Die Glücksbärchis

By far, the Nelvana series from the late '80s is one of the best-animated, most relevant TV cartoon series I've ever watched. I'm not just saying that from a collector's viewpoint, or because I have a soft spot for the bears. The morals hold up, it is cute and aesthetically appealing to young children, and is one of the rare "timeless classics" rumored to circulate out there somewhere.

While My Little Pony will always be my favorite vintage show, Care Bears Nelvana surpasses it in many ways, namely quality, continuity, and storyline. I'm a 15-year-old frequent watcher of both shows, mature enough to compare the two but still childish enough to appreciate them. Care Bears has virtually never had glaring mistakes like My Little Pony, and the animation is uniform and does not obviously change from episode to episode.

My very favorite Nelvana episodes were the earliest ones. These featured a diverse cast of characters and focused on what the Care Bears did best-helping young children in need. With a pastel color palate to die for and everyone's favorite bears getting at least a supporting role, these episodes are appealing for "collector-types"-those who like to see as many characters as possible, rather than just a few favorites.

The later episodes are not up on my favorites list. They feature a very limited cast of about 10 characters (including Brave Heart Lion, Bright Heart Raccoon, Cheer Bear, Grumpy Bear, Champ Bear, Grams Bear, Hugs 'n Tugs, and the dubiously-placed Treat Heart Pig, unreleased in the '80s and nonexistent today). The other bears and cousins were relegated to supporting roles and were most often not seen at all for several episodes in a role. The same thing is happening today with the Oopsy Bear cast, but I guess in the late '80s the call for core characters and rehauls was sweeping the toy industry in the same way as it is today. Why else would almost every major toy line redesign and narrow all at once? It happens about every 20 years...

Anyway, I digress. The most appealing parts of the later series were the more complex plots, dealing with parodies of existing adult stories such as Frankenstein and Star Trek. In addition, most of the characters got their own unique style, such as jackets, hats, a ponytail for Cheer Bear etc...that make them stand out. Not appealing to me, but probably for most it is considered cute.

I highly recommend the earlier shows, and somewhat suggest the later shows, but mainly for older kids. You have to appreciate core characters to see the true beauty in the later seasons. As for the earlier DIC series, not so much. Simple, poor animation, lame voices, derived plots and horrible sound effects...go with the Canadians on this one.

Well, if you were like me in the 80s, you watched the Care Bears and it was your deepest, darkest, most private secret.

Because, yeah, you might have been 5, but the Care bears was totally made for kids and you weren't about to admit that you watched a kids cartoon.

So when the movie came out, no, you lived in a small town, someone you know would probably see you and ask what movie you were going to. It was best to wait until it came out on Beta and not be with mom when she went out to rent it.

Maybe, possibly, you were lucky enough to have a friend that admitted (in private and a great risk) that they liked the Care Bears, so finally you had someone to talk to about it.

Maybe. But in any case they were talking teddy bears, and that was totally kids stuff, so its best to wait until you are 40 to write a review about it when no one would care that you watched a kids cartoon, back in the 80s, when you were 5.

I think the reason why I loved The Care Bears so much, was because it was part of my childhood, and I have a thing for nostalgia. I loved this show as a kid, and at 18 when I revisited it I was really surprised at how good it still was. It is pretty much childhood innocence personified.

The animation is clean and colourful, the music is really good with a simple and memorable theme tune and the story lines were gripping, exciting and surprisingly intelligent. Even the writing wasn't childish. And I love how unique the characters are, I love how all the Care Bears have interesting and endearing personalities and unique character traits. I love all of them so much I cannot decide which one is my favourite.

Out of the reoccurring villains, my personal favourite was Professor Coldheart, he was deliciously evil and frosty yet absolutely hilarious and crazy. The character was superbly voiced by Len Carlson, actually one of the most interesting voices on the show, it is a shame though he isn't credited on this site he deserves it. In fact though, the voice acting was very well done. Overall a great childhood favourite, not bland or anything like it, it is colourful and simple the way I like it. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I loooveed this series and still do. I think beastly is single handedly my favorite villain side kick of all time. The voice actor did such an awesome job and I just love his dynamic in the show. Honestly they created this whole awesome universe and I'm really thinking about doing a fan fic comic of it (idk how to animate). Side not but I also loved the movies from this generation. I watch the Alice in wonder land often.

The Care Bears seem to mean different things to different people, some hate them with a passion that is almost holy while others, like myself can look back at them and see the warm fuzzy memories of childhood. There are doubtlessly other variations between those two extremes, those just happen to be the two examples I've run across.

I have always loved the Care Bears, like so many of the cartoons of the eighties, the combined good animation (well at least good for the day), that has held up relatively well over the years, with interesting storylines that don't feature the violence and sheer stupidity that so many 'kids shows' do today. Even when the 'new care bears' was released (and it wasn't quite as good) Care Bears continued to actually teach kids something about life through it's cute little half-hour episodes...can you really say that about Barney and Friends or Teletubbies? Please.

Some of the episodes are still out on video, do yourself a favour and pick one up...a walk down memory lane never really hurt anyone.