Les Bisounours au pays des merveilles

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!!!

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This is a classic movie. Much better than the first for young kids. So it is only loosely based on the Alice in Wonderland concept but it is highly inventive and colourful and loveable.

It also has a rare thing - some good songs! Nowadays it seems Childrens movies just get thrown around for commercial value and stuck together in no time. Effort has been put in over the songs in this movie.

I bought the video (or rather had it bought for me) back in the 80s and although I'm now in my twenties I still go back and watch it now and then.

Sad maybe but this is a great movie and definitely recommended for children and especially those born into the world of dire late 90s children TV.

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.

I saw this as a kid in the 80s and loved it and for that reason it will always remain a part of me. I was not a Care Bears fan or anything, but this movie was a lot of fun. The characters were very developed. The story was a lot of fun. The animation was decent. And the songs really stand out. Usually, the music in animated children's movies is pretty pitiful, but these songs are good! "Everything is wonderful in wonderland", "Mad about Hats", "Dont forget to use your heart", and a whole bunch of others. It's funny, it has good messages for kids, Alice is cute, and the animations is really psychedelic because this is set in *Wonderland* of course. The wizard is scary and his two assistants are hilarious. So is the Chesher Cat. See it!

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. **