The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland

Time to clarify something. This is the movie most people accuse the FIRST Care Bears adventure of being: a saccharine squirm fest. Now I happen to like the Care Bears (I pretty much ran to their defence in my review of their first movie, which I STILL recommend), but this was just a really bad concept to begin with.

It's as if the producers wanted to do an "Alice in Wonderland" movie, then got bored about halfway through and decided to throw the Bears in. Oddly, this isn't based on the Lewis Carrol books but on Disney's version of Wonderland (so it's a movie inspired by another movie inspired by a book). Even so, it has it's moments. The way they envision the Cheshire Cat is very inventive and possibly the best reason to give this movie a look (if you've seen it already you know what I'm talking about, otherwise rent it and fast forward through any scenes that don't involve the Cat). There's a nice message about believing in yourself, but it's nearly negated by the stupid cop-out ending.

There is, however, one more thing that totally saves the movie. Three words: Grumpy Bear RAPPING!!!

I am not the biggest fan of The Care Bears, but I loved the show from the 80s and the first two movies. The rest of their stuff(movies/specials/shows-wise) have been hit and miss. Luckily The Care Bears in Wonderland is one of their better outings. The dialogue is corny and over-simplistic at times and the whole explanation about the jabberwocky being mean was a little cliché and lame. However, the animation is quite nice, with the colours vibrant especially. Some of the visuals are on the psychedelic side, but considering the oddball nature of the original story and Wonderland itself it works. The music I was surprised by, the score is whimsical enough but the songs are memorable and fun, Rise and Shine, Has Anyone Seen This Girl and Mad About Hats were the standouts. I don't care for rap usually, but Grumpy's rap song was surprising and funny. The story is full of charming moments with a great, identifiable message and maintains the bewitching feel of the timeless original story. The characters also delight, the care bears are likable enough and better than their rep, with the best being Grumpy(they're saccharine sure but I think evil is far too harsh considering there are far more annoying franchise characters anyway). Alice is cute, the wizard is another memorable and scary villain to match Spirit and DarkHeart and the henchmen are hilarious. Plus I don't think I've ever seen the Cheshire Cat as cool as he is here in other incarnations. In conclusion, I like it, I've seen better movies but this is nowhere near the worst either. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Well, let's start with the songs. In particular, the one titled "Have anybody seen this girl?". This song is by far one of the most gosh-darn addictive and memorable song I've ever heard. For some odd reason, though I no longer have the videocassette with me (my mom actually borrowed it from a friend, and have since returned it. We did get a copy of the video for our own, but it went missing shortly after too), and I've not seen the movie for around ages now, I still remember the tune to the song. I also rather remember the other songs on the movie - the one that goes "I'm mad about hats", the opening "Rise and Shine" song, and I do vaguely remember the Grumpy bear rapping end sequence.

SPOILER FOLLOWS: Overall story is kinda okay. Story starts with one of the bear's cousin's cousins or something or other appearing - it seems that the princess of Wonderland is lost. So they go search around and somehow ends up with a girl that looks just like the princess, except that the girl's name is Alice. They take her through the mirror, and we learn that the wizard is somewhat of a cog and plans to turn Wonderland into a dull gray place. Also, in a weird twist of plot,the queen turns out to be not nasty at all. She has found out that the evil wizard has kidnapped the real princess and locked her up somewhere, but without proof, she cannot take action against the wizard. So she needs to use Alice as a decoy while the Care Bears go look for the real princess. They managed to find the princess thanks to the Mad Hatter, and on another weird twist, it turns out that the Jabberwocky(think his name was Stan or something alike) was also a good guy - he was just being mean because he has a splinter stuck to his foot(cliché stuff, that). They managed to switch the princess with Alice in time for the most impossible trial of all, and upon completion of the task, the wizard, in a rage of absentmindedness, blurts out his plans for all to hear, and thus ends up getting locked up. Then they go back to Care-a-lot, and Grumpy busts a rap about food or something as the credits start to roll.

Verdict: memorable movie, and if I find the DVD or VideoCD or even videocassette on a shelf at a store, I'll no doubt snap it up. The plot itself is just mediocre, but the way the plot was written and executed - brilliant. Lots of humor, the music is darn memorable, and the characters - pleasant voice, captivating and not annoying at all. I didn't really think much of the Care Bear's TV show back in the 80s, but this movie is good stuff. Okay, maybe it's happy-sappy delusion syndrome, but remembering the songs has got to mean something positive, right?

After watching "Surf Nazis Must Die", ANYTHING would seem like "The Princess Bride" from that. This movie did the trick and even though it was still bad, it was legions ahead of SNMD. I have to admit that I was never a "Care Bears" fan as a kid. I may have had a book or two about them, but that was about it. I guess this was something that was done more for the fans. The most positive thing is that the animation is pretty good. I actually do like the Cheshire Cat character and he had a lot of personality to him.

I feel bad for not knowing any of the names of these guys except Grumpy Bear. I actually do like how they're doing something different in the series. The silliest scenes are probably when they're searching the whole world for Alice! Wow, they're pretty fast. The characters, especially the wizard's henchmen are really annoying. I do understand that this is a film made for little kids, so it should be alright for them. At least this doesn't have anything offensive in it. The plot does make little sense, so it's just forgettable. **

I was actually upset with this movie at first because I thought it was overkill. While I still think it is somewhat the movie isn't that bad. The over all story is mediocre but it wasn't done badly. Then there's the songs! I've seen all 3 care bear movies and liked all the songs in them. While I think the soundtrack to the second movie is the best - what could beat Growing Up and Forever Young?, the songs were good in this one as well. My favorites were Rise and Shine and Has Anybody Seen This Girl. The rap at the end was kind of lame but funny in a weird way. I know I'm probably being really generous, maybe because I'm biased towards care bears but I'll give this one 10 stars.