Winnie-the-Pooh Getting an Animated Series at Prime Video

Pooh, now in the public domain, is no longer the exclusive domain of Disney.

By Russ Burlingame

Kartoon Studios will launch a new, AI-assisted animated series based on A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh in 2025. The series, along with a number of holiday specials, will air on Prime Video starting on December 25, 2025, and will mark the first major animated Pooh project created since Walt Disney Animation Studios got the rights to Pooh in 1953. The character entered the public domain in 2022, and since then, there have been two Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey movies and some other uses of the character in the public domain.

Amazon will premiere an animated holiday movie, five holiday specials and 104 episodes of a series rolled out over four years, according to Deadline, who first reported the deal.

"Capitalizing on the enormous equity inherent in A.A. Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh, the unique designs and storytelling, as well as the production efficiency by harnessing AI, Kartoon Studios' new iteration of the timeless brand will have an exceptional array of attributes that we believe can lead to extraordinary profitability for the company," said Kartoon Studios Chairman and CEO Andy Heyward in a statement (via Deadline).  

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A unique design is key not only to using Pooh -- its has to be visually distinct from the DIsney version, after all -- but also to being able to trademark your version for selling merch -- something Kartoon is already planning to do in partnership with nationwide retail distributor Alliance Entertainment.

Viewers who subscribe to Kartoon Channel! through Prime Video will be able to access the Winnie-the-Pooh content. The channel itself is available through other digital platforms including Apple TV+, but the Pooh stuff in particulary is only headed to Prime.

Kartoon's Pooh shows will feature a "yarn-based" design in keeping with the idea that the lead character is a stuffed toy. Per the Deadline story, both the classic books and new stories will show up on the series, and will be told in "Seussian-style rhyme. Per Deadline, AI has been used along with human work to develop the look.

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"Disney created an iconic and tremendously successful global brand with Winnie-the-Pooh that we have all admired so much over many decades," said Heyward. "When the property went into the public domain, we knew we could only undertake creating Pooh for a new generation if we could bring a completely new, different and unique look that was contemporary, protectable, and gave voice to the characters and stories created by A.A. Milne, as has never been done."

He added, "At a time when our world can be confusing for children, Pooh is an oasis of goodness, grounded in family, friendship, kindness, and love. Those are the exact values our version of Pooh will showcase as we focus on building Kartoon Studios' Winnie-The-Pooh into a long-term global megabrand, through which the simple and comforting values A.A. Milne originally imagined, will endure forever."

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