The Care Bears Movie Review

MPAA Rating: G
Released: 1985

What child of the 80's could ever forget the Care Bears, a line of stuffed bears that took the world by storm in 1984? After chalking up hundreds of millions in sales, perhaps it was inevitable that this toy line would hit the television and big screen much in the same way as G.I. Joe and Transformers.

The Care Bears Movie was released in 1985, the same year as the television series of the same name, and has often been criticized for being a 75-minute "commercial" for a new series of dolls in the line: the Care Bear Cousins. Such criticism may be true, but it also isn't relevant as long as the movie succeeds in weaving a fascinating tale for its target audience. Let's head on to the Feature Attraction and see if it does just that…

The Care Bears are a race of magical teddy bears with hearts of gold and endless quantities of compassion for others. As one of them states in the movie, "We care about everyone, even if they don't care about us."

Up in the clouds blanketing the Earth in a city called Care-a-Lot, the bears watch over the world's children so that they can lend a caring heart to those who need it. Soon Friend Bear and Secret Bear take notice of Kim and Jason, two apathetic children that are struggling with their parents' abandonment. Since the lost the two they loved most in the world, they have closed their hearts to all others, believing they need no one else.

When the children are accidentally whisked away to Care-a-Lot, they are introduced to the entire Care Bear gang, whose overly exuberant and open demeanors quickly remove their apathy and make them care again. But an even larger challenge lies on the horizon…

Back on Earth, a young magician's assistant named Nicholas struggles against his own feelings of sadness, for the boy has never had a true friend and so desperately wants one. When he comes across a magical tome and unlocks it, a spirit within the book promises to grant him the friends he wants. Little does Nicholas know, the spirit is as vile as they come and is seducing Nicholas towards an evil path.

Influenced by the spirit, Nicholas begins releasing dark incantations that cause the people of the world to lose all compassion and caring for each other. Not only does this create an ominous atmosphere on Earth, it threatens to destroy Care-a-Lot, for when the last person on Earth stops caring then Care-a-Lot will be no more.

Now Tenderheart Bear, Grumpy Bear, Wish Bear and the rest of the gang, along with their two newfound friends Jason and Kim, must travel to Earth and try to save Nicholas from the corruptive influence of the evil spirit. During their wild adventure they will also stumble across the Forest of Feelings, home to residents such as Playful Heart Monkey, Brave Heart Lion and Swift Heart Rabbit… new friends that will eventually be accepted into the Care Bear family as cousins.

Chances are by the brief rundown of the movie plot I provided above, this movie sounds pretty syrupy to you. Well, it is… and I significantly neutered a lot of the sugar from the description. The Care Bears is as saccharine a movie as you will ever see, as evident by this line from one of the characters:

Cozy Heart Penguin: No thanks needed. I'm Cozy Heart Penguin. Helping someone in need is what warms my heart and keeps me cozy.

Worldly adults may want to gag themselves with a spoon when hearing lines like that, but to be fair this movie imparts very good values and morals to younger children. Unlike the cartoons of today that resort to constant violence and questionable morality, the Care Bears are able to resolve their problems through compassion and a bit of magic.

Although still younger when the movie came out (about eleven years of age), I was already too old to appreciate this cartoon – it seemed too "girly" and overly sentimental to me. Needless to say, after revisiting it today I liked it even less. Not because it's a poor movie or deserving of condemnation, but simply because I am clearly not its target audience.

The Care Bears Movie should be a fascinating, positive and magical film for young children – one that imparts the values most shows nowadays so sadly lack – but by the time the audience reaches the age of nine or so it will probably be just a little too fluffy and sweet to retain their attention.

Movie rating : 7 stars

If you enjoyed The Care Bears Movie you may also find the following films to be of interest:

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Care Bears - Loves a Lot
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