‘Winnie-The-Pooh’ Movies & Series Coming To Amazon Through Kartoon Channel With $30M Production Funding Deal In Place

Jesse Whittock
·4 min read
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New Winnie-the-Pooh series and films are headed to Amazon, as part of an ambitious move by Kartoon Studios.

Amazon will premiere an animated holiday movie, five holiday specials and 104 episodes of a series rolled out over four years through the subscription kids network Kartoon Channel, which is distributed through Prime Video Channels.

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Kartoon Studios, which has put the plan into action after the original Winnie books entered the public domain two years ago, is also preparing a major merchandising push through an agreement with nationwide retail distributor Alliance Entertainment and a global consumer products rollout. “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.

Pre-production on the holiday film, A Hundred Acre Christmas, has already begun, with a December 25, 2025, launch date set. The other movies and the TV series will follow at later dates. Viewers who subscribe to Kartoon Channel! through Prime Video will be able to access the Winnie content. Kartoon Channel! is distributed on other platforms such as Apple TV, but only those who subscribe through Amazon will initially get access. Rollout on other platforms will follow.

Financing for the content is being raised through a joint venture production funding deal with WTP SPV1, a subsidiary of Catalyst Venture Partners. The $30M agreement is non-dilutive to Kartoon’s existing shareholders, with Catalyst only taking equity stakes in the shows and films.

Kartoon’s Winnie-the-Pooh will be based on the designs and stories of A.A. Milne’s original character, which the company says has generated over $80B in sales in the past four decades and is estimated to generate up to $6B a year for The Walt Disney Company, which was the long-time trademark owner of the brand.

The original 1926 Winnie-the-Pooh book entered the public domain in the U.S. on January 1, 2022, but remains protected under copyright laws in many other countries. This means that Disney, which acquired the rights to the original Winnie-the-Pooh book in 1961, no longer has exclusive rights to make works based on the classic. As such U.S. companies Baboon Animation and IQI Media announced in December 2022 that they had a prequel feature and series in development.

Kartoon’s animated content will feature a ‘yarn-based’ designer and palette for the characters and backgrounds, along with original modern stories inspired by the classic books. Stories will be told in ‘Seussian-style’ rhyme. AI has been used along with human work to develop the look.

“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.”

“Being able to participate in a timeless and proven children’s classic such as Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, through the production of original animated content and the licensing of consumer products from those proprietary character designs and stories, is a unique opportunity we are very excited about,” said Steven A. Horowitz, Sr. Managing Director of WTP SPV and Catalyst Venture Partners.

“Andy Heyward and the team at Kartoon Studios have a long history of producing hit properties for children. An all-star array of award-winning talent across development, production, marketing, consumer products, and distribution has been assembled to manage the brand launch, and we are excited to be a part of what we are confident will be a hugely profitable and enduring business.”

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