Good movie but grossly overrated

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I guess I'm right in the middle for this one, because it seems to at least represent the Care Bears franchise well. I think I may have been a fan of this when I was really little, but I've mostly just forgotten about it. I'll give the series credit for being better than something like Barney. It does have more of a plot and characters. I actually found the animation in this to be pretty good. It does seem to vary in some areas. It's like different animators worked on it. So this movie's plot is that a guy named Mr. Cherrywood is telling the story about how a kid named Nicolaus found an evil magic book and became good with help from the Care Bears.Yeah, it's pretty dopey, but if you do have little kids who are fans of the series, then honestly, I think you can probably show it to them. It's just nothing too memorable. It does get rather silly at the end when Nicolaus has this evil voice. It did entertain me with how it was trying to be serious with this silly design. The plot's pretty dumb. It features one of the kids being given a key he has to keep safe. In the end, the villain destroys it...only for another key to be easily made. Uh, what was the point of that? This introduces the Care Bear cousins which at least expands onto the mythology a bit. **

Let's face it - the world has grown into a rather unpleasant place, and the recent generations of children are more jaded than any I or my mother have ever seen. Toys are over-priced, uninventive and children get bored with them in a matter of days. Children's movies today are much the same, getting shorter and shorter every movie and teaching children nothing.If anyone with children or younger siblings has ever had to suffer through current children's programming, you'll see what I mean. They're reverse-educational; a young child pointed at the Teletubbies sun and said "Baby," and then pointed at the real sun and said "Baby." Blues Clues teaches children to shout(trust me on this one,) and shows such as 'the Wiggles' remind me far too much of PeeWee Herman (the worst "children's" show of all time.)So rewind TV - go back to 80's cartoons. Even though Care Bears were originally piloted to advertise the toys, the show evolved into something NICE. The animation was far from spectacular, especially when compared to today's computer animation, and the story lines WERE simple. But it had something to offer children that 99% of new cartoons don't offer - examples of non-violent resolutions to conflicts, sharing thoughts and items with others, being open about your feelings, caring about yourself and others. These 80's cartoons encouraged children to not be jaded, selfish and rotten brats. (And if you don't believe me that today's violence-fed kids are brats, just go to my sister's elementary school - I've NEVER seen so many 5th graders dressed like whores in my life.)Storyline and morality aside, you should also pay attention to the music. Following the habits of 80's cartoons and movies, there are numerous song and dance numbers randomly inserted into conversation. But they are certainly striking in the boldness of them. And by this I mean the harmonies. Cue up the song "Home Is In Your Heart" on your movie or cd and just listen. The harmonies running through the song feel as though they should clash against each other and explode, but they just miss that clashing point and somehow manage to work very well. You can distinctly hear the SATB lines, and how soprano and tenor carry a lot of the melody and the base and alto are used to interesting harmonies. Just listen. The music was really well written. Long story short, let your children watch movies like this, and if you feel that they didn't learn anything from it, discuss the movie with them. 6.5/10

Wow. It really saddens me to hear people going on about how evil the care bears are and how they should be tortured and how bad they are for children. I grew up with the care bears. I used to watch the movie and then rewind it and watch it again. I saw it for the first time when I was 3. Scared me something shocking. (This may be a spoiler) But everything in the movie turned out alright in the end. Good triumphed over evil, love triumphed over all. Sure it may be corny, but life is nothing if you don't have hope.I'm 18 years old and I watch my 3 care bear movies regularly. I take my Wish Bear to bed every night. Each morning I get up at 6:30 before school (I'm in year 12) and I watch Lizzie McGuire. My lunch is packed in a barbie lunch box and my pencils are carried in a Care Bears case. I'm not retarded, I don't have a mental disease. But I'm an exception. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't have sex.I believe that a lot of the way I am is due to the Care Bears. I'm a compassionate person, I care about everyone, even when they don't care about me. You may think that makes me a walking doormat, but it doesn't. The values of the Care Bears were drilled into me at a young age. My mother would get frustrated after she sent me off to kindergarten because I'd share my play lunch, and not have much for myself.The people that say the Care Bears are evil obviously didn't grow up with them. I feel sorry for them. The cartoons nowadays such as South Park, Ren and Stimpy etc, are based on violence. That is not something we want to be teaching our children in a world that is full of terrorism, suicide and violence. They teach that fighting is the way to go to gain power (Pokemon). The Care Bears movie teaches valuable lessons, without beating people over the head. It also teaches the difference between right and wrong and instills moral values. Sure the language can be a bit syrupy at times and I guess it may be one of those things you either love or hate.From the day I was born I've been surrounded by Care Bears (I was prem and a small Tenderheart Bear was the only thing that would fit into my humidity crib)and I honestly thank my parents for that. I know that when I have children, I'll bring them up with the Care Bears, and not other cartoons because I'd much rather have my child tell me they love me than attempt to shoot at me with a cap gun.So in conclusion I am grateful to the Care Bears for the fact that I remember my weekends, my positive spin on life and for who I am today.

"The Care Bears Movie" was the most successful of the mid-80s cartoon movies based on toy lines. Perhaps I should stop right there for a moment and address the fact that this movie is indeed a vehicle for product placement. Because of this, the storytelling seems really awkward at times. More on that later.The story concerns Kim and Jason, two orphans who don't really care about anyone because they were abandoned by their parents. Quite heavy stuff for a kid's cartoon, but I digress. Anyway, little do they know that there is a secretive (but not completely secretive) society of cute, magical little bears that live in the clouds and monitor the amount of love and caring on Earth. These are of course the titular Care Bears, two of which, Friend Bear and Secret Bear (The Jay and Silent Bob of Care Bears), show up to try to make friends with them. They all accidentally get "beamed up" to the Care Bears' home Care-a-Lot (yuck!), where the two kids begin to change their apathetic tune.At the same time, a ne'er-do-well magician's helper named Nicholas, who is friendly though quite clumsy and lonely, has accidentally stumbled onto a talking magic book that is trying to trick him into doing evil things. While trying to impress a group of kids with his magic tricks, Nicholas ends up getting heckled and the books suggest to him that if no one will like him then he should make the rest of the world just as miserable as he is.The rest of the movie mainly concerns Secret Bear and Friend Bear's adventures with Kim and Jason through the Forest of Feelings (yuck!) while meeting and recruiting various helpful creatures and also the rest of the Care Bears' journey down a river (while also meeting helpful creatures) to get to Earth and stop Nicholas, whose spells are destroying Care-a-Lot (yuck!) and wiping out all the caring in the world."The Care Bears Movie" seems to be in a rush to do everything, and because of this, things seem to happen a tad too conveniently. Kim and Jason go from not caring about anyone to being fully devoted to stopping the evil book just a tad too quickly to be believable. Also, while one group is traveling through the Forest of Feelings (yuck!) and the other is boating down the river, the various helpful animals always seem to appear just in time to save the Care Bears. It's the type of movie where you can solve any problem by simply adding a new character, in this case these "Care Bear Cousins" (as the product line was dubbed).This is perhaps the movie's biggest faux pas; way too many characters that are poorly developed that exist only to sell toys. There's even a song at one point sung by Brave Heart Lion (The Cousins' unofficial leader) where he gets EVEN MORE animals to join the crusade against the evil book; these ones presumably not important enough to have their own introductory story arcs. But I'm sure they must have made great dolls.Nicholas is the only "realistic" character in the whole movie, which makes his gradual seduction to the "dark side" all the more frightening. (I know, it seems like I'm asking a lot from a movie about magical little bears, but again, I digress). It's here that the filmmakers make their strongest point: many children just need someone to be friends with, and if they don't receive positive influence, there will be plenty of unscrupulous people ready to step in and fill that void.Other than some poor plotting, the movie is also punctuated with plenty of annoying songs about loving, caring and friendship. Trust me, your skin will crawl when former Lovin' Spoonful lead singer John Sebastian sings songs about how "No body cares like a bear" and that "It's great to be in the Care Bear Family."Also, the dialogue... Oh, enough can't be said about the disgustingly cute dialogue! Horrible, horrible things should have been done to the screenwriter! But it is a movie aimed at little girls (a demographic I thankfully was never a part of) and based on characters from American Greetings cards (the Care Bears are from Cleveland, who knew?), so syrupy language is to be expected.I watched this movie again for the first time in more than ten years just a few months back, and if I can say anything absolutely positive about it, it was that it reminded me of my childhood. While there is nothing offensive in it, it's just so cute that during my last viewing I still squirmed around in the chair uncomfortably, laughing inappropriately at all the wrong parts.P.S. Grumpy Bear is of course the favorite of both Care Bears fans and Care Bears haters alike. Perpetually in a foul mood and looking like he would rather be somewhere else, he is perhaps the embodiment of what many parents probably felt being subject to such sickeningly cute drivel. He was definitely a kindred spirit to me whenever I watched this film as a child.5 out of 10 stars for this one. Mostly because despite the poor storytelling and overbearing cuteness, there was a good moral and Grumpy Bear was there for me when I really needed him.