Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot

As one of the many Care Bears fans who was born in 1980, I watched the first Care Bear series when I was a kid. I never thought there would be a better version than that one. Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot is THE BEST!!!

This series of The Care Bears portrays the bears as more realistic and relatable than they've ever been before. Each bear has a unique personality to match its name, unlike our generation's many versions of bears that all have the same generic super-sweet personality and often even the same voices, with only their names and appearance to tell them apart. I love Funshine's new active personality. I also love that this version, more than any other version, demonstrates the importance of Grumpy Bear, the way he teaches kids that it's ok to feel sad and to express sadness. I do wish that Bedtime Bear, Wish Bear, and Good Luck Bear had bigger roles in this series, but they are in a few episodes, and the bears we get as regulars are the best we've ever had.

And of course I LOVE LOVE LOVE how the bears are drawn in 3D style and look like fluffy teddy bears!!! <3

One of the best things about this series is that the episodes are pretty funny. I'm not a person who laughs aloud often, but I laugh aloud at episodes of this series almost every episode!

There are only two problems with the Welcome to Care-A-Lot version.

The first is Wonderheart's voice. Her word pronunciation is that trying-to-be-cute kind of thing. You know the type, the people who say "yee-ew-oh" instead of "you" and who say "tee-yew-oh" instead of "too" or "two". It sounds like the director was trying to make the voice actor force Wonderheart to be cuter, but they majorly failed. Wonderheart's personality of curiosity makes her cute enough, but that terrible pronunciation of words ruins her cuteness and makes her just annoying. Ignoring her voice and pronunciation, she's a good character, and when I'm able to ignore those things I enjoy her part in the show.

The second problem is the awful fake-southern accent of Sweet Dreams Bear. They've got her doing the Hollywood style fake-southern, that type of accent that no southerner actually uses but that everyone in Hollywood seems to THINK is how southerners talk because they've seen decades of horribly incorrect fake southern accents on other movies and have just copied that instead of listening to how we actually talk in the south. Fortunately Sweet Dreams Bear is in only one episode.

Other than that, I'm not a fan of the human kid characters, in general. The kids are drawn in strange outfits, and most have pretty bad actors. And the episode when Phoebe sings -- definitely skip that episode. That girl sings with such bad nasal congestion that you'll feel the mucous in your own throat just listening to her. There are a few human-kid episodes that are good, like the one when Grumpy helps Joy after her best friend moves away. That's one of my favorite episodes.

Those are the only problems with the show, and the problems are pretty minor. Everything else about this series is THE BEST! <3.

Okay, where should I start? First I would like to say that this show isn't groundbreaking or anything. It is simply just nice, and little bit of fun to watch. Kids will like it and their parents may find some enjoyment while watching with their kids. What do I think of it? I think it is a nice show that kids and their parents can easily enjoy together.

The CG is probably the thing that could turn people off, but once you get past that you'll find some enjoyment in this show.

The characters are rather one-dimensional, but they're entertaining enough with their quirks. My personal favorite is Grumpy as he has the most depth to him, and also I really like grumpy and sarcastic type of characters.

The writing is okay, and there are some jokes that will give you some giggles know and then.

Voice acting is good, and actually feels like the actors/actresses are putting in some effort.

Music, not much to say about it, only that it works for the show as all.

So overall, this series is a great watch for kids, as well as adults. If you have kids, then you should most certainly cheek out this series.

I grew up watching the Care Bears. The 80's cartoon really had charm to it. Sure, the animation wasn't the best, but the characters were generally sweet and the plots to each episode were fun. The villains themselves were pretty fun at times too, such as Shrieky, Beastly, etc. The themes to each episode were simple, and certainly taught me different ways about caring for someone or how to stay positive and confident about myself.

I know different Care Bear shows/movies have been made throughout the years. The first two Care Bear movies were cheesy, but just like the show, they had charm to them. As for the others, like the Wonderland movie or the Nutcracker one, obvious laziness in plot, design, and personalities were shown. The CGI movies weren't terrible, but didn't have the charm the old movies/show had. Adventures in Care-a-Lot was a nice twist to the franchise. The design of the bears made them look even more innocent. Their new designs brought out their personalities more, like the girl bears having little ponytails on their heads or Funshine wearing a ball cap. Their voices suited them well, and the situations they went through during each episode were fun to watch. But how do I feel about this series?

Well, the CGI isn't too bad. I like that they show the fur on the bears. The bears themselves stick to their innocent designs, and look like walking/talking versions of the Play Along Care Bear plushies. That's about all I liked, really. I feel like a lot of the voices don't suit the characters. The females voices were fine to me, but I had issues with the males. I guess it's because I'm used to the male bears having higher pitched voices. The plots to the episodes seem a bit bland to me. The kids introduced in each episode aren't that enjoyable either, and some of them can be huge pricks until they learn the hard way of their mistakes. Hell, even the bears are pricks at times. I get that no one's perfect, but the Care Bears shouldn't be shown sassing each other. They're supposed to be, well, caring! The only one doing the sassing should be Grumpy. I also HATE Beastly's design. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the same Beastly from the old cartoon, but I'm gonna assume it is, and his design is nowhere close to his old one. Plus, he looks like a slightly less terrifying Furby. I do like Wonderheart. It's nice to see another young Care Bear aside from Hugs and Tugs. Speaking of those two, I also liked that they were older in this series and even had the ability to use their belly badges.

I know I have too much to say about the Care Bears, but like I said, I grew up with them. They made up most of my childhood. I really feel like this series is nice, but completely unnecessary. I would just show kids the Adventures in Care-a-Lot series over this. I don't feel like kids can learn a lot from this series, and the charm the old cartoons had just isn't there. So, I'll rate this series a 5, since I managed to find some positive things about this show. It's not terrible, but I don't see much charm in it.