Les Bisounours: le film

The first Care Bears movie! What 1980s or 1990s kid didn't grow up with Care Bears? My brother and I have a collection of stuffed animals, all the movies on VHS, most of the television specials taped the old fashioned way, and most of the songs ready to sing at the drop of a hat. The Care Bears are so great, and they teach such wonderful things.

In the first movie, Mickey Rooney is the owner of an orphanage who narrates the story of magical Care Bears who live up in the clouds and seek out little kids in need of help through emotional situations. The Care Bears always help kids get in touch with their feelings and learn to express healthy emotions. To the Care Bears, everything, even grumpiness, is celebrated. This story centers on two orphaned children, and a magician who succumbs to evil influences, and other little adventures up in Care-a-Lot. Some parts are scary, like most cartoons, so if you're watching it with little ones, you might want to preview it or be prepared to shove popcorn in front of their faces. You'll also hear Carole King's songs "Care-a-Lot" and "Home is in Your Heart", reminding you that the movie was made in the 1980s. When you're done with this one, check out the next Care Bear flick: A New Generation!

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

Yes it's sweet. Of course it is, it's meant for kids! Little ones, but as a 20 year old I still love this film. In fact I was only just able to a watch it again, because I kept remembering how much the evil spirit terrified me as a child. Compare the Bears, who actually teach their young viewers something worthwhile: that if you care about the people around you the world will be a better place, to some of the cartoons we subject our kids to today like South Park with it's crude animation and message that the way to deal with things is violence and swearing. I would choose the Bears every time. Parents: have the decency to allow your kids to watch a good cartoon, you might learn something too.

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

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.