We Bare Bears


We Bare Bears is an American animated sitcom created by Daniel Chong for Cartoon Network. The show follows three bear brothers, named Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear, and their awkward attempts at integrating with the human world in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The series was based on Chong's webcomic The Three Bare Bears, and the pilot episode made its world premiere at the KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival, where it won in the "Young Amsterdam Audience" category. The show premiered on July 27, 2015, and ended on May 27, 2019, and ran for four seasons and a total of 140 episodes and 15 short.
A film adaptation, We Bare Bears: The Movie, was released digitally on June 30, 2020, and later aired on Cartoon Network on September 7; it served as a conclusion to the narrative of the series. A spin-off prequel series titled We Baby Bears, focusing on the Three Bears when they were cubs, premiered on January 1, 2022.

Plot

We Bare Bears follows three anthropomorphic adoptive brother Bears: Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear. The Bears attempt to integrate with human society, such as by purchasing food, making human companions, or trying to become famous on the Internet, although these attempts see the Bears struggle to do so due to the civilized nature of humans and their own animal instincts. In the end, however, they figure out that they have each other for support.
The Bears often form a "bear stack", which they use to get around the city, and has become perhaps the most recognizable image from the series. Occasionally, the Bears share adventures with their friends, such as child prodigy Chloe Park, bigfoot Charlie, the Bears' rival and internet sensation koala Nom Nom, park ranger Tabes, produce saleswoman Lucy, and a girl-scout ranger team Poppy Rangers featuring Wallace, Nguyen, Murphy, Parker and Diaz. Some flashback episodes chronicle the adventures of the Bears as cubs trying to find a home.

Episodes

Production

The show was created by cartoonist Daniel Chong, who had previously worked as a story artist for Pixar and Illumination Entertainment. The show is based on his webcomic The Three Bare Bears, which features the same characters. This webcomic was uploaded online from 2010 to 2011, running for ten strips. Chong has said he first drew the Bears, including drawing them in a stack, in an attempt to make his girlfriend's niece laugh. Chong also said that, after a different pilot he was working on did not get picked up, he wanted to pitch something else, "and this was just the closest thing near me!" Chong said that doing the comic helped a lot with the show, especially in providing the dynamic between the three main characters, though the characters have also evolved a lot from the comic.
Billed as a comedy, the show is a production of Cartoon Network Studios, which developed the program with Chong as part of their shorts development program. It was announced during the network's 2014 upfront. According to Chong, much of the pilot was done with traditional watercolors, then digitally altered, to give "a naturalistic feel", but traditional work was not possible for a full show so he and the art director found a digital way to produce a "painterly feel", using references such as Peanuts, children's book illustrators like Tomi Ungerer and E. H. Shepard, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Nom Nom and Charlie were initially voiced by Ken Jeong and Tom Arnold, respectively, before getting recast sometime before airing. Episodes, other than specials and shorts, were 11 minutes long.

Broadcast

The pilot episode made its world premiere at the KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival at the EYE Film Institute Netherlands in 2014. The short won the KLIK! Young Amsterdam Audience Award.
We Bare Bears premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States and Canada on July 27, 2015.

Home media

Home media releases of We Bare Bears are distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
RegionTitleSeasonEpisodesRunning time
Release date
1Viral Video112 132October 4, 2016
1We Bare Bears: The Movien/an/a69September 8, 2020
2Series One112 132October 7, 2019
4Season 1126286June 9, 2017
4Seasons 1-31–3961,056February 14, 2019
4Season 4444484October 6, 2021
4We Bare Bears: The Movien/an/a69October 6, 2021

Reception

Critical reception

We Bare Bears has received generally positive reviews from critics. The pilot was described by the EYE Film Institute Netherlands as "hilarious and endearing", and it won in the "Young Amsterdam Audience" category. The show was praised by Mashable for tackling "modern millennial anxieties" and for representing racial minorities; Mashable called the show "a parable about the charms and perils of an increasingly connected society". Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media described the show "a funny and heartwarming story" that "sometimes poke gentle fun at hallmarks of modern society". It said that "what stands out is how the characters' uniqueness serves them well as a group" and considered it suitable for ages 8 and up. Alison de Souza, writing in The Straits Times, noted that We Bare Bears has appealed to adults as well, and said that the series stands out "because it juxtaposes a somewhat mature sense of humour with a visual style that recalls the hand-drawn illustrations from children's books."
According to Chong, fans responded positively to the human communities being ethnically diverse. The Asian-American news site NextShark said that the show had gained popularity among Asian American communities because it "contains deeper messages of representation and belonging as a minority – something most Asian American children are far too familiar with." It noted that the show "unapologetically showcases and simultaneously normalizes Asian culture through their references to Panda's love for K-pop and K-dramas, the Bears' regular trips to their favorite boba shop, and Ice Bear's impressive ability to speak fluent Korean and cook traditional Korean dishes."
Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club was more mixed, saying in 2015 that the show "bounc between the extraordinary and the endearing," describing typical episodes as the bears "find themselves in some sort of bizarre yet generic conflict...with little background music, a more muted color palette, and a simpler vibe." Overall, Johnson said it was "not a must-watch show by any means, but it's charming and breezy enough to enjoy within its brief run-time."
Den of Geek Shamus Kelley noted that the show embraced episodic storytelling, contrary to 90s and 2000s trends in kids' television, and felt that it "uses episodic storytelling to its full advantage and crafts adventures that are perfectly suited to the format." It noted that the show did have some light elements of serialization, including character growth. Helen Armitage of Screen Rant said that the show was known for its 1990s pop culture references, such as depicting Charles Barkley magically appearing from a trading card.

Ratings

The first episode of We Bare Bears had 2.05 million views on its first showing. Ratings generally fell with time, with the final episode receiving 0.45 million viewers. The first season topped US TV ratings for children aged 2–11 in July 2015.

Awards and nominations

Book adaptations

announced in 2014 that it would publish books based on various programs for Cartoon Network, including We Bare Bears. The books were produced out of the company's Cartoon Network Books imprint, a division of the Penguin Young Readers Group, and is based on a partnership with the network that started in 2013. Books based on We Bare Bears are:
  • Bears: Awesome at Everything by Christa Roberts
  • We Bare Bears: We Go Everywhere Handbook by Molly Reisner
  • We Bare Bears Mad Libs by Hannah S. Campbell

    Film adaptation

On May 30, 2019, Cartoon Network announced that We Bare Bears: The Movie would be released in mid-2020. On May 21, 2020, the film was announced to be released digitally on June 30, 2020, and on Cartoon Network on September 7, 2020; it served as a conclusion to the narrative of the series. The movie was directed by series creator Daniel Chong and features the main and supporting voice actors reprising their respective roles from the TV series. The plot follows the Three Bear brothers Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear having to flee a wildlife control agent by leaving the Bay Area and seeking refuge to Canada. Along the way, the Bears endure hardships while staying true to their promise of being "bros for life".
Covering the film for SF Weekly, Grace Li summarized the film as "sweet and fun" and a perfect summation for four seasons of adventures. Though expressing regret over the series' unresolved story lines, she complimented its zany sense of humor and its ultimate message, which to her was that "you can always choose your family". Shamus Kelley of Den of Geek gave the film a five out-of five star rating and praised it as an excellent film; one that feels relevant without losing the fun that made the show a fan favorite. Commending the relationship of its main characters, whose fight against intolerance he said infuses every moment of the film with more power and relevance than any other story the show has done before. Rollin Bishop of ComicBook.com awarded the film a four out of five-star rating. Though describing it as poorly paced, he praised its decision to include the heavy themes, which were exacerbated by current events.