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.

THURSDAY THEME SONG: BEETLEJUICE

This week's television theme song is a spin-off of the 1988 Tim Burton film, Beetlejuice. The series ran four seasons and 94 episodes on ABC and FOX from September 1989 to December 1991 and was animated by Canadian company, Nelvana. Beetlejuice was an instant hit on ABC's saturday morning lineup and soon aired every weekday afternoon on FOX as well.

The series was quite different from the film. In the movie, Beetlejuice was the antagonist whereas he and Lydia are best friends. Lydia often travels to the 'Netherworld' (changed from 'afterlife') to either stop or help Beetlejuice as he scams the locals. Lydia was changed from a very depressing goth to a quirky teenager who just likes weird things.

The humour of the show was quite different from the movie too. The show really relied on wordplay and pop culture parody which made it quite popular with a college age audience.

The voice of Lydia was Alyson Court who is probably best known as Loonette the Clown on The Big, Comfy Couch.

The theme song was written by Danny Elfman who also wrote themes for Batman: the Animated Series and the Simpsons. Tim Burton served as an executive producer along with Geffen Records founder David Geffen.

THURSDAY THEME SONG: SAM & MAX

Today is Thursday and you know what that means! THURSDAY THEME SONG! This being the first Thursday in October brings us a brand new monthly theme. This month: "Dynamic Duos"

Now, instead of showing the most popular duos (ie. Batman & Robin) I will be presenting some lesser known couples who starred in their very own cartoon series. This week:

Sam & Max

Based on the 80s comicbook of the same name, Sam & Max (also know as The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police) was a short lived series about a dog and a rabbit that fight crime. The series was produced by Canadian company Nelvana and had a total of 22 10-minute episodes and 2 20-minute episodes to make a total of 13 episodes, or one season. Sam & Max was shown on Fox and won a Gemini award for "Best Animated Series" and then Fox, in their usual pattern, cancelled the show.

Sam is a six-foot, anthropomorphic dog. He is level-headed and a great detective and his trench coat always has what is needed to solve the crime in its pocket.

Max is a three-foot "hyperkinetic rabbity thing" who is impusive and a little crazy. The two live in New York but travel the world, and beyond, to solve mysteries and bring criminals to justice.

The character designs are simple and fun to look at which leaves a lot of room for creative animation. Nelvana did a great job keeping the original feel of the comicbook even so far as to create very comicbook-like backgrounds.

The most enjoyable part of the show is the ongoing banter that is shared between the two. The dialogue is just as fast paced as an episode of the Gilmore Girls but the delivery is so much better.

A few of the episodes were released on VHS but are no longer in print and there are no plans for a DVD release. Most of the episodes are on youtube so I would recommend checking them out. Let me know what you think!