Wednesday, March 07, 2007

ON THIS DAY IN 1986: CARE BEARS MOVIE II


Theatrical poster for
On March 7, 1986, The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation hit the theaters and brought a whole new wave of merchandise to a whole new generation of children.

The original Care Bears television series was produced by DiC Entertainment who produced 21 episodes before handing it over to Canadian animation company Nelvana who's first task was to bring the Care Bears to the big screen in The Care Bears Movie in 1985.

The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation was not actually a sequel but a prequel and an origin story of the Care Bear's first Care Mission. It paved the way for the new television series that Nelvana was launching after the movie. The new series would introduce a bunch of new characters including, Hugs and Tugs, Grams and the ever-popular Care Bear Cousins.


Grumpy Bear
The Care Bears franchise has been a massive force that has struck young children of every generation since 1981 and is still going strong to this day. Care Bears can be found on everything imaginable, they have their own stage show and new computer-generated direct-to-dvd movies are currently being made.

How many of you loved the Care Bears? I know I did. I had a few of the stuffed bears and some of the videos and some of the comicbooks. I think my favourite character was Grumpy Bear.

3 comments:

coolshades said...

I love the Care Bears! I think I still have Care Bears Movie II on video. I used to watch it all the time when I was little. And I still have a stuffed one, too...the sleepy one. I forget his name. :S And I have a Birthday Bear, too, that I've had since I was a year old.

Anonymous said...

That would explain why Jetix stopped releasing DVDs of the DiC series, they had simply run out of episodes after the first four volume's worth. I do wish that the rest of Nelvana’s series would get released here (UK), or indeed somewhere.

The Care Bears grew on me, more so in my adult life, when I no longer cared what others would make of what I liked. In fact I spent a long time trying to find the second movie on tape before it finally came out on DVD; eventually I would swap my NTSC copy for the PAL version, because the later preserved the original film’s aspect ratio.

My favourite was Grumpy, followed a little by Tender Heart; they both tended to think in realistic terms and were the most likely to get annoyed at things.

BTW: The sleepy one is called Bedtime Bear.

coolshades said...

Thanks Starlac...I knew some other Care Bears fan would remember the name :P