Winnie the Pooh horror film won't be shown in Hong Kong or Macau

A caller Winnie the Pooh fearfulness movie volition not beryllium released successful Hong Kong and Macau, its distributor has said.

VII Pillars Entertainment apologised for the "disappointment and inconvenience" to viewers successful the Chinese peculiar administrative regions.

The movie was released successful the US successful February and crossed the UK successful March.

References to the original, family-friendly mentation of Winnie the Pooh person been utilized to protestation against President Xi Jinping successful caller years.

The meme began aft an representation showing China's President Xi Jinping and erstwhile US President Barack Obama began circulating successful 2013.

Censors successful China person since clamped down connected references to AA Milne's character, and the 2018 Christopher Robin movie was banned successful the country.

Hong Kong's Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration denied the movie had been censored, saying it had issued a certificate of support for the fearfulness movie.

The bureau told Reuters it would not remark connected commercialized decisions made astir the movie.

The film's manager Rhys Frake-Waterfield told Reuters: "The cinemas agreed to amusement it, past each independently travel to the aforesaid determination overnight. It won't beryllium a coincidence.

"They assertion method reasons but determination is nary method reason. The movie has showed successful implicit 4,000 cinema screens worldwide. These 30-plus screens successful Hong Kong are the lone ones with specified issues."

The fearfulness movie has received a people of conscionable 4% connected movie standing tract Rotten Tomatoes. It depicts the bear, known for being benignant and honest, arsenic a vengeful axe wielding half-man, half-bear.

Mr Frake-Waterfield was capable to marque the movie erstwhile the 95-year copyright connected Milne's archetypal Winnie the Pooh communicative elapsed successful the US successful January past year.

But Disney - which bought immoderate licences successful the 1960s - inactive owns definite rights. Trademark laws mean the carnivore cannot deterioration a reddish T-shirt successful the fearfulness film, for example.

"We weren't allowed to person him accidental things similar 'oh bother' either," Mr Frake-Waterfield told BBC Culture past month.

"There are these elements wherever we request to beryllium cautious not to encroach connected their marque and their territory due to the fact that that's not the intention.

"The volition isn't conscionable to bargain their copyright and usage it for our ain purposes. It's to spell from thing which is imaginable to usage due to the fact that it's present publically available, and conscionable spell disconnected connected an utmost tangent from that constituent and marque this horrific alternate mentation to him."