From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
The Care Bears are a very successful toy franchise from the 1980s. Over forty million of these stuffed teddy bears, made with a variety of colours, were sold from 1983 to 1987. Each Bear had a name, a job, and a symbol tied to it. For example, Bedtime Bear helps people sleep, and has a curved blue moon on his stomach.
The toys began life as characters on cards in 1981; the original artwork was done by Elena Kucharik. Later, other toys called the Care Bear Cousins were introduced.
They also gave way to three animated movies for the cinema in the mid-1980s. A related TV series from DIC and, later, Canada's Nelvana Limited came out at almost that same time.
Recently, Care Bear toys have been brought back in a new edition for the twenty-first century. As part of this comeback, the Bears have appeared in their first two DVD movies (both computer-animated), as well as a few video games.
[edit] Care Bears
[edit] First ten
[edit] The later additions
[edit] New Bears (2004)
[edit] Care Bear Cousins
[edit] The movies
- The Care Bears Movie (1985)
- Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986)
- The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987)
- Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot (2004) (direct to video)
- The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie (2005) (direct to video)
[edit] Interesting facts
- The French name for the toys, Les Bisounours, is a combined form of the words bisou (kiss) and nounours (teddy bear). But, in Quebec, the toys are named Les Calinours.
- Wish Bear (aqua) and Bedtime Bear (blue) switched colours by mistake at the start of the franchise. After the flaw was discovered, they returned to their normal state, and a children's story later told of the reasons why.
- Both Carrie Underwood (2005's American Idol winner) and the cartoon's founder, Linda Denham, come from the college sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma. (Care Bears was hence used as the fan base name for pop singer Underwood when she a contestant on Idol.) Also, a special version of Harmony Bear with three hearts was designed for the sorority.
- The worst dub of the 1980s movie and TV franchise ever known is the Spanish version shown in Latin America. The movies and TV episodes were dubbed in different years in different countries.
- The villians No Heart (Nelvana show), Coldheart (DiC/Atkinson Film-Arts) and Dark Heart (from the 1986 animated sequel, A New Generation) are, surprisingly enough, given the same Swedish name: "Hjärtlös", which translates to "Heartless" in English.
- Originally Funshine was female, however in more recent movies Funshine is portrayed as a male.
[edit] Care Bears in other languages
[edit] External links
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