Cartoons By Canadians: The Care Bears Movie (1985)

I love to say it, but THIS is the movie that saved Nelvana after Rock & Rule failed at the box office. (And I can’t help but think changed the face of Canadian Animation forever.)

Some fact-like statements:

• One of the first movies based directly on a toy line. And boy did it work.
• It was written by Peter Sauder. Who also wrote Rock & Rule and Droids. (Another post topic?)
• Carol King was responsible for the theme.
• It was Nelvana’s highest grossing film for eight years.
• Harry Dean Stanton (?!) was the singing voice of Brave Heart Lion. It’s almost like Christopher Walken with the bears. Connection?
• Animation was done by Wang Film Productions. Heh, heh.
• The Care Bears Movie was directed by Arna Selznick, the third of only four women ever to direct an animated feature.
• For more than two decades it was the highest grossing animated film from Canada.
• In 1985, it was the highest grossing Canadian film in Canada.

Here’s most of the Time Out review:

Up in the clouds, a bunch of Day-Glo bears (Tenderheart, Funshine, Love-a-Lot, etc) work at keeping the world a happy, caring ‘n’ sharing place, protecting lonely children from (very mild) evil forces, in this short-lived but lucrative franchise (a TV series was also briefly inescapable). Adults forced to accompany three-year-olds to the movie would have had a little moment of satisfaction when the time came to shovel the Care Bear toys out of the house into landfill sites.

Enough blasphemy! Watch the trailer of the classic:

Did I miss something amazing about The Care Bears Movie? Let me know in the comments.