Review of The Care Bears Movie (1985) by R.c. K — 18 Oct 2007

Well, this is the film I am most mercilessly mocked for owning, but, yes, I do, and unashamedly so. I could easily hide behind the easy shield of nostalgia, for I did certainly first see this film in my youth, but the truth is I still do just enjoy it well enough. No, one can't completely separate these things from nostalgia, but all the same, it holds itself together rather well.

If you are somehow, somewhy reading this review and do not know anything about Care Bears, they were a line of plush animals in the 80s based around feeling-sharing, each a bear with an image of some kind on its heart shaped white tummy, representing some trait or feeling and often related to the bears name. Their intention is to make children okay with feelings and to encourage positive feelings, friendship and sharing. If you can never stand the saccharine and sweet, just, stop reading. This movie is not now, nor will it ever be, for you. That's simply how it is.

However, as I say that, it's worth noting that this was prior to the relative softening of films for extremely young children. The story, as told by Mr. (Mickey Rooney!) and Mrs. Cherrywood is that of Nicholas, a boy with no friends who is seduced by an evil spirit inhabiting a spellbook, one which urges him constantly to destroy all the caring in the world. The Care Bears' home of Care-A-Lot is rocked by a "cloudquake" when this begins to occur and they note that fewer and fewer people in the world are caring about each other or anything else, slowly destroying their home. Two other friendless children, Kim (voiced by Cree Summer, a voice-acting constant, whose voice will instantly remind you of one of her earlier roles, that of Penny on Inspector Gadget, as well as Elmyra Duff on Tiny Toon Adventures--and countless others) and Jason are driven to help the Bears in their quest to stop this evil spirit from destroying all caring in the world, and they all eventually run across the "Care Cousins"--non-bear equivalents of the Care Bears, including Braveheart Lion (voiced by Harry Dean--YES! THAT one!--Stanton for one song!), Lotsa Heart Elephant, Cozy Heart Penguin and various other heart-named animals (a lamb, dog, cat, raccoon, rabbit, etc). Nicholas is pretty freaky as a child being driven into evil madness by his own friendless solitude, and I distinctly recall the utter creepiness of the evil spirit in the spell book, and its quietly persuasive approach to Nicholas.

But, is the movie unbelievably fluffy and cutesy? Yes, of course. I mean, the Care Bears are named things like Tenderheart, Friend Bear, Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear and so on. This movie IS directed at kids, for crying out loud, let's not hold its intended nature against itself. But it's fun, it's enjoyable, it has a good message in there, and isn't insultingly stupid when it comes to dialogue, thankfully enough. It respects the intelligence of the viewer, at least as compared to some kids movies, as long as one accepts the nature of the Care Bears as walking positivity. They live in clouds filled with rainbows, hearts and anthropomorphic stars (which, I must admit, are terribly cute) and like to tell everyone they care and want to be friends. Maybe the credit goes to the--extremely experienced and talented--voice cast for this, but it still stands that it comes off this way.

What was possibly most surprising was discovering the title song is written and sung by Carole King, but even more that two songs within are written and performed by none other than The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian. That alone would have kept the movie easily in my quality range, even if I weren't a sentimental, nostalgic goof under my love for vicious, nihilistic and gory horror movies.

My note for this one? I have the image of the Care Bear's boat (complete with living star-shaped mast that shows expressions relevant to the boat's situation, such as frowning fearfully) travelling into a large cave, where a mysterious new voice directs them out to safety--that of Bright Heart Raccoon (voiced by Jim Henshaw). Raccoons and penguins have always been favourite animals of mine, so those were always the two that stuck out in my mind, and were the reason I remembered this movie so well. I actually thought that whole plot was from the second movie (which I also bought) but apparently I'd split this nicely epic little cartoon in two in my head. And really, it is epic--but then, I'm a sucker for large casts and the introduction of concepts that expand upon a central universe. Even if I do know that this (and a personal absolute favourite, Transformers: the Movie) was designed to sell toys. Doesn't matter to me, never really drove me to it that I can recall (though I did have a pretty monstrous Optimus Prime back in the day).

Still, I now have to acquire "The Land Without Feelings" to cure my distant addiction to Professor Coldheart's silly theme song, which has been stuck in my head for years now.