The Care Bears Movie is a 1985 animated musical fantasy film directed by Arna Selznick from a screenplay by Peter Sauder. It was the second feature film made by the Canada-based studio Nelvana Limited 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. The voice cast includes Mickey Rooney, Georgia Engel, Jackie Burroughs and Billie Mae Richards. 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 (Cree Summer) and Jason (Sunny Besen Thrasher), who lost their parents in a car crash, and also save Nicholas (Hadley Kay), 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 greeting card company chose Nelvana to produce it and granted them the film 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 New York, and was released in North America on March 29, 1985; 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 search for people to cheer up. They meet Kim and Jason, two lonely youngsters who recently lost their parents in a car crash. Introducing themselves, Friend Bear and Secret Bear remind the kids of their ambitions, but neither sibling seems 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 Fetuccini", Nicholas finds an old book with a diary-style lock. When he unlocks it, an evil spirit appears as a woman's face and corrupts him. With his help, it lays waste to the park and quests to remove all caring from the world.
Back at Care-a-Lot, the other bears work on their new invention: the Rainbow Rescue Beam, a portal that can send any bear to Earth and back. Two Care Bear cubs, Hugs and Tugs, interfere with the Rainbow Rescue Beam. They bring forth 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, ruins Care-a-Lot. Tenderheart 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 other bears search for them aboard the Cloud Clipper. Good Luck Bear, Grumpy Bear, Grams Bear, and the cubs stay behind in Care-a-Lot.
Within the Forest, the children and their friends meet Brave Heart Lion and Playful Heart Monkey. Later on, more of these creatures are discovered: 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, a tree, and an eagle. After the Care Bears and their new friends defeat it, they venture back to Earth with more—Loyal Heart Dog, Proud Heart Cat, Gentle Heart Lamb, and Treat Heart Pig—to save Nicholas from the spirit's 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 arrive in time to help after fixing the Rainbow Rescue Beam. As the creatures' power drains away, Nicholas and the spirit briefly regain control. Kim and Jason assist Nicholas, who finally realizes his misdeeds; with Secret Bear's help, he re-traps the spirit in the book, saving himself, the park, and the world. He thanks the group and reunites with Fetuccini. Tenderheart Bear inducts the Care Bear Cousins into the Care Bear Family and gives them their own tummy symbols. 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.
Voice cast NameCharacter(s)Source Mickey Rooney Nicholas Cherrywood (adult) Jackie Burroughs The Evil Spirit Georgia Engel Love-a-Lot Bear Sunny Besen Thrasher Jason Eva Almos Friend Bear/Swift Heart Rabbit Patricia Black Share Bear/Funshine Bear Melleny Brown Cheer Bear/Baby Tugs Bear Bobby Dermer Grumpy Bear Jayne Eastwood Birthday Bear Anni Evans Secret Bear/Champ Bear Gloria Figura Bedtime Bear Cree Summer Francks Kim Brian George Mr. Fetuccini Janet-Laine Green Wish Bear Luba Goy Lotsa Heart Elephant/Gentle Heart Lamb Terri Hawkes Baby Hugs Bear Dan Hennessey Brave Heart Lion (speaking voice/singing voice; movie version) Jim Henshaw Bright Heart Raccoon Hadley Kay Nicholas Cherrywood (teenager) Marla Lukofsky Good Luck Bear/Playful Heart Monkey Pauline Rennie Grams Bear/Cozy Heart Penguin Billie Mae Richards Tenderheart Bear Jayne Eastwood Mrs. Cherrywood Brent Titcomb Additional voices Harry Dean Stanton Brave Heart Lion (singing voice; soundtrack version)
Production Development The Care Bears were created in 1981 by Those Characters from Cleveland (TCFC), a division of the Cleveland greeting card company American Greetings Corporation (AGC). That same year, the title characters made their debut on greeting cards by Elena Kucharik, while American Greetings began to develop a feature-length film using the characters. Kucharik, along with Linda Denham, Linda Edwards, Muriel Fahrion, Dave Polter, Tom Schneider, Ralph Shaffer, and Clark Wiley, created the original characters. Early in their tenure, the Bears appeared as toys from the Kenner company, and starred in two syndicated television specials from another Canadian animation studio, Atkinson Film-Arts of Ottawa: The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings (1983) and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine (1984).
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". 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), and failed to find proper distribution. 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), 20 Minute Workout (from Orion Television), and Mr. Microchip. During this period, they also made syndicated specials based on American Greetings properties: Strawberry Shortcake, The Get Along Gang, and Herself the Elf. "In some instances," noted Harvey Levin, vice-president of marketing and entertainment communications at TCFC, "their capabilities [on the Strawberry Shortcake specials] surpassed Disney quality." Various companies vied to produce a Care Bears feature, and Nelvana was the first to do so; Hirsh sought to seize the opportunity after hearing of its development. DIC Entertainment also expressed interest. Thanks to the Strawberry Shortcake specials and their experience on Rock & Rule, Nelvana acquired the film rights to the characters and gained a contract from American Greetings to create the script. 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."
Producers and crew