Ursinhos Carinhosos no País das Maravilhas

The third and final entry in the dreaded "Care Bears" trilogy. This time the titled characters are basically playing off "Alice in Wonderland" with mostly ho-hum results. The youngest of audiences will be entranced by the vibrant colors of the film and the cute bears, but everyone else should stay away. Amazing to me that this concept became a marginally successful franchise. Once again though the stuffed animals made a killing during this time period as they dethroned the dreaded Cabbage Patch Kids as hug-worthy novelties we all had to have. Honestly the toys were better than the movies, at least the toys never talked or annoyed me. 2 stars out of 5.

The Care Bears: Adventure in Wonderland is the best Care Bears movie of them all, especially in terms of animation quality, songs, execution and plot.

The film is also a much better version of the Alice in Wonderland story, if the Disney movie and Lewis Carroll books scare you. Remember, he was high when he came up with these concepts.

The Care Bears version includes many of the magical elements of his stories, but also add in useful lessons for children about believing in oneself against all odds, service unto others, caring and compassion.

Watch this version instead - you won't regret it.

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 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.

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?