuse the word 'transform' it will become generic and allow other companies to sell 'transformers' toys instead if 'transforming robot toys'

I like the idea of the original winnie just walking in the public domain, only to stumble into this movie by accident after taking a shady path, and accidentally meet the slasher. "Oh bother, do you need help cleaning off that jam?"

We need a Winnie The Pooh where he integrates into modern society and decided to become a UAclipsr that only takes Honey sponsorships.

I actually like all this. It really forces you to make public domain characters more of your own thing.

I love the Kingdom Hearts references in this video. Great job MattPat, never thought you could do that! Combined two of my favorite worlds 🥹🥹

16:37 That animation is most likely NOT the original animation from Steamboat Willie, because it should be followed by Mickey pulling the strings for the boat whistles right after he has finished whistling. That was not included in the new logo, so it must've been new animation, but in the style of the original.🤔

The Peter Pan horror... yeah that one already exists in literary form. The book is called Lost Boy. And while it may not appear as a horror (and I would agree that it can be discussed whether it's horror or not) but once you start to think about it as a backstory, it becomes a bit chilling.

I love it when you guys do horror movies

I know he was joking about “Copyright Theory” but fr this is stuff I need to know as a creator, please make more of this!

This has taught me that to do anything that's been copyrighted/trademarked you need to be the equivalent of a legal gymnast

And that's why I love Germany: Trademark protection can expire if the brand becomes synonymous with a whole genre of products, also known as Deonyms. For example, there used to be a brand of paper tissues called Tempo (it still exists), but because everybody started using their brand name for every kind of paper tissue they had a hard time prolonging the trademark

This theory was legit scarier than the actual movie

10:45 wait, is this confirmation of a new theory channel? I thought you’d stop after four because of you know the colours.

Can't wait for that Mickey Mouse+Superman tag team in 10 years!

I love how MatPat couldn’t say member-berries at the end 😂

The point isn't to make money or be a good movie it's to set a movement in motion.

I feel like the Public Domain parts were foreshadowed in SheHulk when there were a bunch of legal battles about trademarking words themselves

People have always been doing horror things with beloved characters. Worst fear for companies is when it becomes legal and can go on the big screen: public domain

Really enjoyed this theory and learned a lot!

This was soo interesting!! Honestly gotta give it to Disney for their creativity of getting around it and still protecting what's theirs

If there were a horror movie based on Peter pan or mickey mouse; I would not be surprised at all the horror of them might be their real selves especially after watching once upon a time series twice and watching a video about mickey mouse as a character.

8:03 - a great example of this is the wizard of oz… while the film itself is not in the public domain, the book is

Might not be bad for some properties where the people in charge clearly won't listen to fan feedback or desire. Fan-based versions of our favorite characters that do them more justice than the original could also be a thing.

Legal loopholes also existed with the mean one, a horror adaptation of how the Grinch stole Christmas. The character was simply never referred to as "the Grinch, whoville was named "newville", Cindy loohoo was named "Cindy you know who" among many other examples. And that film was still made much before the Grinch came to public domain.

it is nice that copyright law is explained in such an easy to understand way.
thank you for this.

Hm, I see, how very interesting, these next years are going to be very interesting, I hope we’ll get to see something great from this, regardless of the Copyright and Trademarks, ‘cause I have learned that there are a lot curative people out there and I would be very fascinated to see if they will shine through.

I kept waiting for the twist to be that Disney themselves produced this horror movie.

The new voice actor for Winnie and Mickey is Foafy!!! Best casting choice!!!😂

Matt actually had such a good opportunity to use the the Fine bros “react” copyright attempt to help explain why you can’t copyright ideas like “theory” 😂

This explains so much how Brightburn became a “Superman” villain origin story and they still were able to make it without problems. It wasn’t the best movie but at least I know how they were able to make it. Thank you Film Theory! Learning a new thing every week!

I know there’s copyright complications with Peter Pan in the UK. It impacted Willingham’s ability to use the characters in his Fables series

Can you do a line of theory’s about the Studio Ghibli movies? Also a time line? The movies are beautifully made, they also seem to be connected in one or two universes just at different times

Fun fact this EXACT Movie came out to theaters on my birthday 😀 So guess what I went and watched on my birthday. The worst part is that for some reason this child was sitting right next to me, poor kid probably has nightmares now😭

Doesn't surprise me that Peter Pan is one of the ones next up to become a horror movie, depending on how you look at the original work it practically is close to being one already and probably would require surprisingly little adjustment to become full-on horror. Peter Pan just as an individual is just creepy.

The concept of the film reminds me of the artist that made mock up posters of kids games (Hungry Hungry Hippos, Guess Who, Mouse Trap, etc.) as horror movie posters.

Disney couldn't deal with the threat of Steam boat Willie entering public domain, so they did the Ultimate Galaxy Brain move and turned him into a brand

Could we get a Video on "The Menu"? I would love to see MatPat dissect the psychology of Julian Slowik or the meaning behind the ending.

2:21 ngl my favorite part of the video was all these characters just dancing away 😂😂

Mat you NEED to make a theory about detective conan, the plot is finally developing quickly I’d literally consume any type of content you’d put out of it😭😭😭

Been a while since we’ve heard the Mickey Mouse voice over here. Still just as good as always :)

I never thought about Winnie the Pooh in that way before. This theory is really interesting and well thought out.