Care Bears
Care Bears are multi-colored bears, painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. They were turned into plush teddy bears and featured in the animated TV specials The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine before headlining their own television series called Care Bears from 1985 to 1988. They also had multiple feature films including: The Care Bears Movie, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation, and The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland.
Each Care Bear is a different color or shade and has a unique image on their stomach that represents their personality or specialty. The Care Bears family also include the Care Bear Cousins, which feature different animals, such as a lion, sheep, penguin, elephant, rabbit, raccoon, dog, cat, monkey, pig and horse created in the same style as the Care Bears.
In 2002, new plush versions of the bears were manufactured by Play Along Toys. This relaunch of the franchise featured in three animated films: Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot, The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie, and Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!.
A revival TV series, Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, premiered on The Hub on June 2, 2012, for one season. A continuation with the same characters, Care Bears & Cousins, was commissioned by Netflix and premiered in 2015. That year, toy company Just Play debuted a range of Care Bears toys based on the series.
The most recent TV series, Care Bears: Unlock the Magic, debuted on Boomerang SVOD on February 1, 2019, and has since tied in with a new toy line from Basic Fun.
History
Development
The Care Bears were created in 1981 by Elena Kucharik for the greeting card company American Greetings. Jack Chojnacki, the co-president of Those Characters From Cleveland , introduced the first Care Bear to businessmen from American Greetings and from the toy company Kenner in February 1981. On the employees' reaction to the toy, Chojnacki recalled in early 1985: "It had a high aaaaaah factor."Artist Muriel Fahrion, who helped create Strawberry Shortcake's look, was among the franchise's first concept artists. Working with TCFC Creative VP Ralph Shaffer, Fahrion designed the first six bears, using the company's most popular greeting card themes for their tummy graphics. Susan Trentel, Muriel's sister and doll designer of Strawberry Shortcake, designed the first Care Bears plush. Once out of the concept stage, children's book illustrator Elena Kucharik became the lead artist for the Care Bears, creating hundreds of full-color illustrations for books, clothing, stationery and various other licensed products, as well as greeting cards. TCFC's team of artists and writers created many characters in the line in a joint development by TCFC and MAD.
American Greetings kept the character program secret until advertising was ready. At the start of the franchise, "Care Bears" was established as the project's working title.
1982 launch
On September 24, 1982, the Care Bears franchise was launched in New York City before members of the area's Society of Security Analysts. President Morry Weiss represented American Greetings; Jack Chojnacki and senior vice-president Henry Lowenthal represented Those Characters From Cleveland.The characters were produced as a line of toys by Kenner the following Spring, consisting of plush teddy bears and plastic poseable figures and miniatures. on a $5–6 million advertising budget and a wholesale commitment worth $122.5 million. American Greetings introduced the characters to the general public in February 1983, with an appearance at New York City's Toy Fair; 26 licensees were involved upon launch. Among them was General Mills, a food company which owned the board game manufacturer Parker Brothers. In early 1983, Parker Brothers released six books featuring the Care Bears as part of its publishing division's first offerings. On television, the original 10 Bears were featured in a syndicated special, Atkinson Film-Arts' The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings, produced and sponsored by Kenner.
In December 1983, American Greetings and CPG Products lost a lawsuit against Easter Unlimited, importers of a line known as "Message Bears". According to New York City judge Leonard B. Sand, those toys lacked the "heart-shaped 'toushee tags'" used to identify the Care Bears.
In 1984, AGC introduced a spin-off line, the Care Bear Cousins. Another syndicated special, The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine, aired the same year. A miniseries based on the toys was distributed by Lexington Broadcast Services Company. A year later, the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins appeared in their first animated feature film The Care Bears Movie, produced by the Canadian animation studio Nelvana and released by The Samuel Goldwyn Company in original prints and by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in current prints. It became the highest-grossing animated film made outside the Disney market at the time of its release. Later that autumn, DIC Audiovisuel released an 11-episode television series in syndication, which incorporated elements from the Atkinson Film-Arts specials and the Nelvana film.
In 1986, Nelvana returned to the franchise with a second film, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film featured a new villain, Dark Heart, and introduced more of the Care Bears and Care Bears Cousins: Harmony Bear, True Heart Bear, and Noble Heart Horse.
Later that year, the television series The Care Bears Family premiered in mid-1986 on the U.S. ABC network and Canadian Global. Lasting three seasons and consisting of over 70 episodes, this introduced the evil wizard No Heart and his sidekick Beastly. In the second season, No Heart's niece Shreeky was introduced. It also added more development to the Care Bear and Care Bear Cousin characters, with issues such as conflict and depression being addressed through the characters themselves in some episodes.
Around the same time production for The Care Bears Family was underway, Sally Industries obtained a license from American Greetings and Nelvana to develop an animatronic stage show based on the franchise. This show, known as Care Bears: Care-A-Lot Castle, was produced in-house at Sally's facilities and with no involvement from the crew behind the animated series. Out of the main cast at the time, only Cheer Bear, Funshine Bear, Tenderheart Bear, Bedtime Bear, Grumpy Bear, and Friend Bear were utilized. The characters of No Heart and Beastly appear through disembodied voices recorded into the show's soundtrack, but only in the English version. Professor Coldheart, the previous villain, is mentioned in the Indonesian dub of Care-A-Lot Castle's soundtrack. Instead of using pre-existing Care Bears songs, Sally opted to produce original songs and recycle songs from their own catalog for Care-A-Lot Castle. One notable song choice, exclusive to the English version, was a cover of "Brazzle Dazzle Day" from Disney's 1977 film, Pete's Dragon. A total of two shows were built by Sally under this agreement. The first installation was located at Dunia Fantasi, an Indonesian theme park, where the show was locally translated under the name Beruang Madu complete with a dubbed soundtrack for the 1987 season. The second installation was built for Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in the United States, which premiered a year later with the original English soundtrack. Both shows would operate until at least 1992, with Dorney Park's installation said to have be destroyed when the park's license expired.
The Care Bears' third film, The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland, released by Cineplex Odeon Films, premiered in 1987. A holiday-themed television special, Care Bears Nutcracker Suite, which also served as the series finale for The Care Bears Family premiered on the Disney Channel in 1988.
Over 40 million Care Bears toys were sold between 1983 and 1987, and American Greetings printed over 70 million of their greeting cards during the decade. In whole, the sales of their merchandise reached over $2 billion during the 1980s.
1991 relaunch
In 1991, Those Characters From Cleveland and Kenner embarked on a relaunch of the franchise, involving seven bears. One of these, Proud Heart Bear, is distinctly different from the Care Bear Cousin of a similar name, Proud Heart Cat. This character was released as a bear with white fur that sported the tummy symbol of a heart-shaped American flag. In 2003, Proud Heart Bear was re-released as a collector's edition plush toy by Play Along under the name America Cares Bear, sporting the tummy symbol of a shooting star with the colors of the American flag. Random House released two tie-in books: The Care Bears and the Big Cleanup by Bobbi Katz, and The Care Bears and the Whale Tale by Peggy Kahn.The 1992 animated TV special The Rosey and Buddy Show, produced by Nelvana, featured the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins in a prominent cameo appearance.
2002 relaunch
In 1999, the rights to the Care Bears franchise were bought by Jay Foreman, the president of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company Play Along Toys, for less than $1 million; he also planned to acquire fellow American Greeting Cards property Strawberry Shortcake. Three years later, American Greetings relaunched the Care Bears brand as part of the Bears' 20th anniversary celebration with a series of plush toys and films.The artwork and design of the bears were changed for the relaunch. In addition, Champ Bear's fur color was changed from golden yellow to true blue, with his tummy symbol changed from a trophy with a heart to a trophy with a star, and Share Bear's tummy symbol was changed from an ice cream soda with two straws to two lollipops crossed. The change to Share Bear's symbol stems from Play Along Toys' suggestion of the change because sharing an ice cream soda may spread germs. Furthermore, many other minor changes were made to the designs, mostly involving lightening or saturating the colors of the bears and minor redesigns to the tummy symbols.
During this revival, Play Along released brand new toys based on the newly redesigned Bears, sold at stores such as Walmart, Kmart, Toys "R" Us, Target, KB Toys, and Mervyns. The new merchandise included the Bears doing aerobics; Tenderheart Bear as a patient ; Champ Bear as a firefighter; and the Care Bears themselves as Cubs, an idea previously used in the original 1980s incarnation of the franchise. Over 70 million plush Bears have been sold since the re-launch.
New versions of the Care Bear Cousins were produced in 2004. Two of the Cousins, Treat Heart Pig and Noble Heart Horse, were never produced as 13 inch plush toys in the 2000s, and the Care Bear Cousins were not relaunched in the 2007 relaunch of the franchise.
In April 2003, it was announced that a new CGI-animated movie from Nelvana, The Care Bears in King Funshine the Great, had been acquired by Artisan Entertainment for U.S. distribution. The movie was eventually renamed Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot and was released on October 5, 2004 by Lions Gate Home Entertainment, as they had acquired Artisan by this point, with international distribution handled by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Another CGI-animated movie, The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie, was released a year later. Another CGI-animated movie from Nelvana also was planned, but later scrapped.