It's called unlock the magic.. They did have a care bear series on ABC and later on netflix, but those sucked and not because they used computer 3d animation. This new one is on boomerang and it might be interesting.
Maybe this was already forgotten, but people lost their shit over the notion of reboot series.. like Thundercats.. where for some odd reason people felt the owners of those franchises shouldn't do what they want with them.
I'm not happy with ever reboot, but at most I acknowledged their right to exist and for the company's right to re-imagine as they see fit. But maybe i feel this way because I saw and remember what companies did to animated shows and remember some of my childhood were reboots of older shit like Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, and Dennis The Menace.
Considering it's close to 35 years, maybe it's a good time to consider all the shit that is care bears..
The first TV specials on ABC
A lot of people might not have known this, but before there was a TV series, there were two specials. The Land without Feelings and the Freeze Machine... which were advertisement for merch.. These were the prototype to give some form of narrative to these colorful fucker. Of course I don't know for sure, but I think this is how we gain the care bear stare.. The Ex Machina to solve all the problems instead through brute force or negotiation.
Dic
These guys created and ruin my childhood, but they managed to have their own version of the care bears. Taking in what worked from the two special.. they made their own show using the bears and they were... confusing but pleasant in my opinion. Like all the shows at the time, they tried to give moral messages... but they also fought a cloud worm.
This is what happen when you have to make a show off of merch back in those days, you kind of have to wing it. Like how they did it with video games
To be fair to the Dic people, they tried to incorporate the care bear cousin, where the first two special never featured them
Care Bear Movie
While they were making the show with Dic, there was a plan to have a movie... and the movie was pretty awesome. In fact, the most popular movie that was not a Disney flick.
If we put the high quality animated movie next to the Dic crappy animated show, you could kind of call the first Care Bear movie as an origin and a way to make sense of all the shit that was happening at Dic. Plus, if you saw the movie, you're more incline to watch this crappy show. -- well it's not necessarily _crappy_ just completely different from what was on the silver screen.
Also, they tried to make an origin for the cousins... because there's already a TV show featuring them.
Care Bear Movie II, New Generation and Family
I would believe this is what most people think of when they think of care bears. Because of the success of the first movie, I believe they thought "instead of doing crappy shit, let's do good shit" so they dumped Dic and went to Nelvana and decided to start off fresh. Well, there were still 22 shorts that made their way with the Nelvana stuff during airing.
Because they wanted a fresh start, I suppose they thought they could just forget the last movie and go from there... So there was a new movie that made less sense but at least set the stage for the new series of cartoons.
I found this to be the best series because they tried to do a lot with it. Of course there were horrible episodes, but the good ones stood out. They parody fairy tales, star trek, and had some form of consistent world you could kind of believe.
As this did its run, it got crappier with 2 stupid movies that made less sense than the last one.
The dark ages, Joke a lot and a big wish
I hate these movies.. I hate these movies SOO much. I hate the dude who wrote these, Jeffrey Alan Schechter, who received a reward for the best of these pieces of shit.
I don't hate these because they changed things, change is normal and the meaning of life. I hate these because I know they're lazy. It's not the animation, it's not the voice acting, but the writing.
I could go down the list to everything i feel they did wrong... but instead, i'm going to be honest and quick
There's a good chance Schechter wanted to make Joke A lot about Grumpy, but someone told him no and he rewrote it with a trangender Funshine.. If you replace Grumpy with Funshine for half the story, this would make a lot more sense,
A Big Wish took influences of the past care bear shit, but mostly was created with his brand new scripting program . I'm not against having writing aids, but that might be the reason why the story went all over the place.
I'm not angry that a person made these.. I'm angry someone was 'rewarded' for making these... I think these are shameful, even for children movies.
This is also the time when they decided.. fuck the cousin, we're never going to use them again. And they made my favorite character Grumpy into an incompetent and whiny bitch.. that wasn't cool.
The adventure in Care-A-Lot, the care bear cubs.
I found the previous stuff bad.. I think they agreed. So maybe the Tiny Toon approach will work?
So we get Care Bear Cubs.. except they don't call them cubs, it's just heavily implied with the art, theme and everything else. We still won't have cousin, but at least they're trying to keep this theme going. And they made my favorite character cool again, with cute curse words.
I think this was a step in a good direction, but executed poorly and there were a lot of neglect. The idea of calling the emblem badges and going with a scratch and sniff theme was cool. They tried to have some sort of community, but they didn't really explored that. They tried to have a Lore, but didn't explain it. They also had these hints of things they wanted to do with characters, but there didn't
I could go down the list, but I want to talk about Grizzly and Oppsy. Grizzly the under used villain, The care bear first abused child.
Let's be honest and admit there was never any reason why the people who hate the care bear hate them... with the exception they hate all things nice and related to love. Grizzle is the same, except he looks like a midget bear, he's in a Pinky and the Brain style robot, and is basically the care bear version of Gargamel. I believe a lot of borrowed ideas went into him, but he was barely used or explained. A wasted opportunity.
And there's Oopsy.. the care bear version of Clumsy Smurf who also doesn't have powers. If you're going to have a handicap character, don't make him useless AND clumsy, that's just wrong. I wish this was the end of the abuse, but with Oopsy having no powers.. it was a little strange they brought a human chick into their world and gave her a bracelet full of care bear powers. They don't care about Oopsy to explain his deal, but they care about that chick and feel she should have magic... I think that sums up this series.. it's neglectful and they made a few oopsy
They also went 3D with this and I feel they simply borrowed a lot of old stuff and reheated them for the kids.
Welcome to Care A Lot
The latest version.. this is utter trash, but it does have a place in my heart.. mostly because they didn't fuck up Grumpy and made TenderHeart a creeper.
Seriously, in the middle of the season, Tender Heart have been hiding and sneaking in the bushes to over look what the other people were doing.. I personally believe they gave him teleportation powers JUST to make him less of a creeper. And of course he has a niece who doesn't seem to have parents
They brought back Beastly. You remember, the creature who looked like a furry troll with a pig snout? Well, they made him a king.. fucking adorable, and gave him a long tail. I'm wondering why there aren't toys of him out there. And they brought back the cousin.. in the most clumsy way imaginable
They tried to do something with this, but also knew this was going to be shit -- but they had fun shitting around and that's what really matters.
They did do a lot a things that were good. They decided to skip the cloud world theme, they sort of gave them a mission and had rules about guests.. but it didn't come together. This is mostly their non Oopsy learning about herself and looking at the world around her grown up friends.
this is the show i watch when i'm drunk and want to have a good time.
The new one
They came from a dark place.. they can't do any worst. At most, they might do what MLP did and make it all work out.
I liked the Dic series, but now, as an adult, I notice that the names in our dub were made up and beared little resemblance to the original names, specially Grumpy (who was named here as Amoroso, which literally translates to Loveable in English).
I liked the Dic series, but now, as an adult, I notice that the names in our dub were made up and be
I'm a bit afraid of what this new series will be. They are also working on a (yes really) Live action, movie....wha? On top of all this the only place you'll even be able to see this new series is on a boomerang online subscription service that is only available in the United States (yeah that's going to really help with the ratings) This and there 'USA Centric' Twitter feed is making me less and less of a fan. I'll stick with the 80's stuff.
I'm a bit afraid of what this new series will be. They are also working on a (yes really) Live acti
