Baboon, IQI Prep Winnie the Pooh Prequel

Baboon Animation and IQI Media are working together on a prequel to A.A. Milne’s classic book Winnie-the-Pooh.

Baboon and IQI have set a 2024 release for the feature, to be followed immediately by the series.

DreamWorks alum Mike de Seve (Madagascar, Monsters vs. Aliens) will direct and co-write with fellow DreamWorks alum John Reynolds (The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show). DreamWorks alum Charlene Kelly (Next Gen), now CIO at IQI parent company Winvest, and Khiow Hui Lim, the founder of IQI and CSO of Winvest, will executive produce.

“We’re telling the surprising origin story of the ‘silly young bear’ and his friends, when they were still kids, in a way designed to connect with 21st-century kids,” said Reynolds.

“A.A. Milne’s bear has aged gracefully in the last hundred years,” said Kelly. “But what happened back when that made him and his pals who they are in the book? A heck of a big adventure, that’s what—one that needs a big screen. Audiences will be transported to somewhere they never expected.”

“I think this unsinkable young cub is totally relatable for today’s kids, with his hell-bent craving for honey and his ludicrous schemes to get it,” added de Seve, who directed on the original Beavis and Butt-Head series and feature and story-consulted on Shrek 2 and now heads up Baboon. “The whole gang is hilarious and are even more hilarious as kids; we’re finding out.”