The Care Bears Movie is a 1985 animatedmusicalfantasy film directed by Arna Selznick from a screenplay by Peter Sauder. It was the second feature film from the Canadian animation studio Nelvana after the 1983 film Rock & Rule, in addition to being one of the first films based directly on a toy line and the first based on Care Bears. It introduced the Care Bears characters and their companions, the Care Bear Cousins.[nb 2] The voice cast includes Mickey Rooney, Georgia Engel, Jackie Burroughs and Cree Summer. In the film, an orphanage owner (Mickey Rooney) tells a story about the Care Bears, who live in a cloud-filled land called Care-a-Lot. While traveling across Earth, the Bears help two lonely children named Kim and Jason, who lost their parents in a car accident, and also save Nicholas, a young magician's apprentice, from an evil spirit's influence. Deep within a place called the Forest of Feelings, Kim, Jason and their friends soon meet another group of creatures known as the Care Bear Cousins.
American Greetings, the owners of the Care Bears characters, began development of a feature film adaptation in 1981. Later on, the card company chose Nelvana to produce it and granted them rights to the characters, in addition to financing the film along with cereal manufacturer General Mills and television syndicator LBS Communications. Nelvana's founders were producers, with fellow employee Arna Selznick directing the film. Production lasted eight months, with a production budget of at least $2 million, and took place in Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea. Carole King and John Sebastian contributed several songs for the film. Though major American film studios passed on the project, newly established independent distributor The Samuel Goldwyn Company acquired the distribution rights to the film and soon spent a record $24 million promoting it.
The Care Bears Movie premiered on March 24, 1985, in Washington, D.C, and was released in North America on March 29, 1985;[nb 3] another Nelvana film, Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins, was released alongside it. It received mixed reviews from critics, who raised concern over its potential as a full-length advertisement for the title characters, among other aspects. It went on to earn $23 million domestically, making it the highest-grossing Canadian film during 1985 (with C$1.845 million), in addition to winning a Golden Reel Award. With over $34 million in worldwide sales, it set a box-office record for Canadian and non-Disney animation and has remained one of Goldwyn's largest-earning releases. The film's success, which saved Nelvana from closing, helped revive films aimed at children in the US market. It has since been cited as inspiring a spate of toy-based animated and live-action features; the film was later followed by two sequels, A New Generation (1986) and Adventure in Wonderland (1987), neither surpassing the original financially or critically.
Plot
The Cherrywoods are a middle-aged couple who run an orphanage. Mr. Cherrywood tells the orphans a story about the Care Bears and Care-a-Lot, their home in the clouds. In the story, Friend Bear and Secret Bear travel looking for people to cheer up. They meet Kim and Jason, two lonely orphaned children, who lost their parents in a car accident. Friend Bear and Secret Bear introduce themselves and remind the children of their ambitions, but neither of them are interested.
At an amusement park, Tenderheart Bear spots a magician's apprentice named Nicholas. While unloading a trunk of goods for his master, the "Great Fettucini", Nicholas finds an old book with a diary-style lock. When he unlocks it, an evil spirit appears as a woman's face, and starts corrupting him. With his help, it lays waste to the park, and begins a quest to remove all caring from the world.
Back at Care-a-Lot, some of the other bears are working on their new invention: the Rainbow Rescue Beam, a portal that can send any bear to Earth and back. The two Care Bear cubs belonging to Grams Bear, Baby Hugs and Baby Tugs, interfere with it and bring forth a group of unexpected visitors: Friend Bear, Secret Bear, Kim, and Jason. The bears introduce themselves to the children, and give them a tour of their home. Tenderheart Bear returns on his now out of control Rainbow Roller just before a "Cloud Quake" caused by the spirit, which ruins Care-a-Lot. He informs the others of Nicholas' troubles on Earth. Using the Rainbow Rescue Beam, he sends Kim and Jason to the park, along with Friend Bear and Secret Bear. They end up in the Forest of Feelings when the portal malfunctions. From a nearby river, the rest of the bears begin searching for them aboard a cloud ship called the Cloud Clipper, leaving behind Good Luck Bear, Grumpy Bear, Grams Bear and the cubs in Care-a-Lot.
Within the Forest, the children and their friends are introduced to Brave Heart Lion and Playful Heart Monkey, two of the Care Bear Cousins. Later on, the other bears discover more of these creatures, among them Cozy Heart Penguin, Lotsa Heart Elephant, Swift Heart Rabbit, and Bright Heart Raccoon. During their stay, the spirit attacks them in several disguises: a pike, tree, and eagle. After the Care Bears and their Cousins defeat it, they venture back to Earth with the remaining cousins Loyal Heart Dog, Proud Heart Cat, Gentle Heart Lamb, and Treat Heart Pig to save Nicholas from its influence.
At the park, Nicholas obtains the ingredients for his spell against the children and the creatures. After he casts it, the Care Bears and company engage in a long battle. The bears shoot beams of bright light on him, forming their "Stare"; the Cousins help with their "Call" – Good Luck Bear and Grumpy Bear arriving in time to help after fixing the Rainbow Rescue Beam. As the creatures' power drains away, Nicholas and the spirit briefly regain control. After Kim and Jason assist him, he finally realizes his misdeeds. With Secret Bear's help, he closes the spirit's face back into the book and saves himself, the park, and the world. He thanks the group and reunites with Fettucini, while Tenderheart Bear inducts the Care Bear Cousins into the Care Bear Family and gives them their own belly badges, and Kim and Jason find new parents who take them to one of Nicholas' shows.
As Mr. Cherrywood finishes his story, it is revealed that he is actually Nicholas. Tenderheart Bear, who has been listening from outside a window, returns to Care-a-Lot in his Cloudmobile.
Production of the first feature took place at another Canadian outlet, Toronto's Nelvana studio. This came in a period in the company's history which Nelvana co-founder Michael Hirsh refers to as its "dark years".[22][nb 4] At the time, Nelvana had just finished production of its first full-length film, 1983's Rock & Rule, which was produced using almost all of its resources (for around US$8 million),[24][25] and failed to find proper distribution.[13] The film put them on the verge of closing down. Soon after, the Nelvana team began doing work on television shows like Inspector Gadget (from DIC Entertainment),[22][26]20 Minute Workout (from Orion Television),[26] and Mr. Microchip.[22] During this period, they also made syndicated specials based on American Greetings properties: Strawberry Shortcake,[24]The Get Along Gang,[27] and Herself the Elf.[28] "In some instances," noted Harvey Levin, vice-president of marketing and entertainment communications at TCFC,[29] "their capabilities [on the Strawberry Shortcake specials] surpassed Disney quality."[24] Various companies vied to produce a Care Bears feature, and Nelvana was the first to do so;[24] Hirsh sought to seize the opportunity after hearing of its development.[30] DIC Entertainment also expressed interest.[30] Thanks to the Strawberry Shortcake specials and their experience on Rock & Rule,[31][25] Nelvana acquired the rights to the characters and gained a contract from American Greetings to create the script.[31][22][24] To convince the production partnership of TCFC and Kenner Toys, Hirsh held a competition inspired by Pepsi-Cola's "Pepsi Challenge" commercials of the time, in which he tested clips from Nelvana and other vying studios and checked the "animation quality, music, sound effects, and colour" of each. He then asked the producers to decide on the best demo, and Nelvana scored highest. Hirsh later recalled the words of his partners: "We know you've rigged this against everybody else because you've chosen the clips. But we like the approach."[31]
Producers and crew
The Care Bears Movie was one of the first films to be based directly on an established toy line.[32] It featured the ten original Bears, along with six additions to the line-up,[24] and marked the media debut of the Care Bear Cousins.[1][10] Produced for at least US$2 million,[nb 1] the film was financed by American Greetings, the owners of the Care Bears franchise; General Mills, the toys' distributor; and television syndicator LBS Communications.[1][35][nb 1] The Kenner company also took part in the production.[1][31] Brought in under budget, The Care Bears Movie became Nelvana's second feature-length production,[42] and was made over an eight-month period that lasted until February 1985.[31][11][22] Michael Hirsh is quoted as saying in Daniel Stoffman's 2002 book, The Nelvana Story: "Nobody had ever made an animated movie for theatrical release for as little money and in as little time."[31] In 2009 his partner, Clive A. Smith, told Canadian Business magazine: "I swear I grimaced at the thought of doing a Care Bears feature. But Michael [Hirsh] went out and actually brought that project in."[43] Nelvana was responsible for the script,[44] several special effects, including those for the "Care Bear Stare",[45] and hired musicians and voice actors.[44] With this project, Arna Selznick became the third of only four women ever to direct an animated feature;[13][nb 5] prior to this, she worked on several Nelvana productions, including Strawberry Shortcake and the Baby Without a Name.[13] Nelvana's founders—Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert, and Clive A. Smith—participated as the main producers.[10][13][47][48] The studio's roster included Charles Bonifacio, the director of animation,[10] and supervising animator D. Brewster,[10] who previously took part in the animation courses at Ontario's Sheridan College.[33]Dale Schott, who served as a storyboard artist,[10] remarked that "Nelvana had a lot to do with reviving the low-budget feature" with its efforts on The Care Bears Movie.[49]
Four employees of the film's financiers served as executive producers:[10] Louis Gioia Jr., president of Kenner's Marketing Services division;[50][nb 6]Jack Chojnacki, co-president of TCFC;[51]Carole MacGillvray, who became president of General Mills' M.A.D. (Marketing and Design) division in February 1984;[52] and Robert Unkel, LBS' senior vice-president of programming.[53] A fifth producer, American Greetings staffer W. Ray Peterson, went uncredited.[10][54] Three associate producers worked on the film:[10][11]Paul Pressler, another employee at Kenner;[55] John Bohach, who later became LBS' executive vice-president;[56] and Harvey Levin.[10]Lenora Hume, the director of photography on Rock & Rule,[57] was the supervising producer.[10][11]
Animation
Along with Inspector Gadget,[26]The Care Bears Movie was Nelvana's first foray into animation outsourcing.[31] Production took place at Nelvana's facilities,[47] Taiwan's Wang Film Productions (Cuckoo's Nest Studio),[10][58] and the newly established Hanho Heung-Up and Mihahn studios in South Korea.[10] Delaney and Friends, a Vancouver-based outlet, did the uncredited work.[10][59] Nelvana faced several problems with their Korean contractors,[31] among them the language barrier between the Canadian crew and the overseas staff,[31] and the unwieldy processes through which the film reels were shipped to the West.[60] At one point, Loubert, Smith, and fellow staffer David Altman spent three days trying to persuade several unpaid animators to return important layout sketches. In exchange for the layouts, Nelvana gave them US$20,000 in South Korean won.[61] By then, the production was falling behind schedule, and an opening date was already set; Loubert sent half of the work to Taiwan (where Lenora Hume supervised), while the remainder stayed in Korea under Loubert's and Smith's watch.[62]
Back in the Americas, Hirsh tried to promote the unfinished feature before its deadline; unable to get available footage, he instead managed to show potential marketers some Leica reels and a few moments of completed colour animation.[63] According to him, it was the first time an animated "work in progress" was screened to exhibitors; this ploy has since been used by the Disney company,[63] particularly in the case of Beauty and the Beast (at the 1991 New York Film Festival).[64] "People loved the movie anyway," he said of this experiment. "I was told it was considered great salesmanship. It made [them] feel that they were part of the process because they were seeing unfinished work."[63]
The music for The Care Bears Movie was composed by Patricia Cullen.[10][47] The soundtrack album was released in LP and cassette format by Kid Stuff Records in the United States,[66][67] Six songs were performed by Carole King, John Sebastian, NRBQ, and the Tower of Power,[10] actor Harry Dean Stanton had a guest appearance as Brave Heart Lion for the song "Home is in Your Heart".[10] The songs were produced by Lou Adler and John Sebastian, with additional lyrics and music by Ken Stephenson, Walt Woodward, and David Bird,[10] Nelvana crewmember Peter Hudecki prepared the song sequences.[10]
Before The Care Bears Movie, Sebastian contributed to several other Nelvana specials, including The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978) and Easter Fever (1980).[68][69] When asked to compose three tracks for the film, he learned about the characters since he was unfamiliar with the franchise. Despite his misgivings on the marketing aspects, Sebastian said in April 1985, "I think their central theme—being candid about your feelings, sharing your feelings—is a very positive message for children."[70]
Adele Freedman of Toronto's The Globe and Mail wrote positively about the music in the film:
A lot of caring has gone into the soundtrack. It doesn't attack the eardrum in the manner of so much current kids' stuff. It supposes that a child's ear can discriminate between good music and aural pollution as well as anybody else's. Carole King (of Tapestry fame) wrote and performed the theme song, "Care A Lot". The remaining songs, written by John Sebastian, are likewise entertaining and imaginatively arranged. The music does a lot to make the kingdom of Care-a-lot, where the goody-goody bears hang out on clouds monitoring life below on their Caring Meter, a slightly less irritable place.[12]
Other critics tended to differ. The Houston Chronicle's Stephen Hunter found that "the film integrates its music into the story very clumsily. It's not merely that the numbers are forgettable—they are—it's that they're shoe-horned so obviously into the story that they don't amplify it, they stop it cold."[71] Likewise, Michael Blowen of The Boston Globe said that "the uninspired songs ... add nothing to the banal plot."[72]
Swift Heart Rabbit staring at the Spirit's spell possessing a tree. An element from this scene was featured in an advertising campaign aimed at the film's potential older viewers, despite its target audience being young children.[73]
In 1984, before the film's completion, Carole MacGillvray offered The Care Bears Movie for consideration to major studios in the US;[73] since they did not see the financial potential in a picture aimed strictly at children, they declined the offer.[35] MacGillvray told Adweek magazine in April 1985, "I made several trips, and I was really disappointed. They kept telling me things like 'Animated movies won't sell' and 'Maybe we'd consider it if you were Disney,' but most just said, 'You're very nice, good-bye.' "[73] When few takers were left, she took it to the Samuel Goldwyn Company.[35][73] A newcomer in the independent market, it agreed to release the film.[35] Comparing the title characters' appeal to Hollywood stars like Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford,[39] founder Samuel Goldwyn Jr. remarked: "Having my [two] children, I know these bears are stars, too."[35]
According to the 1985 edition of Guinness Film Facts and Feats, the Samuel Goldwyn Company spent up to US$24 million on the publicity budget for The Care Bears Movie, the largest at that time.[74] The film's advertising budget was US$4 million; Variety reported that "the beneficiaries of [its] merchandising tie-ins have earmarked [the remaining] $20,000,000 to promo Care Bear products in step with the film's release".[1] For the film's promotion, Goldwyn's staff partnered with Kenner Toys and the fast food chain Pizza Hut; there were also tie-ins on Trix cereal boxes.[73]Parker Brothers published two tie-in books, Meet the Care Bear Cousins and Keep On Caring, shortly after the film's release;[75][76][nb 7] both were reissued in October 1985 by Children's Press.[77][78]
The Goldwyn staff came up with two advertising strategies, which tested well with the company—one was aimed at the film's target audience of children as young as age five; another targeted grown-ups, parents, and older children.[73] In the words of Cliff Hauser, the distributor's executive director of marketing, "We didn't want parents to think the movie was threatening. So the big debate was—although the formula for success in animated film is the triumph of good over evil—how can you do that in single-image ads?"[73] Jeff Lipsky, vice-president of theatrical at Goldwyn, referred to the first one as "the cheery approach"; ads therein featured the Care Bears on clouds, and carried the tagline "A movie that'll make the whole family care-a-lot". Hauser said, "That's one that a mother can look at and know she can take the 2-year-old to it and not worry."[73] The other campaign, which Lipsky called "more Disney-esque", featured an evil tree whose hands reached out to capture the Bears; its tagline, "What happens when the world stops caring?",[73] was also seen on the official poster. Bingham Ray, Goldwyn's vice-president of distribution, was involved in the promotional efforts.[79]
Around opening time, Hirsh predicted that The Care Bears Movie would be its decade's response to Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, both from Walt Disney Productions.[45] Loubert added, "These characters say something important to children. Our challenge has been to create a very distinct character for each Care Bear. A lot of effort went into bringing out their individuality."[45] Some time afterward, Hirsh conceded that parents had to come to the film, out of respect for the dark content within. "Frightening scenes," he said, "are a necessity for the reality of the hero and villain—just as it works in nursery rhymes. Kids work out their fears this way."[80] TCFC's Jack Chojnacki offered this vindication in The Wall Street Journal: "We consider a film one of the many products we license. When we started the whole Care Bears project we knew the importance of bears in the market but that there was a void. There were no specific bears. In the movie marketplace there was a void for good family-fare films."[35] And, in the words of Carole MacGillvray, "Toy recognition drives this movie."[35]
North America
"Nelvana has proven that pure, wholesome entertainment for the 2-to-10 age group can be successful."
Edward Hansen, vice-president of animation, administration and production for Disney[24]
"[W]hen watching a movie as sweet and tasty as The Care Bears Movie, a 4-year-old girl needs to have all the luxuries a Saturday matinee brings to stay in the right mood."
The Care Bears Movie premiered in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 1985, as part of a Special Olympics benefit;[4] Georgia Engel, the voice of Love-a-lot Bear, attended this event.[82] The film opened on March 29, 1985, in the United States and Canada,[83][84] as Nelvana's first widely released feature.[45] It became surprisingly successful at the North American box office,[85] playing primarily at matinees and early evening showings.[41][80][85][86] At the time, the North American film industry was bereft of children's and family fare;[35][80][87] with The Care Bears Movie, Hirsh said, "There's such a large audience for a film that appeals primarily to 6-year-olds."[85] He remarked later on, "What we've done [at Nelvana] is tailor the film to a pre-literate audience, the very young. It's interesting to see the audience. The kids are fixated on the screen. [It's] awesome to them."[80] Clive A. Smith observed that some children came to showings with their Bears; long line-ups held back its audience in several cities.[24] Among those attending the matinee screenings was John Waters, a filmmaker known for controversial and cult classics Pink Flamingos (1972) and Polyester (1981).[88] The film made an appearance at the USA Film Festival in Dallas, Texas, during its release.[89]
When shown in theatres, the feature was immediately followed by Nelvana's TV special, Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins.[90] It was directed by Laura Shepherd and produced by Nelvana's founders along with Lenora Hume.[91] The story involves Strawberry Shortcake and a tiny group of creatures called the Berrykins as they work to clear their home of Strawberryland of the "world's favourite perfume", a pungent odour which was unleashed from a purple cloud.[91] LBS Communications syndicated it on US television around the time of The Care Bears Movie's theatrical tenure; a video release from Family Home Entertainment soon followed.[92][93]
The Care Bears Movie ranked fourth at the North American box office on its first two weekends, grossing US$3.7 million and US$3.2 million respectively.[94][95][nb 1] It was screened in 1,003 venues during its first four weeks.[96][97] After three months, it grossed about US$23 million in the United States,[83][84][nb 8] and placed 40th among 1985's major films;[99] it brought in US$9,435,000 in rentals for the Goldwyn company.[100] In Canada, the film was released by Astral Films[2] and Criterion Pictures Corporation,[3] and made C$1,845,000 by the end of 1985.[101][102] It was the year's highest-grossing release in that market, followed by Disney's One Magic Christmas and a Quebec production called The Alley Cat (Le Matou).[101]
Several months after The Care Bears Movie, Walt Disney Pictures released its animated feature The Black Cauldron. Costing US$25 million, it was the most expensive animated film of its time,[103] but grossed less than Nelvana's production (US$21.3 million).[104] As a result, The Care Bears Movie's performance alarmed animators at the Disney Studios;[34]Don Bluth, a former recruit, dismissed the "public taste" factor that it demonstrated.[105] Another animator, Ron Clements, later reflected on this: "Everyone was kind of scared about the future of Disney animation. It wasn't a good time. It was really a terrible time."[106] This sentiment was echoed in Waking Sleeping Beauty, Disney's 2010 documentary on the revival of its animation unit.[107] While comparing The Black Cauldron with The Care Bears Movie, Eleanor Ringel of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution singled out the "putrid pastels" of Nelvana's production and commented that they "don't even deserve to be mentioned in the same review."[108] Months afterward, a re-issue of Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians surpassed both The Care Bears Movie and The Black Cauldron, with over US$30 million in sales.[109][110]
Sometime after the film's release, Children's Video Library (a division of Vestron Video) picked up the video rights to The Care Bears Movie for US$1.8 million.[111] It was released in the United States on July 10, 1985, in VHS and Betamax formats.[112] On August 10, 1985, it debuted in 26th place on Billboard's Top Videocassette Rentals chart.[113] It ranked fourth on the first edition of the magazine's Top Kid Video chart (on October 5).[114] It was tracked by Video Insider's children's chart (on August 30, 1985), as one of five toy-related titles on tape (along with two compilations of Hasbro's Transformers series; another with Hallmark Cards' Rainbow Brite; and the last with Strawberry Shortcake).[1] By 1988, Vestron's edition sold over 140,000 copies.[115] In 1990, Video Treasures reissued it on videocassette;[116] on October 10, 1995, Hallmark Home Entertainment published another VHS edition as part of a six-title package from Goldwyn and Britain's Rank Organisation.[117]
On September 5, 2000, MGM Home Entertainment re-released the film on VHS under the MGM Family Entertainment label;[118][nb 9][nb 10] the DVD edition premiered on August 6, 2002, and was packaged with the 1978 British family film The Water Babies.[121] In 2003, the film was inducted into the MGM Kids line.[122] In honour of the Care Bears' 25th anniversary, another DVD edition of the film was released on March 20, 2007, with restored picture quality; it contained the franchise's second Atkinson Film-Arts special, The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine, as an extra.[123] American Greetings launched an official anniversary website and a Dodge Grand Caravan giveaway as part of the proceedings.[124] By 2007, home video sales of The Care Bears Movie totaled over five million units.[125] It was later re-released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on DVD on March 5, 2013. To date, this is the only theatrical Care Bears movie from the 1980s to be known for being successfully reissued, outselling A New Generation, which had not been reissued after the 2003 DVD release.[126]
The Care Bears Movie was scheduled to premiere on the US premium television network, Disney Channel, on June 28, 1986,[127] but did so one month in advance.[128] In September 1987, the film made its terrestrial broadcast premiere on the ABC network's Saturday morning schedule.[129] It also aired on American Movie Classics on July 7, 1991,[130] and on Showtime[131] and The Movie Channel[132] in the 2000s. The film aired on Starz Entertainment's Encore channel in September 2007, as part of its "Big '80s" Labour Day marathon, chronicling various releases from that decade.[133] It was among the first films shown on Canada's Moviepix channel in October 1994.[134]
International
Amid the US and Canadian success of The Care Bears Movie, Goldwyn took the film to the 38th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, where it was highly received;[135] a group of costumed Care Bears strolled along the Croisette to promote the picture.[35][136][137] Among its international distributors was Germany's Filmwelt, which released it on March 20, 1986, under the title Der Glücksbärchi Film.[138] It sold 538,487 tickets in that territory, placing 47th among new releases, and grossed over DM4,013,000 (€2,051,600; US$2,868,000).[139][140][nb 11][nb 12] The film was released on VHS in October 1986 by the local division of CBS/Fox Video, and aired on national broadcaster ARD during the 1988 Christmas season.[138]
The Care Bears Movie was released in the United Kingdom by Miracle Films[142] in August 1985,[143] and did well in matinee-only engagements;[44] a video edition from Vestron's local branch came out some months later.[144] It was also released in Australia on December 12, 1985.[145] In February 1986,[146] the film was released by France's Artédis under the franchise name Les Bisounours;[19] publishing rights were held by Hachette Livre.[146] It opened on March 20, 1986, in the Netherlands as De Troetelbeertjes.[147] On July 21, 1986, the Bermudez de Castro company opened the film in Madrid, Spain, as Los osos amorosos; it grossed over 23,728,000 Pts (€142,606; US$199,500) from 93,294 admissions.[148][149] Among that country's Catalan speakers, it is known as Els Óssos Amorosos.[150] The film was released in Czechoslovakia by Ústřední půjčovna filmů on December 1, 1988, as Starostliví medvídci.[151] It was advertised in Italy as Orsetti del cuore,[152] and in Poland as Opowieść o Troskliwych Misiach.[153]
In Mexico, The Care Bears Movie was released on April 24, 1986, as Los ositos cariñositos.[154] In Brazil, the film was promoted as As novas aventuras dos ursinhos carinhosos.[155] Television airings occurred on Australia's Nine Network in 1987,[156] and Malaysia's TV2 (in August 1993) and Disney Channel in April 2002.[157][158]
Aftermath
As opposed to Rock & Rule (which Nelvana owned outright),[26][63] the characters in The Care Bears Movie were the property of American Greetings, who paid Nelvana a service fee to work on the film.[63] Nelvana, however, hardly received any profits from the production; this caused its founders to express regret about the situation.[159] In The Nelvana Story, Patrick Loubert explained the catch-22 that they would face numerous times in the years to come: "We could have waived our fee and taken a big piece of the film. We were offered that deal. But if we had waived the fee, we couldn't have made the payroll. Once the picture was hugely successful, we thought we should have waived the fee. But we couldn't have."[159] At the time of production, Nelvana had begun embarking on service work that other companies provided them,[26] not only to help ease the debts the studio incurred after Rock & Rule,[160][161] but also because it proved profitable in due time.[26][159][161]
"Movies for 6-year-old girls are as scarce these days as hot fudge sundaes in the Sahara and, if The Care Bears Movie satisfies a first-grader's craving for diversion, then I am satisfied."
"No one but a grinch would point out that The Care Bears Movie has a strange similarity to a 75-minute commercial for the snuggly little greeting card varmints on which it is based.
"No one but a craven wretch would stoop to pointing out that the animation in this theatrical release is no better than the goshawful techniques used to grind out those despicable Saturday morning TV cartoons. After all, even the Disney people aren't making them like the Disney people used to do."
"Understand that Care Bears: The Movie simply and logically in the merchandisers' minds follows Care Bears: The Pyjamas, Care Bears: The Lunchboxes, Care Bears: The Pillow Cases and, of course, Care Bears: The Bears, the stuffed toys that started it all."
"These multi-coloured ursine cartoon characters, with names like Funshine Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Baby Hugs Bear—I won't go on—are about as nourishing for children as sugar is for their teeth. Why even the Americans should bother to create this syrupy bear garden called Care-a-lot, dripping with singing quadrupeds who want to save the world from evil, is a mystery to anyone who has seen the fun and fibre that can be obtained from infinitely better children's stories, especially the droll moral fables in Winnie the Pooh."
"While the practice usually has been for the movie to come first and the products second, this time around an audience has been created in advance by the products. It must work, judging from the number of very tiny tots who are crowding the matinee performances of this program. There is a temptation to hark back to the early Disney films in reviewing a movie such as this. There is a similarity in spirit, certainly, but not in execution. The animation is certainly good, but beyond that there is less concern for character delineation, for continuous action, for straightforward storytelling."
The Care Bears Movie received mixed reviews. During its original release, The Care Bears Movie had varying degrees of success with critics.[176]The New York Times' Richard Grenier wrote, "[The film] recalls vintage Walt Disney, both in substance and in the style of hand animation."[177] Rick Lyman of Knight Ridder News Services said in his review: "Any movie—even an animated one—that has characters with names such as Funshine Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, and Lotsa Heart Elephant is obviously going to rank quite high on the cute meter. And this one sends the needle right off the chart. You've never seen such cuteness."[178] Adele Freedman also gave it a positive review, commenting: "[It] has a lot going for it if you can tolerate the Bears."[12] Edward Jones of Virginia's The Free Lance-Star praised it, but stated that "More comedy would have helped broaden [its] appeal to older youngsters."[179] The Deseret News of Utah gave it three stars out of four (a "Good" grade) with this comment: "Sticky sweet, but a nice message."[180]
Michael Blowen began his review of the film by stating that "[it] satisfies the primary obligation of a bedtime story—before it's half over the children will be fast asleep." He added that "this sugar-coated trifle could only satisfy the most ardent Care Bears fan", and that "the characters themselves lack definition".[72] The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said, "Who except a callous scrooge would carp about the fact that The Care Bears Movie espouses a psychopop philosophy of 'sharing our feelings' that seems drawn straight from the pages on one of those insufferable self-motivation tomes? No one, that's who."[173]Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post wrote, "The best cartoons recognize the dark side of kids, their penchant for violence, their fearful fantasies. [This movie] just patronizes them. It even has a child chortling, 'Aren't parents great!' Well, they are and they aren't, and kids know that."[181]
The animation in the film received mixed reviews as well. Adele Freedman praised the style and backgrounds, and called the special effects "stunning".[12] Likewise, John Stanley wrote that "The style is cartoonish and cute" in his 1988 film guide, Revenge of the Creature Features.[182] While complimenting it as "a harmless film diversion", Stephen Hunter said that "the movie has the lustrous, glossy look of the very best in children's book illustrations". "On the other hand," he added, "the producers obviously couldn't afford an expensive [multiplane] camera, the staple of the Disney product, and so the scenes have a depressing flatness to them. And the backgrounds, so brilliantly developed in Disney, tend to be blurry and hastily done."[71] Jim Moorhead of Florida's The Evening Independent said, "[Nelvana's] animation is not the best. Far from it. Everything's in pastels, fine details are largely missing, mouth movements are minimal and the motions of the figures are scarcely better than some of those awful Saturday morning cartoons on TV."[183] The staff at Variety magazine stated that the "style ... tends towards a primer reading level."[184]Halliwell's Film Guide called it "sluggishly animated and narrated".[185] As with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,[108]The New York Times' Janet Maslin found that the quality paled in comparison to Disney features (in this case, 1940's Pinocchio).[186]
The Los Angeles Times' Charles Solomon (in his 1989 book Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation),[87] and Michael Janusonis of Rhode Island's Providence Journal,[187] faulted the plot. The Evening Independent's Moorhead and Jim Davidson of the Pittsburgh Press noticed at least two parallel storylines in the film, one of which involved the magician Nicholas.[183][188] The National Coalition on Television Violence counted at least 20 acts of violence throughout the picture.[189]
Critics questioned its purpose as a feature-length advertisement for Care Bears merchandise;[190] among them were Charles Solomon,[87] Paul Attanasio,[181]The Morning Call of Pennsylvania,[191] and Bill Cosford of The Miami Herald.[192] The Boca Raton News' Skip Sheffield commented, "I couldn't help being bothered by the blatant commercialism of this whole venture."[193] The British magazine Films and Filming remarked: "The purpose of the film is presumably to sell more toys as it unashamedly pushes the message that without at least one Care Bear around life can be very lonely."[194] Stoffman observed, "one of the youngest target audiences of any animated movie",[159] as did the Halliwell's staff;[185] film critic Leonard Maltin (in his Movie Guide);[195] and Henry Herx (in his Family Guide to Movies on Video).[196]
The 1986 International Film Guide called it "an elementary piece of animation lacking colour and character, with not much humour, quite lacking in charm, and indifferently scored".[197] Maltin gave it two stars out of four in his Movie Guide;[195] similarly, the Gale Group publication, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever, gave it two bones out of four in its 1997 edition.[198][nb 16] According to Derek Owen of Time Out'sFilm Guide, "Adults forced to accompany three-year-olds to the movie would have had a little moment of satisfaction when the time came to shovel the Care Bears toys out of the house into landfill sites."[200]
The mixed reception carried on in the years ahead: in her 1995 book Inside Kidvid, Loretta MacAlpine said of the film and its subsequent follow-ups, "If you can hack the sugarcoated attitudes of this group of cuddly bears, more power to you! There's nothing insidious about the Care Bears, but their overbearing sweetness may not appeal to all viewers." She cautioned parents of the merchandising aspect behind the tapes.[201] Dave Gathman of Illinois' Courier-News wrote in 1998, "One Care Bears Movie ... can give all G-rated entertainment a bad name."[202] In 2003 the Erie Times-News acknowledged its financial success, but commented on its "lack of a creative title".[203] Animation expert Jerry Beck wrote in his 2005 book, The Animated Movie Guide, "It's a simple, serviceable adventure with several standout sequences. ... There's no doubt about it, this is a children's film aimed at the under-seven crowd. But it's one of the better animated children's films produced during this period."[13]
Common Sense Media gave this movie some average reviews, as the group stated "The Care Bears Movie was made for young kids, but this movie's plot has some dark scenes and parents will want to be close at hand to comfort young viewers."[204]
The Care Bears Movie holds a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 7 reviews.[205]
In the words of Jerry Beck, "[The Care Bears Movie's] box-office gross signalled to Hollywood a renewed interest in animated features, albeit for children. This is something The Secret of NIMH tried to accomplish but failed to do."[13] A plethora of children's and family film entertainment followed in its wake, such as Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird from Warner Bros., and a re-issue of Universal Studios' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[206] Atlantic Releasing joined this movement by establishing Clubhouse Pictures, which showed G-rated films during 1986.[207] Nelvana's film helped to bring back matinee engagements to prominence across North America.[41]
Mentioning The Care Bears Movie as "the most recent example", Charles Solomon brought up the subject of feature-length toy adaptations in an April 1985 interview on Los Angeles' KUSC-FM.[208]: 130 He spoke to Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones, who replied: "I feel that it's proper—after all, that's the way Alice in Wonderland was written: the dolls were all made first, then they made the picture about the dolls, right?"[208]: 131 In July 1985, Sarah Stiansen of United Press International (UPI) called The Care Bears Movie "another licensing innovation for TCFC", following the department's previous endeavours.[209] UPI's Vernon Scott (in 1985),[80] and Bruce A. Austin (in his 1989 book Immediate Seating),[210] observed how the merchandising arrived in advance of the film's release. In forthcoming years, several media adaptations based on established toy lines would follow a similar marketing tactic.[87][211][212] Examples included films based on Hasbro's Transformers (in 1986 and 2007) and My Little Pony (in 1986, 2017, and A New Generation);[211][213] features with Tonka's GoBots (Battle of the Rock Lords) and Pound Puppies (Legend of Big Paw);[214][215] and a television series and feature with Hallmark's Rainbow Brite.[212][216]
In popular culture
The Care Bears Movie was parodied in "At the Movies", a 1991 episode of Nickelodeon and Klasky Csupo's animated series Rugrats. In that episode, the Pickles family goes to see The Land Without Smiles, starring the Dummi Bears.[217]
Allusions
Critics of the film saw comparisons between the Spirit (voiced by Jackie Burroughs) and The Queen from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[71][179][183][184]
In his Christian Science Monitor review, David Sterritt observed that The Care Bears Movie was mostly influenced by The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a 1797 poem by German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, along with "a trace of H. P. Lovecraft "that probably wasn't intended". He went on to say, "I also noticed a subtle sexism at work. Why must it be the little girl [Kim] who dreams of being a nurse and the little boy [Jason] of being a jet pilot—and not the other way around, to stimulate young imaginations instead of echoing past patterns?"[218] Blowen wrote that the two children both get turned "from cynics to idealists".[72] Joe Fox of Ontario's The Windsor Star, and Stephen Hunter, compared the Bears' home of Care-a-lot to King Arthur's mythical castle of Camelot;[174] Blowen commented that in this place, "altruism is king".[72] Hunter noted that "the celestial physics are left vague", concerning Kim and Jason's trip from Care-a-lot to the Forest of Feelings.[71] Critics compared at least two aspects of the film to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: the Spirit received similarities to the Magic Mirror and the Wicked Queen,[71][179][183][184] but Charles Solomon felt that the Bears lacked the individual qualities of the Dwarfs.[87] Solomon noted that in animated features of that era, villains such as the Spirit "lacked motivation—if the viewer accepts their evil intentions, it's only because he's been told to".[219] According to Tom Ogden (in his 1997 book Wizards and Sorcerers: From Abracabadra to Zoroaster), the Bears' Stare against the Spirit serves as a kind of white magic.[220][nb 17] "Such a non-violent solution," wrote Bruce Bailey in The Montreal Gazette, "should sit well with peace lobbyists".[222] According to a 2005 article in The Times of London, an Internet reviewer called The Care Bears Movie "a fine example of Christian socialism".[223]
Accolades
At the 1985 Genie Awards in its native Canada, The Care Bears Movie won the Golden Reel Award for being the country's highest-grossing film of the year.[102] Ron Cohen, president of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, presented the award to producers Hirsh, Loubert, and Smith.[224][225] John Sebastian's "Nobody Cares Like a Bear" received a Genie nomination for Best Original Song;[226] his performance was part of CBC's live telecast of the ceremony on March 20, 1986.[227] The film received a Young Artist Award nomination for "Best Family Animation Series or Special", but lost to the CBS series The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show.[228] During its 21st annual award ceremony on October 17, 1985, Nashville's performance rights organizationSESAC honoured Woodward and Bird for their songwriting efforts.[229]
^Introduced by American Greetings in 1984,[7] the Care Bear Cousins are a group of animals who serve as relatives to the Care Bears.[8] The group consists of different species, such as monkeys, elephants and penguins.[8]
^In the US and Canadian domestic market, wide release occurs when a film is playing in 600 or more theatres.[9]
^According to Michael Hirsh, this period lasted from 1983 to 1986.[22][23]
^Unlike the 2000 U.S. VHS re-release of All Dogs Go to Heaven (which still have the "Available exclusively through Warner Home Video." notice on its back cover), the 2000 U.S. VHS re-release of The Care Bears Movie did not available exclusively through Warner Home Video.
^In 1986, the average price of a movie ticket in Germany was equivalent to €3.81.[141]
^Filmwelt is abbreviated as "FW" on the InsideKino chart.
^Approximately US$96.3 million in 2023 dollars.[98]
^In 1987, Long Island's Newsday newspaper gave a US$40 million figure for both this film and its sequel, A New Generation.[162]
^In 1993, Hirsh and Loubert served as executive producers for the live-action thriller, Malice;[167] its US$46.4 million domestic gross[168] surpassed The Care Bears Movie's worldwide earnings. The Nelvana studio, however, is not credited in that film.[169]
^The Golden Movie Retriever uses bones as its equivalent of stars. According to the staff's "Bone Ratings" system, a title given two bones "May be perfectly delightful for certain tastes. A waste of time for others. Usually uninspired genre flicks."[199]
^According to Ogden's Wizards and Sorcerers, "White magic calls on natural forces or appeals to angelic spirits in order to provide benevolent results."[221]
^ abStaff (March 17, 1985). "Miscellaneous". The Washington Post. p. C2. The District of Columbia Special Olympics will have a benefit screening of The Care Bears Movie at noon, March 24, at the Circle Avalon [theatre].
^"Profile of Terri Hawkes". Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television. Gale/Cengage Learning. 2004. Archived from the original on March 9, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
^ abLigue française de l'enseignement et de l'éducation permanente; Union française des œuvres laïques d'éducation par l'image et le son (1986). "Les Bisounours (The Care Bears Movie)". La Revue du cinéma (in French). Vol. 418. Ligue française de l'enseignement et de l'éducation permanente. p. 26. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2010. Les Bisounours (The care bears movie) USA. 1985. 1 h 15. VF. Couleurs. Dist. : Artedis. Réal. : Arna Selznick. Scn. : Peter Sauder, d'après les personnages créés pour Those Characters from Cleveland par Linda Edwards, Muriel Fahrion, Elena Kucharik, Dave Polter, Tom Schneider, Ralph Shaffer, Clark Willey.
^ abFoley, Doug (December 1, 2003). "Hamilton native animates the movies with passion". The Hamilton Spectator. p. G.09. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2010. [Brewster] ended up in Toronto at Leach and Rankin, an animation firm, and working on The Care Bears Movie [which] cost about $2 million to make and made more than $20 million at the box office.
^ abcdeLerch, Renate (February 9, 1988). "Nelvana finds reel success in animated films". The Financial Post. p. 17. The first [Care Bears] movie, released in 1985, grossed $25 million at the box office. Its $3.5-million budget was financed by American Greetings in partnership with Kenner-Parker Toys Inc. of Beverly, Mass. The Americans also funded the sequel, which brought in $12 million. Nelvana financed the third movie itself and it has so far grossed $6 million.
^ abHarmetz, Aljean (May 1, 1985). "Video alters economics of movie animation". The New York Times. p. C19. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2010. How animated films will do theatrically in 1986 and 1987 when theaters will be crowded with them is open to question. However, the $4 million The Care Bears Movie, which uses upscale television animation, has been a surprise success. 'To the 2- to 7-year-old, the Care Bears are like Redford and Streisand,' said Samuel Goldwyn Jr., who picked up the movie for distribution after it was turned down by most major studios.
^ abcThomas, Bob (November 21, 1986). "Theater owners bringing back matinees aimed at youngsters". Houston Chronicle. Associated Press (AP). p. 6.
^"Nelvana Animated Feature Films (Special Report: Nelvana 25th Anniversary)". Variety: 72. April 22–28, 1996.
^Castaldo, Joe (September 29, 2009). "The Great Strawberry Shortcake Custody Battle". Canadian Business. 82 (17). Rogers Publishing Ltd.: 52–58.
^ abcStaff (November 16, 1985). "Nelvana cornering kid market". Toronto Star. p. F.2. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2010. The picture opened to brisk business in the UK, also showing at matinees only, and soon will open through Europe and in Quebec. ¶ A sequel is now under way for release next year. ¶ Nelvana created the scripts for both, did all the animation and contracted for the voices and music score.
^Mallory, Michael (March 19, 2000). "Move Over, Old Men". Los Angeles Times. p. Calendar 8. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
^Dougherty, Philip H. (February 16, 1984). "Advertising; People". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2010.
^Enrico, Dottie (October 8, 1984). "Media Profiles". Adweek. Robert Unkel was promoted to the new post of senior vice-president/programming at LBS Communications and David R. Smith was appointed to replace him as vp/programming. Unkel joined LBS last year from Grey Advertising. Smith was formerly director/creative affairs for Intermedia Entertainment
^Staff (September 27, 1997). "W. Ray Peterson, worked for American Greetings". The Plain Dealer. p. 9B (Metro). W. Ray Peterson was involved in the video and television movie productions for American Greetings Corp.'s Those Characters From Cleveland division in the 1980s before retiring as an executive with the greeting card company. ¶ He was the executive producer of the company's first full-length animated feature film, 'The Care Bears Movie,' according to his family.
^"For the Record". Advertising Age: 93. April 28, 1986. LBS Communications, New York, has 'major' expansion plans, going well beyond barter TV syndication. Paul Siegel, president of the LBS Enterprises division, will start Kideo Matinee to co-produce and market children's theatrical movies. LBS exec vp John Bohach will expand acquisition and marketing of home video titles, manage character licensing and head international TV barter sales
^Maslin, Janet (August 5, 1985). "Animated Duo". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
^"Vanguard Financial Inc. signs letter of intent to acquire Chuck Glaser Productions Inc". Business Wire. October 6, 1986. Contracting the services of expert animators, Delaney and Friends of Vancouver, Canada, [Chuck Glaser Productions] will create characterizations for all aspects of 'Christopher the Christmas Tree.' ¶ Delaney's group has worked on other animation projects such as the Care Bear movie and for Walt Disney. Delaney's 2-1/2 minute music video 'Christopher' presently is in production for television market release in November 1986
^Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (2002). Hollywood Songsters: Singers Who Act and Actors Who Sing – A Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 3 (Parton to West) (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 769. ISBN0-415-94334-5.
^ abcdefghijSharkey, Betsy (April 22, 1985). "Selling the Whole Family on Film That Cares-a-Lot". Adweek.
^Robertson, Patrick (1985). "The Industry: Publicity". Guinness Film Facts and Feats. Guinness Books. p. 27. ISBN0-85112-278-7. The largest publicity budget was the $24 million spent by the Samuel Goldwyn Co. on the launch of The Care Bears Movie (US 85).
^Bennett, Dan (April 30, 1985). "'Care Bears' are bringing back matinee memories". The San Diego Union-Tribune. p. D-1.
^Conconi, Chuck (March 26, 1985). "End Notes". The Washington Post. p. C3. Actress Georgia Engel, the voice of Miss Care-A-Lot Bear [sic] in 'The Care Bears Movie,' was in town Sunday for a Special Olympics fundraiser showing of the film at the Avalon Theater. Engel said she grew up just a few blocks from the theater and attended the Washington School of the Ballet. After the movie she took a walk on her first visit home in 17 years ...
^ abcdeSolomon, Charles (1989). "The Captains and the Kings Depart, 1960–1989". Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation. Alfred A. Knopf (Random House). p. 283. ISBN0-394-54684-9. The film itself was little more than a gargantuan commercial disguised as a story about 'sharing feelings.' Barefaced commercialism underlay the threadbare plot. The animation ranked a cut above Saturday-morning kidvid, but no higher. The various bears didn't embody the qualities they were supposed to represent, the way the Dwarfs did in 'Snow White'. ¶ Released at a time when virtually no other films for children were in the theatres, 'The Care Bears Movie' earned $23 million—besides stimulating untold millions of dollars in additional sales of Care Bears merchandise.
^Wuntch, Philip (March 22, 1985). "USA Film Festival". The Dallas Morning News. The Care Bears Movie: Full-length animated film with songs by Carole King ...
^Jeffrey, Don (September 9, 1995). "newsline..."Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 36. p. 92. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
^Clark, Samantha (August 7, 2000). "Studio specials". Video Business. 20 (32). Reed Business Information: 20.
^Landler, Mark (January 5, 1997). "Rich, 82, and Starting Over". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2018. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
^Dickson, Akeya (March 18, 2007). "Child's Play". The Washington Post. p. M04 (Sunday Source). Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2010.
^Rankins, Michael (May 9, 2003). "Review of Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on May 15, 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2010. The animation here is slapdash and crude, only occasionally reaching Saturday-morning-TV level. I don't know whether the Care Bears television program was put together as poorly, but if so, I can't envision how the producers sold three movies (there was a second sequel after this, which will never see daylight on DVD if there's any justice in the cosmos) based on it.
^Schneider, Steve (March 2, 1986). "Cable TV Notes; A Bull and a Toad Return to Disney". The New York Times. p. 24. Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2010. As further evidence of the [Disney] studio's liberalisations, Mr. [Bruce] Rider noted that the Disney Channel has contracted for exclusive rights to show The Care Bear Movie in June—perhaps the first time that Disney has presented rival American cartoon creations. 'We're sensitive to our heritage and our traditions,' Mr. Rider said, 'but we also have to look toward the future.'
^"TV Listings: Saturday / September 19". The New York Times. September 13, 1987. p. 162.
^Rosenthal, Phil (July 5, 1991). "What's on TV Today". Daily News of Los Angeles. p. L58. The Care Bears Movie, noon, American Movie Classics: Originally, Sam Peckinpah was scheduled to be the director.
^Staff (October 31, 2004). "Family Best Bets". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 5 (P-Dtv). Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved October 31, 2010. TUESDAY: 'The Care Bears Movie', 8:15 a.m. (SHO): They overflow with sugarcoated sweetness and if your kids don't own one, they may want one but the Care Bears have lessons to teach on pro-social values. In the first of their animated movies, from 1985, a boy unwittingly unleashes an evil spirit. The Care Bears and their cousins spring into action, using their Rainbow Rescue Beams.
^"Daytime TV Highlights". Newsday. August 27, 2002. p. B21. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. THE CARE BEARS MOVIE (8 a.m. on TMC): Those lovable bears in a pleasant animated film. Voices: Mickey Rooney, Georgia Engel.
^"Review of The Care Bears Movie". Films and Filming (364–375). Brevet Pub. Ltd.: 36 1985. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2010. Production company: Nelvana/Samuel Goldwyn Company. Distributor: Miracle Films Ltd.
^ abJohnstone, Lain (August 4, 1985). "Film Review: Who Cares Bears / Efforts to get children back to the cinema". The Times. No. 8400.
^ abLivres hebdo (in French) (71–76). Éditions professionelles du livre: 15. 1986. Les Bisounours, dessin animé d'Arna Selznick (albums, mini-livres et coloriages, chez Hachette Jeunesse). Sortie du film annoncée le 5 fevrier((cite journal)): Missing or empty |title= (help)
^"Agenda: Dilluns 6"(PDF). La Fura (in Catalan). La Fura, Informatiu de l'Alt i el Baix Penedès: 48. December 3–9, 2004. Archived from the original(PDF) on July 6, 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
^"Cinema". Visão (in Portuguese) (2–13). Editora Visão: 80. 1989. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved October 18, 2010. As novas aventuras dos ursinhos carinhosos, de Arma [sic] Selznick. Desenho animado que deu origem à série. Falado em português. Vitrine (só nas matinês)
^Wicks, Paul (October 16, 1987). "Channel 9 walks a tightrope". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). The Channel 9 spokesman said the station had been mindful of possible public reaction to shows in the light of the Melbourne and Hungerford atrocities, and in general terms had 'softened up' its programming—by running shows such as 'The Care Bears' movie.
^Staff (August 21, 1993). "Preview: School break specials". New Straits Times. p. 24 – via Google News Archive.
^"Today on Astro". New Straits Times' Life & Times (New Sunday Times). April 22, 2002. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 9, 2023. Retrieved October 31, 2010 – via Google News Archive.
^Gelmis, Joseph (August 7, 1987). "The Care Bears' New Mission". Newsday. p. 3 (Weekend). Retrieved November 8, 2010. The first two Care Bears movies were little more than feature-length animated commercials for the popular line of stuffed toys. Though they were minimally animated, oversentimentalized and underplotted, they reportedly grossed more than $40 million each worldwide.[permanent dead link]
^ ab"Milestones and fast facts (Academy of Canadian Cinema And Television Silver Anniversary)". Video Age International. 25 (1): 39. January 2005. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2010. 1986: The Care Bears Movie won the Golden Reel Award—it broke box-office records for a Canadian animated film and was the highest grossing animated feature ever produced outside Disney Studios at that time
^Ellis, Suzanne (June 13, 1999). "In toon with the times: Roles have changed for Nelvana's co-founders, but the possibilities remain endless". The Toronto Sun. p. S3. Nelvana's first animated series was Inspector Gadget, a bumbling detective voiced by Get Smart's Don Adams. ¶ After Gadget, Nelvana put out The Care Bears Movie, which became the #1 non-Disney animated film of all-time and held that title until Steven Spielberg's The Land Before Time.
^Hicks, Christopher (May 24, 1985). "Leisure: On the Screen". Deseret News. p. 2W. Archived from the original on July 9, 2023. Retrieved October 29, 2010 – via Google News Archive.
^ abAttanasio, Paul (April 1, 1985). "'Bears': Care for Cash". The Washington Post. p. B2. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
^Stanley, John (1988). "Care Bears Movie, The (1985)". Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide: An A to Z Encyclopedia to the Cinema of the Fantastic; or, Is There a Mad Doctor in the House? (3rd ed.). Creatures at Large Press. p. 44. ISBN0-940064-04-9.
^Tasker, Fred (April 10, 1985). "Bunker mentality". The Miami Herald. p. 1B (Living Today). Retrieved October 25, 2010 – via Newspapers.com. Movie critics debate whether The Care Bears Movie is really a movie or just a $4-a-head commercial.((cite news)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^Wyse, Wyndham (March 22, 2000). "Canadian, eh? Take One's unofficial list of 20 box-office hits". Take One. 9 (27). Canadian Independent Film & Television Publishing Association: 20–4, 29–31. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved September 30, 2010 – via TheFreeLibrary.com.
^ abMaltin, Leonard (2007). "The Care Bears Movie". Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2008. Signet Books. p. 212. ISBN978-0-451-22186-5. Animated feature based on heavily merchandised characters is strictly for toddlers, tough sledding for anyone older.
^Herx, Henry (1988). "The Care Bears Movie". The Family Guide to Movies on Video. The Crossroad Publishing Company. p. 48 (pre-release version). ISBN0-8245-0816-5. Only very young children will care very much about this sentimental, mediocre effort.
^Owen, Derek (2008). "The Care Bears Movie". In Pym, John (ed.). Time Out Film Guide 2009 (17th ed.). Time Out Group Ltd. p. 163. ISBN978-1-846-70100-9.
^Blowen, Michael (June 27, 1985). "Remember Family Films?". The Boston Globe. p. Calendar, 16. Retrieved October 23, 2010 – via Newspapers.com.((cite news)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^Jones, Edward (January 11, 1986). "More 'family films' are on the way". The Free Lance-Star / Town & Country. p. 4z – via Google News Archive.
^Stiansen, Sarah (July 7, 1985). "Licensing industry: A 'sleeping tiger' awakens; From the Statue of Liberty to Betty Boop and Dynasty, sales zoom to $40 billion". United Press International (UPI).
^Austin, Bruce A. (1989). "Which Show to See?". Immediate Seating: A Look at Movie Audiences. Wadsworth Publishing. p. 66. ISBN0-534-09366-3. By the mid-1980s, a reversal of the licensing pattern (from film to product) was seen with products acting as the impetus for films; The Care Bears Movie is an example.
^ abReid, Michael D. (August 4, 2007). "Blockbuster movies double as big-budget toy commercials". Ottawa Citizen. p. F7.
^Keogh, Jim (October 4, 1990). "Ratings: We need even more of 'em". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. p. D2. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2010. XPP – Extreme Product Placement. Motion pictures bearing this tag are open to general audiences with the caveat that the movie is one long advertisement for consumer goods paid for by corporations that sneak glimpses of their products throughout the film. For example, the 'Back to the Future' series would have been stamped with an XPP for its shameless shilling for Pepsi and Nike, among several other purchasables. Films created solely as advertisements for children's toys—'The Care Bears Movie' and 'My Little Pony,' for instance—will also sport this rating.
^Thomas, Bob (April 5, 1986). "Care Bears spark revival in animated movies". Ottawa Citizen. Associated Press (AP). p. C10. Archived from the original on July 9, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2010 – via Google News Archive.
^Stack, Peter (March 28, 1988). "Pound Puppies Come Up Short—No Sale". San Francisco Chronicle. p. D4.
^Forkan, James P. (January 16, 1986). "Programmers find life in animation". Advertising Age: 38.
^Susina, Jan (2009). "Reptar: The Rugrats Meet Godzilla". In West, Mark I. (ed.). The Japanification of Children's Popular Culture: From Godzilla to Miyazaki. Scarecrow Press. p. 9. ISBN978-0-8108-5121-4. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
^Solomon, Charles (December 27, 1985). "Fond Memories of Divine Ms. Cruella". Los Angeles Times. p. 6 (Calendar). Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
^Tate, Marsha Ann (2007). Canadian Television Programming Made for the United States Market: A History with Production and Broadcast Data. McFarland & Company. p. 147. ISBN978-0-7864-2745-1. Production Partners: Global; DIC Enterprises (1985 season); Nelvana Ltd.
^"A DIC Directory: 16 years of company's smallscreen creations". Variety: A30. July 12, 1999.
^"The new season children's shows". The Globe and Mail. September 9, 1986. p. 15.
^Shannon, Caitlin (October 1, 1998). "The Care Bears: A reader in Boston asks, 'Whatever happened to...?'". Christian Science Monitor. Vol. 90, no. 216. p. 9.
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