Ok, wait. Hear me out on this one.

A lot of people are going to look at this horror movie Winnie the Pooh and just groan. I get that reaction. And it may be awful. I have no idea. I also have no real love of any kind for the Winnie the Pooh franchise, but I think I do like what this represents.

This movie is going to happen because the rights to Winnie the Pooh expired, and unlike literally everything else these days, I went into public domain. Disney did not buy it. This, I think, is a massive victory for society.

Consider what could have been the alternative, with some dumb corporation snapping up the rights, putting a liklely perpetual ban of public use on this, and then we would have gotten movie after cookie-cutter movie with this IP, until we all hate it. Instead we are getting an actual transformative text, which, who knows, may actually be enjoyable.

I’m not holding my breath, but hey. It’s not another Marvel or Star Wars movie.

At least there is that.