Adventures of the Gummi Bears

Adventures of the Gummi Bears is an American animated high fantasy television series created by Jymn Magon and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series, loosely inspired by gummy bear candies, takes place in a fantasy world of medieval lands and magic, and focuses on the lives of six mystical beings known as Gummi Bears. The series focuses on the exploits of the main characters, as they tackle a series of problems, as well as aid their human friends and thwart the plans of various evil characters. Episodes consisted of either a single story, or two 11-minute stories.
The lavishly budgeted series became iconic for not only spearheading the style of Disney animated series that followed, but also starting an era of artistic improvement in television animation spurred on its success with competitors forced to improve their own artistic standards to avoid unfavorable comparisons. The theme music was written by Michael and Patty Silversher and performed by Joseph Williams. The animated series first premiered in the United States, running for six seasons between 1985 and 1991, with the show later broadcast to other countries including the United Kingdom.

Premise

Adventures of the Gummi Bears takes place in a medieval fairy tale world and focuses on a group of six "Gummi Bears", a race of anthropomorphic bears with great skills in magic and technology. The group lives in the underground secret settlement of Gummi Glen within the forest of the kingdom of Dunwyn. Long ago, the Gummi Bears had a powerful and highly developed civilization, but were persecuted by human armies who sought access to the Gummi Bears' knowledge and ultimately drove almost all Gummi Bears north. Most of the Gummi Bears then settled on a continent unknown to humans and were forgotten over time. They are now generally considered a legend by humans, but few know that they still exist. Throughout the Gummi Bears' search for their heritage, old ruins and intact buildings with some high-tech devices are repeatedly discovered.
Despite their efforts to continue living free from human influence and safe from threats, the bears of Gummi Glen gradually encounter several humans. Contrary to all fears and prejudices, the encounters do not always result in confrontation and fighting; while most humans dismiss every encounter as an illusion and put it out of their mind, some humans try to befriend the Gummi Bears. Only those who still believe in and know about the Gummi Bears and their magic try to capture them. The Gummi Bears' closest friends among humans are Princess Calla, the daughter of King Gregor and heir to Dunwyn's throne, and Cavin, the squire of Gregor's chief knight Sir Tuxford.
The Gummi Bears owe their name to a magic potion named "gummiberry juice", which allows them to bounce like a rubber ball. Gummiberry juice is made by Grammi Gummi using an ancient and secret recipe from the Gummiberries that grow in the Dunwyn forest. The gummiberry juice gives humans and monsters superhuman strength for a short time, but unlike Gummi Bears, it only works on humans once a day. The evil and power-hungry Duke Igthorn is constantly trying to obtain the formula of the potion and the remaining secrets of the Gummi Bears with his servant Toadwart and his private army of simple-minded ogres. He seeks to conquer Dunwyn, dethrone the king and establish a reign of terror. The Gummi Bears often have to intervene – albeit secretly – to protect the king, their friends and their secrets from the machinations of Igthorn and other enemies.

Characters

Zummi Gummi – An aged bear who is the Gummi Glen leader, caretaker of Gummi Bear knowledge and wisdom, and a modest magician. He is somewhat forgetful with spells, speaking occasionally with mild spoonerisms, and having a fear of heights.
Gruffi Gummi – Gummi Glen's grumpy and conservative craftsman and mechanic. He is the voice of reason and a sound strategist for the group, though his perfectionism regularly becomes his downfall.
Grammi Gummi – the matriarch of Gummi Glen, responsible for cooking for the group, housework in their home, and preparing Gummiberry Juice through the secret recipe passed down to her.
Tummi Gummi – An overweight Gummi Bear cub, and the eldest of the three in the group. He is relaxed, laid-back and easygoing, and harbors a great love of food, but has remarkable technical skills and good comprehension, and often behaves impartially in disputes or acts as an arbitrator.
Sunni Gummi – An excitable and naive preteen Gummi Bear cub who exhibits a keen interest in human culture and fashion rather than in Gummi history.
Cubbi Gummi – A young Gummi Bear cub, the youngest of the three in Gummi Glen, who dreams of becoming a knight. He is characterized as being adventurous and somewhat impetuous, but with an open-mindedness to finding solutions to problems he faces.
Cavin – A young boy serving as a page and squire in Dunwyn Castle. He is courageous and good-hearted, is the first human to encounter the Gummi Bears, and befriends them as a result of possessing a Gummi medallion that he leaves with Zummi, becoming friends with Cubbi over time.
Princess Calla – A princess of Dunwyn, who is defiantly adventurous, capable of defending herself, despite her dislike of her circumstances and royal duties. She is friends with Cavin, and also becomes friends with Sunni after meeting the Gummi Bears during the first season.
King Gregor – The king of Dunwyn, characterized as a benevolent, brave, and good ruler for his people. Like most humans, he believes Gummi Bears are a myth, and thus does not know of their actions helping to protect his kingdom. However, he does discover his daughter's previously hidden fighting prowess towards the end of the series and is deeply impressed by her.
Sir Tuxford – The highest ranking knight of King Gregor's court and his trusted friend, as well as Cavin's superior. Tuxford is characterized as being an old, jolly man despite being somewhat past his prime for battle.
Duke Sigmund Igthorn – A disgraced knight of Dunwyn, exiled for conspiring against King Gregor, who leads an army of ogres to attack the kingdom from his fortress of Castle Drekmore. Characterized as a vengeful, power-crazed tyrant, he is the main antagonist of the series. A common element in stories he is involved in is his desire to find a suitable weapon for his plans, as well as capturing Gummi Bears for their Juice, especially the recipe required to produce it.
Toadwart – A dwarf ogre, who serves as Igthorn's illeist lieutenant and second-in-command, often nicknamed Toadie. He is characterized as being smarter than other ogres, due to his ability to read and write. Affectionately sycophantic to the Duke, if only because associating with the Duke gives him some authority over the ogres, who otherwise casually abuse him for fun.
Augustus "Gusto" Gummi – An artistic Gummi Bear, stranded on a deserted island with his friend Artie Deco, a wise-talking toucan, before taking residence near to Gummi Glen and aiding the other Gummi Bears when needed. Augusto is characterized as being an individualist with an outside-the-box problem solving ability.
Lady Bane – A human sorceress of considerable power, who maintains her youth magically and desires all of Gummi Bear magic for herself. She resembles and is based on the Queen from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Sir Thornberry – An aged Gummi Bear knight who acts as the caretaker of the otherwise isolated Gummi Bear city of Ursalia. His manner is eccentric by a probable combination of his extended isolation and senility, but still capable within his mental limits.
Ursa – The statuesque female leader of the Barbics, a barbarian tribe of Gummi Bears driven from their native lands by humans and are scornful of orthodox Gummi traditions. She and her tribe take up residence in Ursalia at the Gummi Glen Gummies and Sir Thornberry's invitation.
Episodes

Broadcast

The series premiered on NBC on September 14, 1985, and aired there for four seasons. The series moved to ABC for one season from 1989 to 1990, airing alongside The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as the Gummi Bears-Winnie the Pooh Hour, and concluded on September 6, 1991, as part of the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon. The series was later rebroadcast on the Disney Afternoon block and rerun on that block through September of 1991. In later years, reruns were shown on The Disney Channel from October 7, 1991 to at least January 1997, and later on Toon Disney, with its most recent televised airing occurring on December 28, 2001.

Home media

VHS

International releases

Several VHS cassettes of the series were released internationally. Of those, eight cassettes containing 32 episodes are listed below. The first four cassettes, which contain 20 episodes, were released in English in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. These four cassettes were also released in some European countries. The other four cassettes, as well as the ones not listed below, were released exclusively in other European countries.

VHS name	Episode titles	Release date
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : Welcome to Gummiglen!	"A New Beginning" "Zummi Makes it Hot" "The Sinister Sculptor" "Someday My Prints Will Come" "Can I Keep Him?"	September 11, 1996
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : Creature Feature	"The Fence Sitter" "Night of the Gargoyle" "Loopy, Go Home" "A-Hunting We Will Go" "The Secret of the Juice"	September 11, 1996
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : Hot Little Tot!	"Sweet and Sour Gruffi" "Duel of the Wizards" "What You See is Me" "Bubble Trouble" "Toadie's Wild Ride" "Gummi in a Strange Land"	September 11, 1996
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : A Sky Full of Gummies!	"A Gummi in a Gilded Cage" "The Oracle" "When You Wish Upon a Stone" "A Gummi by Any Other Name"	September 11, 1996
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : The Crimson Avenger	"The Crimson Avenger" "You Snooze, You Loose" "Over the River and Through the Trolls"	September 10, 1997
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : Wild Ride	"Toadie's Wild Ride" "Sweet and Sour Gruffi" "Duel of the Wizards" "What You See is Me"	September 10, 1997
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : Up, Up, and Away	"Up, Up, and Away" "Faster Than a Speeding Tummi"	September 10, 1997
Adventures of the Gummi Bears : For Whom the Spell Holds	"For Whom the Spell Holds" "Little Bears Lost" "Guess Who's Gumming to Dinner?"	September 10, 1997