KINGDOM HEARTS III: Square Enix Respond To Chinese Trailers Crudely Cutting Out Winnie The Pooh
Square Enix has begun to feature Winnie The Pooh in the marketing for Kingdom Hearts III, but not in China as his image has been made illegal. Find out more...
From Woody from Toy Story and Baymax from Big Hero 6, to Rapunzel from Tangled and Elsa from Frozen; Square Enix's upcoming and highly-anticipated game, Kingdom Hearts III, is set to feature a plethora of beloved characters.
One of these popular characters has become quite controversial in China however, and therefore was crudely removed from the game's marketing in the country. As you can see below, Winnie The Pooh was at the mercy of the eraser and, in recent trailers for Kingdom Hearts III, was replaced by an amorphous blob.
The reason for Pooh's removal is on account of an old meme, which apparently did the rounds back in 2015, which compared Chinese president Xi Jinping to the pudgy, yellow bear. Xi banned Pooh's image from China, describing it as "a serious effort to undermine the dignity of the presidential office and Xi himself."
Comicbook.com recently reached out to Square Enix, however all the dev had to say was "Unfortunately, Square Enix does not have a comment to share at this time."
What do you think about Pooh's removal? What do you think about Pooh being banned from China?
Kingdom Hearts III is set to release on January 19th, 2019.