Many Disney films, even as early as the studio’s very first animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, were previously written by other authors. One famous encounter that everyone knows now thanks to Saving Mr. Banks was the treacherous journey of gaining the rights to Mary Poppins from author P.L Travers. Some franchises Disney bought entirely, such as Star Wars, The Muppets, and Marvel. Other stories such as Mulan and Peter Pan were simply adaptations of the original stories, or were inspired by them. One franchise that the studio was interested in but struggled to gain the full rights to for many years was the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise.

A.A Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” (1926)

On August 21st, 1921, author A.A Milne gave his son Christopher Robin Milne a teddy bear for his first birthday. Christopher initially named it “Edward”. Milne drew inspiration from seeing his son play with his new bear, and from a bear they had seen at the London Zoo named Winnipeg. The character of Winnie-the-Pooh, a fun loving bear looking to go on an adventure, debuted in Milne’s book “When We Were Very Young” (1924) as Edward the Bear. The bear didn’t get his memorable name until 1926 in A.A Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”. Both books were highly successful, selling over 50,000 copies of the 1924 book in the first 8 weeks.

Christopher Robin Milne and A.A Milne. Image from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/i-knew-christopher-robin--the-real-christopher-robin/

Milne wrote a total of 4 Winnie the Pooh books: “When We Were Very Young” (1924), “Winnie-the-Pooh” (1926), “Now We Are Six” (1927), and “The House at Pooh Corner” (1928). They were widely popular in the book world, and the adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Tigger all became staple children’s stories.

The original A.A Milne Winnie-the-Pooh books. Image from: https://blog.tooveys.com/2014/12/winnie-the-pooh-sussex/

Christopher, growing up in the shadow of the fictional Christopher Robin and his father, found it difficult to live such a way as he grew older. He was teased at school, his father was absent with his new-found success in children’s literature, and he was going through it alone as an only child. He began resenting his father and the characters for a large portion of his life. He didn’t see his parents much before both of them passed away in 1956. Though the books caused turmoil in the family, Christopher made peace with it as he approached his elder years.

“I like to have around me the things I like today, not the things I once liked many years ago”

— Christopher Robin Milne

Stephen Slesinger’s Winnie-the-Pooh Merchandise (1930)

In 1930, 2 years after A.A Milne published his last Winnie-the-Pooh book, he signed a contract with Stephen Slesinger, a literary agent. Slesinger bought the merchandising rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise for $1,000 in order to make merchandise based on the characters. Milne would still receive royalties as the creator. Slesinger created board games, toys, records, and other collectables for the public under his new company Stephen Slesinger Inc. (SSI). The Parker Brothers were the first people to draw Pooh in color for the board game in 1932. This is when the iconic red t-shirt became a part of the character.

Over 20 years later, Stephen passed away in 1953. The merchandising rights that he had acquired were now his wife Shirley’s. She continued his business with merchandising and promoting the character until The Walt Disney Company approached her in 1961.

The Parker Brother’s board game. Image from: https://boooored.com/board-games/the-history-of-winnie-the-pooh-board-games/

The Pooh Properties Trust (1956)

Milne passed away 3 years after Stephen in 1956. His rights to the characters were transferred to his wife Dorothy, much like in the Slesinger’s case. When his wife passed away that same year, the literary rights to the bear and his friends went to the Pooh Properties Trust. At this point, SSI owned the merchandising rights, and the Pooh Properties Trust owned the literary rights.

Disney’s Licensing Deal for Winnie the Pooh (1961)

When Walt Disney personally called Shirley Slesinger, he wanted to be sure he hung up the call with some sort of ownership of Winnie-the-Pooh. His daughters grew up listening to him read the original books to them, much like the Mary Poppins books. SSI sold Disney their rights to Winnie-the-Pooh, with the agreement that Disney would continue paying SSI some royalties. Disney also paid royalties to the Pooh Properties Trust, in which some of the money went to Christopher’s daughter Clare Milne. Disney got going on creating content featuring the beloved bear. They dropped the hyphens in his name and gave him a more recognizable look, along with all of the other Hundred Acre Wood pals.

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)

Disney released Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree in 1966. It was an animated featurette with talented Disney voice actors such as Sterling Holloway as Pooh, Bruce Reitherman as Christopher Robin, Barbara Luddy as Kanga, and more. The Sherman Brothers, best known for their work on Mary Poppins, wrote the iconic Winnie the Pooh music for this featurette as well.

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was eventually added onto a full-length film called The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1977. The film included 2 other featurettes Disney put out a few years prior, called Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974).

The Hundred Acre Wood gang became a huge part of Disney’s image, and an even bigger part of their annual income. They released another featurette called Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore in 1983. That same year, the Disney Channel released Welcome to Pooh Corner, a regular television show for 3 years. 5 years later, they made another reboot of the character called The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

According to the LA Times, in the 1990s Pooh was bringing in over $1 billion to the Disney company.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). Image from: https://heavy.com/streaming/2019/11/stream-adventures-of-winnie-the-pooh/

The Lawsuit Against Disney (1991)

Shirley Slesinger soon realized she had stopped receiving her regular royalties payments from the Disney company, and filed a lawsuit against them in 1991. A few years prior in 1983, the rights were taken back by SSI and then re-assigned again to the Disney company, making the agreement even more confusing about what Disney owed them.

Disney Officially Owns Winnie the Pooh (2001)

In 2001, instead of Disney continuously paying royalties to the Milne family and the Pooh Properties Trust each year, they officially decided to buy out. All beneficiaries of the Pooh Properties Trust sold all of the rights to Pooh bear and the franchise to Disney for $350 million.

Disney ended up winning the lawsuit against SSI for the merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh in 2009, because of the 1983 contract that assigned all of the rights to Disney. There were also complications when the Slesinger family was accused of stealing confidential Disney documents out of the trash. Now, Disney owned both the Milne and Slesinger portions of Winnie the Pooh.

Winnie the Pooh (2011). Image from: https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/winnie-the-pooh/6nl0Z9PyWwIC

Winnie-the-Pooh Becomes Public Domain (2022)

In 1998, the US copyright term extension act replaced the Federal copyright policies to say that any work “created on or after January 1, 1978, to the life of the author and 70 (currently, 50) years after the author's death.” Before 1998, the copyright act only protected work for the duration of the author’s life after death (meaning if they died at 50 years old, it would be protected for another 50 years), AND an additional 50 years (so the work would be protected for a total of 100 years). With the new extension, creators would get an additional 70 years instead of 50. For works that were published from 1923-1977, they were also given an extension from 75 years to 95 years.

According to these US copyright laws, the story of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A Milne will become public domain in 2022. However, this will not affect Disney’s version of Winnie the Pooh, as it was created much later. Disney has also trademarked the character Winnie the Pooh.