Los osos amorosos

Mention the Care Bears and for some reason everyone starts to cringe or think of nasty things to do to them. I have to say it breaks my heart that so many people are against a cartoon that teaches kids about empathy, friendship, and conflict resolution (and all without fighting).

I recently had the pleasure of acquiring a copy of this movie, and I, for one, am going to treasure it. I'm serious. Watch it with a little kid who takes the Power Rangers too seriously. I guarantee you'll be a little misty eyed by the end, and the kid will discover the revolutionary idea that it's not against the rules to befriend the monster instead of battling it.

I know I won't have a lot of people backing me up here, but I thought I should put my two cents in. And anyhow, Grumpy Bear is too cute.

I always hated the Care Bears.

The reason why is simple. Let's face it: The Kenner Company itself admitted that the movies and TV episodes were designed to sell the toys of the same name, a nauseating trend that eventually bored kids to death by the end of the eighties. And I immediately hated anything that was so crass as to be merely an animated advertisement because it was pointing to a very uncertain future for the industry as a whole at the time.

I was in my teens when the Care Bears were unleashed, and even with my reputation for creating cartoon animal characters I couldn't stand them and simply ignored them with every chance I got. The toys were EVERYWHERE and unavoidable, the TV show seemed to always be on in whatever store you went into and Kenner made a fortune. Trendy overload!

I don't know exactly when the craze stopped...probably around the time the decade ended, I guess... and I forgot all about them until my little foster sister recently told me about how much she loved the Care Bears when she was a toddler, and would I like to watch this movie with her?

I watched partially because I knew she wanted to share something special with me, but also because I was surprised to discover that this movie was animated by one of my all-time favourite studios, the award-winning Nelvana company up in Canada.

And now, guess what?

Now that the toys are all long gone (with the exception of being available online for collectors) and the merchandise is no longer being shoved down your throat until you want to scream, now that the trendiness has evaporated, and the movie has been long since stripped of any possibilities of being an advertisement for anything commercial at all... a film that once was the epitome of "commercial sellout" and "unoriginal trendy tripe" has now aged surprisingly well, and manages to stand on its own as a genuinely charming children's offering.

And I never thought I'd ever be defending "Care Bears" anything.

But what once seemed like pop shlock trash now feels genuinely charged with lighthearted spirits, a childlike-wonder innocence and well-meant passion. The animation here, simply put, is gorgeous. But then, Nelvana has always had a rich tradition of adding top quality to whatever they set their minds to. Even more surprising, the songs are provided by Carole King and John Sebastian (both who now seem like perfectly logical and touching choices to musically illustrate this morality tale).

It actually managed to get me misty-eyed and even on the verge of a tear, especially since it now serves as a reminder of how much innocence has been lost in the animation industry since the 80s. Back then, animation was seen in the United States as kiddie fluff, and so no one except the artists who loved the medium took it seriously. But in the 90s, we got a vicious backlash as a whole crowd of new animators--all sick and tired of being mocked for being cartoonists while growing up--unleashed upon the world a torrent of the ugliest, most thoroughly vicious and vile animation until the situation completely reversed itself, and suddenly animation is now seen as too "adult" for its own good. Things like this simply never get made anymore.

So in the real world, much to my surprise, the Care Bears actually HAVE succeeded in doing what they were always claiming to be doing in their show--they've survived all this time and now they really ARE bringing a caring and sensitive Christian message to a world and especially an entire industry which has lost its innocence. Our world is becoming uglier and more jaded by the year. We desperately need films like this to show our children now as opposed to "South Park", "Beavis and Butthead" and "Ren & Stimpy".

One note I wish to make, though: if you decide to check out any other Care Bears videotapes, be sure they are done by Nelvana and are NOT the early attempts by DIC Enterprises (also sarcastically known as "Do It Cheap"). The DIC cartoons are horrid and just plain awful. But anything with the famous Canadian Nelvana label is guaranteed to be created by artists who--no pun intended--genuinely care.

At an orphanage, Mr. Cherrywood (Mickey Rooney) tells the orphans a bedtime story about three children who were helped by the Care Bears, colorful teddy bears who live in the clouds and help people share their feelings. While Secret Bear and Friend Bear (Eva Almos) try to convince orphaned and emotionally cold brother and sister Kim (Cree Summer Francks) and Jason (Sunny Besen Thrasher) of the value of friends, Tenderheart Bear (Billie Mae Richards) tries to help an accident prone lonely magician's apprentice named Nicholas (Hadley Kay) who only wishes to be as beloved as his mentor Mr. Fetuccini (Brian George). While organizing a box of odds and ends, Nicholas finds an old book that beckons him to open it and reveals a spirit (Jackie Burroughs) who takes the form of a face in a book of spells promising Nicholas the friends he's always desired. Unbeknownst to Nicholas, the Spirit intends to use Nicholas to do away with all caring and love in the world, leaving Kim, Jason, and the Care Bears to stop him.

Created by American Greetings in 1981, Care Bears was one of a number of Greeting Card properties to find itself marketed and merchandized in the decade with relaxed communication restrictions. With the property established in the minds of consumers with appearances in greeting card and toy form, American Greetings were keen to produce a feature film to expand the brand. Canadian animation house Nelvana Ltd. Still reeling from distribution problems and failure of their independently produced film Rock & Rule had opted to take contracting work to stay afloat (Inspector Gadget among other things) and were approved to produce the film. Made over a very quick eight month period and produced under its $2 million budget. The movie despite being released by independent distributor Samuel Goldwyn Company after major studios didn't see the potential of a film aimed strictly at children, the movie became a sleeper hit making an estimated $34 million in revenue and vastly outgrossing the much bigger budgeted Disney animated film of the year The Black Cauldron. The movie exploded the Care Bears popularity and helped to keep Nelvana afloat as a company despite no entitlement to profit participation. The movie also became the first in a wave of cheaply produced animated features based on toys or other established properties in a brief period of the mid-80s. The Care Bears Movie is undeniably a major event in feature animation from a historical perspective, but the movie itself? It is what it is.

Despite being produced on a lower budget, The Care Bears Movie more often than not looks adequate considering the resources they had on hand. Of course this movie won't match the level of detail and quality seen in Rock & Rule, but considering this whole movie's existence is predicated upon increasing brand awareness of the Care Bears and introducing the Care Bear Cousins as a subline it's a lot more effort than they probably needed to give to this film. The movie has very loose storytelling logic that plays more to emotions than it does to logic (not surprising for a film with caring and feelings as its bread and butter) and there is a structured plot with reasonable stakes that young kids in single digits will get invested in. Much like other such characters popular in the 80s the Care Bears don't have much depth as they're mainly defined by a singular gimmick that's usually in their name, Braveheart Lion being brave, Secret Bear always whispering, Grumpy Bear being grump, etc. The children characters of Kim, Jason, and Nicholas have more depth and actually go through some semblance of growth so you have to give credit there. I will say that from a nostalgic point of view, I do remember the villain, The Spirit voiced by Jackie Burroughs, to be quite threatening and unnerving growing up so the movie did have that element giving its antagonist a sense of legitimate threat.

The Care Bears Movie really defies any sort of review or analysis because it is meant for small children and that's fine. Sure I can think of better movies of this type that are specifically aimed at children in single digit ages such as Follow That Bird or Curious George, but The Care Bears Movie is okay for what it is.

Yeah, my cool defense is that I was 5 when this went down.

So, Lucky Bear, he has an Irish Accent which, when you think about it and the fact that they all live and grew up and spent their entire lives in the same place, Care-a-Lot, just means that he has a speech impediment doesn't it?

Moving on, this will give you near instant tooth decay. It is way too sweet and even writing that makes me feel guilty because I know I just made the caring meter go down.

But it is brilliant, the concept is such that if you don't like you are instantly sort of a heartless git. A sociopath even.

It holds your humanity hostage

Ahhhhhh! This is really cute, especially the cousins. Its message is subtle and not laid too thick. The evil spirit is really scary. Her voice drips with pure poison and you have to admit that the world would be terrible if nobody cared. The good characters have plenty of charm and personality. They're not cloying. You really care about what happens to them and that's what makes a good movie. 8/10