was there a public domain expiration or something recently, like with those Winnie the Pooh variants from a couple years back?

Yup.

It is hard to think of three things that more aptly describe where we, as a society and culture, are in 2025. 😔

It’s a tale as old as time, Stace.

I've never read the original Salten novel, but my understanding is it's far more intense than the Disney film.

That’s weird. Disney movies are usually so hard-hitting.

Rewatch the Pleasure Island sequence in Pinocchio or the "your mother can't be with you any more" bit in Bambi and then get back to me.

I don't think I saw the Night on Bald Mountain sequence from Fantasia until I was an adult, but as a kid it would have freaked me out. Conversely, as an adult I realize the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is played for laughs, but as a little'un the Headless Horseman had me shook.