Care Bears

Care Bears Countdown 4, 3, 2, 1 Who's that coming

from somewhere up in the sky? Moving fast and

bright as a firefly Just when you think that

trouble's gonna pass Who's gonna be there when

it really counts? Do the Care Bears Countdown

And send a wish out through the air And send

a wish out through the air Just do that Care

Bears countdown Just when you need them, they'll

be there Just when you need them, they'll be

there Don't be afraid when clouds are brewing

in your heart If you can dream, just send a wish

out in the dark And do that Care Bears countdown

Hello and welcome to the 51st episode of Tooncast,

brought to you by the Geekcast Radio Network.

I am your host, TFG1Mike, and today I am joined

once again by Kevin, Rezervos, GaydogDomson.

Hello, sir. Hello, how are you doing? I'm doing

pretty good, how are you? I am doing fantastic,

as long as my equipment doesn't fail on us. Yes.

Yes, exactly. What have you been up to lately?

Not much, really. I've just been podcasting my

butt off, pretty much. I was recently, well,

and again, because we are recording these before

they, like, months before this episode will ever

be up, but we're recording this in March, just

because we want to kind of get stuff done and

out of the way. It's still going to be released

on the weekly schedule. We're just recording

them early. Wow, we're halfway done with this

show. I'm sure I mentioned that last week in

episode 50, but it's one of those things where,

wow, we're halfway into the show, halfway done

with the show, there's only 49 or so episodes

left. Wow, yikes. Still a lot of stuff to cover,

and I found it kind of interesting, because we're

about at the halfway point, that a couple people

have somehow you know, found me on Facebook through

the show. I don't remember if I mentioned it

on here, if they went to the website or whatever,

but I've had a couple people that have sent me

friend requests and just the other day one of

them sent me a message asking, you know, which

shows we were doing in the future and stuff like

that. They were hoping that we were covering

their favorite shows and, you know, just kind

of, it was a positive message, but I remember

he asked me if we were going to cover Ghostbusters

and so. Well, we're going to cover the real Ghostbusters.

Right. Yup, that's the one he was asking about.

And I said, yup, you're in luck. We're covering

that one. We're not doing the filmation one.

I took that off the schedule. But he was just

wondering about a couple things like that, so

I thought that was cool. So just give a shout

out to him. I think his name is Edward or Ed.

So he was excited that we're going to be doing

the Ghostbusters. But I just think it's cool

that there's people listening out there. We've

had a voicemail or so. We've had some feedback.

Yeah, you know, it's one of those things, I did

an interview with Brian Kilby of Radio Free Cybertron

for This Week in Geek, just kind of like a special

additional piece of content for them, for their

website and all that stuff, and I was saying

to Brian that this whole podcast, I guarantee

you, we're gonna be getting emails. All that

stuff five years from now after the show is even

over because it's not immediate that people find

this I mean, yeah, I promote the hell out of

all the shows as much as I can but You know if

it's something that people's not not gonna be

interested in or if they don't listen some people

Just don't listen to podcasts in general or they

don't have time or whatever You know it did as

far as the feedback goes. It's not gonna be instantaneous,

unfortunately No, but it's just kind of cool

to be, you know, with Geetcast Radio and with

Behind the Voice Actors. It seems like they're

both kind of being involved with both of them

and they're both getting popular at the same

time. Oh yeah, I've commented a lot over at BBTA.

Yeah, and like we just added a Facebook fan page

for that site and like in one week we got over

50 fans, so that was cool. And then just hearing

all the feedback from the different podcast shows.

It's just kind of fun to be a part of both of

them. Yeah, oh yeah, and I'm sure once this show

ends once tune cast eventually ends I'm sure

I'm sure we'll have other stuff for you to do.

Yeah Yeah, oh boy. I just had a horrible idea

Forced you to watch every season of Hannah Montana

and review it I may watch every episode of MacGyver

and review it or something, but I will not do

that You know some things that and and really

yeah, I've said this before I don't know if I've

said it to you or not But after this show ends

after secret origins origins ends and after beast

unleashed ends Honestly, I'm probably gonna cut

back on all these separate. I I'm gonna start

focusing more on The geek cast radio flagship

show and just start doing topics for that instead

of doing whole series of podcasts because holy

crap Outside of the guest stuff I've done on

Radio Free Cybertron and doing the whole nerd

news thing with This Week in Geek and everything

else, running an entire podcasting network that

has two shows that run weekly, two shows that

run bi -weekly, and other shows that are just

launching and haven't launched yet and blah,

it's like, holy fucking crap, it's, ugh. So yeah,

I'm probably gonna be cutting back as far as...

what shows I can, you know, just for a little

while. Well, it isn't going to happen anytime

soon. It's probably going to happen in the middle

of 2011. Because this show won't actually end

until June 1st, 2011, so... I mean, you know,

we still have... At our rate, we'll be done with

it in two months. Shut up! Shut up! But yeah,

no, there's not much else going on with me. I'm

just, you know, doing all the cartoon watching

and everything else. I just recorded Secret Origins

episode 5 with Lupus Convoy and all that other

happy stuff. You know, that's the other problem

about recording these ahead of time, is they're

gonna be so dated by the time they come out,

because by the time this airs, I guarantee you

will already be halfway through Secret Origins.

But, anyway. Anyway, of course, I could just

send episodes 44 to 49 to Steve now and say,

release them all. That wouldn't be very nice.

No, that wouldn't be very good. That wouldn't

be keeping with the schedule. But no, that's

pretty much it for me. All right. I think we

are going to get into the history lesson. Take

it away. All right. For today's history lesson,

We're actually along with the last couple weeks

we've gotten away from any of our spotlights

and we're back to just good old standard cartoons

and this week we're obviously focused on On the

Care Bears, which are a set of characters created

by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting

cards. The original artwork for the cards was

painted by artist Elena Kuczarek. In 1983, Kenner

turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears.

Each bear comes in a different color and has

a specialized insignia on its belly that represents

its duty and personality. This insignia was known

as their tummy symbol. However, the movie Care

Bears Oops Does It renamed them belly badges.

Adding to the Care Bear family are the Care Bear

cousins, which feature a lion, monkey, penguin,

rabbit, and other such animals created in the

same style as the teddy bears, and those were

introduced in the Care Bears movie. The Care

Bears appeared in their own television series

from 1985 to 1988, in addition to three feature

films, The Care Bears Movie, 1985, The Care Bears

Movie 2, A New Generation, 1986, and The Care

Bears Adventure in Wonderland, I Don't Even Wanna

Know, 1987. In 2002, the bears were reintroduced

with new toys made by Playalong Toys. The new

toys often are offered features such as illuminated

bellies upon touch, aerobic bears of course,

and glow -in -the -dark bears. As part of this

comeback, the bears have appeared in two computer

animated movies, Care Bears' Journey to Jokalot

in 2004 and the Care Bears' Big Wish movie in

2005. And then we keep going with Care Bears

because in 2007 they were once again relaunched.

The 25th anniversary commemorated in 2007 and

the movie Care Bears Oopsie Dozit was released

in commemoration of the 25th anniversary. And

as of 2008 and of course 2009 and I believe in

2010 Care Bears are still being marketed. The

Care Bears icon and the copyrights in the character

designs are currently owned by those characters

from Cleveland, part of American Greetings. However,

on July 23, 2008, American Greetings announced

that the Care Bears, along with Strawberry Shortcake,

would be sold to Cookie Jar Entertainment in

an acquisition due to take place in September

2008. As of April 2009, it was announced that

Cookie Jar Entertainment had problems in financing

the acquisition and that a French company called

Moonspoop has also expressed interest in the

franchise. Cookie Jar has expressed its intention

to counter Moonspoop's bid and has until a little

bit last year to count a bit, so I'm not quite

sure what's going on with the copyright right

now, but apparently there was a lot of people

interested in the Care Bear copyright. Just let

Hasbro buy them out. Hasbro bought out everybody

else, for the most part. Yeah, exactly. You know

what? I don't think this will ever happen, but

I would wonder what would happen if Hasbro and

Mattel merged. You're crazy. I think the world

would end, actually. Yeah, probably. But a lot

of DVDs would be made. Yeah, exactly. Going into

the general memories, I remember watching this

as a kid and I remember kind of liking it, but

like now, at the age that I'm at now, it's like,

oh my god, it's like... It's kind of like watching

Elmira. It's like so freaking sweet and innocent

and positive. It's like, oh my god, shoot me

now. I don't know. Care Bears for me, it was...

Now when I was born in 81, and when you're young,

when you're real young, like under the age of

five, obviously you have a different... different

things that you like as far as cartoons and stuff

like that go compared to when you're, you know,

like five to ten, etc. And when I was real young,

you know, I remember I was humongous into Sesame

Street, Smurfs, you know, Mr. Rogers, Reading

Rainbow, all that type of stuff. But I think

Care Bears was one of those shows that kind of

bridged the gap for me. It was kind of, I know

it didn't start till 85, but so I was about four.

But it was one of those that kind of bridged

me from the Little Kitty early childhood cartoons

like Smurfs into getting ready for other good

things to come, like which would be, you know,

obviously the Transformers and G .I. Joe years

of my life. But for that brief period when I

was four or five, I was huge into Care Bears.

I was a Care Bear kid. I don't know if this was

cruel or not, but my mom actually designed my

room. And this is going to sound kind of... Gay,

but um there she actually had rainbows and Cloud

pillows that were like stuck to the wall and

like swings of the Care Bears with like velcro

too So I not only had the Care Bear stuffed animals,

but they stuck to my wall and stuff Okay, we

are both pathetic No, no, I know it. I was gonna

bring this up Down in the legacy segment, but

since there is nothing in the legacy segment

that I could find about the other Care Bears

merchandise like that kind of stuff you're talking

about Yeah, go ahead and admit this now. I had

Care Bear bedsheets. I had a Care Bear pillowcase

and My favorite out of all of the Care Bears

was bedtime bear. Oh, yeah No, I just think I

just think it was so cool as a kid as a kid to

have your room kind of transformed into that

and have like actual like Toys and stuff like

that up on your wall was something that was just

like awestruck for me And I remember it was a

huge deal when at one point they that they actually

had to come down But it was cool because they

were they weren't the stuff to and they weren't

they weren't like the stuff plush petty teddy

bears they were more like Pillow size not like

giant pillow size, but they were like little

pillows But then they had Velcro on the back

and so you could stick different ones on the

wall And I wish I remember which individual ones

I had and I know they're in a box somewhere So

I should dig them out. I don't know if it was

bedtime bear or which bears it was But I just

remember that was so cool as a kid obviously

my next set of sheets were transformer sheets

so I gained back my masculinity, but I'll just

always remember that room because it was just

such a cool thing I think after my Care Bear

bed sheet days, I think I went, I don't know,

I had a weird transition when it came into bedding

when I was a kid. No, seriously, I remember having

Batman and Robin and superhero bedding when I

was four or five. By the time I was six, I had

the Care Bear stuff. By the time I was seven

and eight, it was a mixture between baseball

and dinosaurs. Yeah. No, that makes sense. And

I'm probably saying that wrong. I probably didn't

transfer right into... Transformers are probably

transferred into He -Man first, but same difference.

I don't know if I had the He -Man betting. I

don't remember if I did or not. But I don't know.

They hold a special part for me as far as general

memory goes. I mean, I... Certain things I can

remember about the show from being a kid certain

things I remember now that I see them in reviewing

for this but you know it was it it was a an iconic

thing for me as a held a a certain year or so

in my life as far as a kid as far something that

I was really Consumed with and so I have pleasant

general memories for it. I'll get into the actual

quality of the show Yeah, you know for me. It's

the same thing. I you know I as a kid I had really

great memories of it, and I do now but Yeah,

it's just one of those things where I just can't

watch the cartoon now. It's just there's just

no way yeah So I guess we can move on to the

characters here The franchise consists mainly

of the Care Bears themselves, as well as the

later editions of the Care Bear Cousins. Both

of them lived in the Kingdom of Caring, which

is made up of Care -a -Lot, which is the home

of the Care Bears, and then the Forest of Feelings,

which is home to the Care Bear Cousins. Accompanying

them are the star and heart buddies who look

out for the bears and cousins whenever they're

on missions and caring. I don't think they ever

speak, but they're just kind of... There's these

little stars and hearts that kind of float around.

Birds who just kind of help out, but they don't

really ever have like a speaking role or a big

part that I can remember. And then... You also

have the Cloud Keeper, which is the portly gentleman

who maintains Caralot, kind of like a narrator

type guy for some of the specials and shows.

He only appeared in some of the franchise's early

publications and on the Deke produced TV episodes,

just in case we haven't covered that. There is

both Nelvana Care Bear episodes and there's Deke

Care Bear episodes. The 10 original Care Bears

consisted of Bedtime Bear, Birthday Bear, Cheer

Bear, Friend Bear, Sunshine Bear, Good Luck Bear,

Grumpy Bear, Love -A -Lot Bear, Tender Heart

Bear, and Wish Bear. Later on, additional bears

join them as well as the cousins. The two that

I like the best out of those, Bedtime and Tender

Heart. Those are my two favorites when I was

a kid. Yeah, as far as the actual original bears

go, I kind of went back and forth. I mean, there's

so many... And this is kind of a theme to the

show, obviously. There's so much positive stuff

that Grumpy Bear always stood out for me. I don't

know if he was necessarily my favorite, but I

kind of liked him just because he was different

than the rest. And then I liked Bedtime Bear,

just because he was cool. He's always sleeping

and what kid won't like that. And then I think

after that it was kind of a toss -up between

either Good Luck Bear or Tender Heart Bear. See

ya! Outside of grumpy tender heart and bedtime.

I really don't remember the other ones well Yeah,

good luck bear was the orange four -leaf clover

one Yeah, and had all but some of the other ones

were to me were just annoying Yeah birthday bear

wasn't super annoying He was kind of cool because

every kid loves their birthday But like I think

it was either friend or fun shine or cheer one

of them was just annoying I even remember that

as a kid that it was just kind of I don't want

to hear your voice. And then in the 2007 TV series,

five of the Care Bears were chosen to be the

main characters of the show. As seen on the Care

Bears website there, Cheer Bear, which obviously

is a sign of the times, Cheer Bear still, Fun

Shine and Grumpy, and then the new one was Oopsie

Bear, which is a horrible name for America. And

then we should mention that the original leader

of the in the original series the leader of the

Bears was tender heart bear Just real quick to

just for a second stop on the the cousins for

a second I I did like a couple of the cuz now

basically the cousins are introduced in the movie

and you have like a elephant a lion, you know

like a a dog a cat. Wasn't it Tenderheart Bear

and Lionheart Cousin or something, weren't? Braveheart,

Braveheart Bear was the, or Braveheart Lion was.

Yeah, that's what it was. Yup, and they're cousins,

but out of the cousins, I always liked the lion,

I thought he was really cool. The monkey was

okay, but some of those, like the sheep and stuff

were kinda, they weren't very good looking. Yeah,

I don't even remember the cousins, so. I don't

have any comments on them. The cousins basically

come in about halfway through the movie and you

can get a good look at them, but the weird thing

about the movie is that they don't have their

symbols on their chest or on their stomachs throughout

most of the movie. They get them at the end,

so they kind of look weird when you're watching

through the movie because you don't remember

them without their emblems. That's one thing

that I think is cool about all the Care Bears.

It was their actual emblem. on their stomach.

I think that was a genius idea. Obviously, they

could shoot stuff out and they could use that

for different stuff. But I just think that was

a cool, whether it was a marketing scheme or

whatever, it was just cool. Mm -hmm. Yep. Okay.

Let's see. Do we need to talk about the carrying

meter? No, obviously, just to say what it is,

there's a carrying meter in Keralat that That

basically is rated on how much people care and

if people are not caring down on earth Then it

drops and care a lot starts to get destroyed

so the Care Bears know they got to go help Then

they all important care stare which is Which

was basically a plot device so whenever the Care

Bears need to defeat People that don't care they

just stare at them and their symbols kind of

shoot into them and then the people carry out

all of a sudden. It's like the most pathetic

way to... I mean basically you go through your

whole story and it doesn't matter because at

the end they're just gonna stare at you and you're

gonna start caring again. And that's how every

problem is solved. You know I said to you off

air that I was actually the only thing I could

actually find on YouTube without actually doing

too much creative searching was the Care Bear

movie. I started watching it and I'm like...

Oh my god, this is just like watching fucking

Elmira. It's like having a sweet tooth, eating

too much sugar and getting a toothache. It hurts

so bad to watch this. I don't go that far, but

I'll get into my thoughts when we get into the

actual show. As far as the villains, throughout

the movies and series, various villains have

tried to stop the Bears and Cousins on their

missions. On the first two specials in Deek Television's

series, they battled against Professor Coldheart,

his assistant Frostbite, and occasionally Auntie

Freeze. In Nelvana's version, they faced Wizard

No Heart, his bumbling apprentice Beastly, and

his ill -tempered niece Shrekie. The minor villains

like Dr. Fright and Sour Sam in the movies, they

went up against Nicholas and the evil spirit

in the Care Bears movie, Darkheart in Care Bears

2, the Wizard of Wonderland in his assistance,

Dim and Dumb, oh god, in the Care Bears adventure

in Wonderland, oh my god. I won't read it anymore.

We'll never watch that. Wait, wait, wait, I gotta

bring this up because there's a Turtles reference.

And the Rat King and Evil Vizier in Care Bear's

Nutcracker Suite. Can you imagine if that was

the actual Rat King? You mean from Turtles? Yeah.

Yeah, that would have been awesome. But, I mean,

I know they're going for the whole Nutcracker

thing, but if you look at the name Rat King and

Evil Vizier, first two things that come to my

mind is Rat King from Turtles. And Jafar from

Aladdin. Yeah, and I think of the Vizier from

Blackstar since I just watched it. But just a

real quick point out, a couple of them. I swear

I probably watch the Diek series more, but I

remember, well obviously I remember Coldheart,

he was all kind of bluish, looked like he was

obviously cold. But I remember No Heart, Dark

Heart, Beastly and Shrieky a lot. And I don't

know why, but... They're just kind of iconic

along with like the peculiar pie man from Starburst

shortcake and Stool and the the rainbow bright

murky and lurky. I mean these are these are just

kind of cool bad guys on this type of show because

a lot of times These types of shows that are

basically geared towards early childhood kindergarten

first grade aged kids Obviously, they don't have

a ton of evil type stuff on them But they usually

have great evil characters. I mean, if you just

think of Gargamel from Smurfs and a couple of

those early childhood kindergarten shows, they

do have some cool villains, even though they're

not necessarily evil like Megatron or Skeletor

or something like that. Yeah. Skeletron or Megator.

Yeah, but I do remember Beastly, Shrieky, and

then Coldheart, and I don't remember if it's

No Heart or Darkheart I'm remembering more. I'd

have to look at a picture of them both, but they're

all kind of iconic, just classic bad guys. You

know, just looking down the voice list, I don't

recognize any of these names. They did... Dan

Hennessey, which was Braveheart Lion, and John

Stocker, who was Mr. Beastly, have done some

stuff. Billy May Richards is an old school...

She did some some stuff back in the day, but

yeah, you're right. There's a lot of names that

are not as known although I will say that there

is different people that voice them in This is

the cast for I Can't tell if it's the cast for

this is a deep cast I think it's the cast from

the whatever the show was wherever the original

show Right, but what I'm saying is that when

they switch from Deep to Nelvana or sometimes

just in the movies, this is one of those where

there's multiple people that voice certain characters.

Right, yeah. Because there was different specials

in movies and there was two different companies

that did the series, there are some potential

voice compares amongst these characters. Yeah.

So I mean, I think we've already covered the

whole favorite character thing or villain thing.

I really honestly don't remember that much about

this show to have a favorite villain, you know.

I mean, my main memory comes from my old pillowcase.

Bedtime Bear, that's where I draw the line on

this. Bedtime Bear, that's it. So I guess we

can get into the behind the scenes stuff here.

Uh, connections with Arthurian legends. Some

elements of the Carabare's franchise pay homage

to the legend of King Arthur. For example, the

name of the main character's residence, Caralot,

is a play on King Arthur's legendary Camelot

Castle. The Carabare family sits around a heart

-shaped table similar to the round table used

by Arthur and his knights. In addition, Sir Lancelot's

name inspired that of Love -A -Lot -Bear. That's

kinda cool. Yeah. There was an error when the

franchise was introduced in the 80s. A mistake

was made while manufacturing the stuffed animals

causing a bedtime bear, which is a blue bear,

and wish bear, which is an aqua bear, to swap

colors. As soon as the mistake was discovered,

the two bears returned to their appropriate hues.

Later, a children's story was written explaining

why the bears had switched tents. I give them

credit for actually having a story that tried

to explain the mistake, because that's kind of

cool. Yeah, that is cool. These some of these

are kind of no no no no no no no this is almost

like that running joke I have on the beast unleashed

podcast with Tigatron and air razor because later

in season two or three of Beast Wars They come

back as a single robot called Tiger Hawk, and

it's basically a transgendered robot Oh my god,

we cannot talk about transgendered bears. Yes

we can. No, we can't. Oh my god. Swiftheart Rabbit,

which is one of the Care Bear Cousins, was changed

from a male to a female. And Funchine Bear, which

was originally a female, in 2002 when they got

relaunched, for some reason they decided to make

that one a male. It's just another, it's my classic,

the thing I hate pet peeve about when they relaunch

stuff, when they make movies, whenever they redo

something, why they have to switch main things.

I don't care if you don't. I'm not saying you

have to do the series exactly as it was in the

80s or whenever it aired originally. I'm not

saying that. I'm not saying that with Transformers.

I'm not saying that with G .I. Joe. I'm not saying

that with Care Bears. Nothing. But, don't use

a name that had been used and then completely

change it. If you're gonna completely bring in

a new character, get a new name, Or, since there

was so many to choose from, just use the original

names or find, if you wanted a male bear, find

a different male bear that you're not using and

use that one. What I don't get... What I don't

get is, ShareBear's original tummy symbol was

originally a milkshake. They changed it to a

lollipop. Because apparently milkshakes can be

used to spread germs. That's stupid. What? Maybe

it was too romantic to have a milkshake with

two straws in it. Oh, okay. Well, pain that all

right, but yeah As far as tender heart as fur

color was changed from brown to red For the start

of the first movie and nalvana series and change

it again to lighter orange tone for the 20th

anniversary release hmm, that's weird yeah, we

had a champ bear who was tan and had a symbol

that was a trophy with a heart inside it. Now

he's blue and has a star inside of this trophy

instead of a heart. 1980's Secret Bear's gender

was male and for color was tan. In 2002 it became

a female. So see this makes no sense because

you had Secret Bear was a male and Funchine Bear

was a female and they switched them both. Why

not just have them stay the same? You switched

a male to a female and a female to a male that

makes no sense you stupid 2002 people No, no,

it's not you it's just this whole yeah this whole

Transgendered with with cartoons and toys. It

just doesn't doesn't sit right. You know it's

like To sum it up, the bears changed gender,

they changed colors, and they changed symbols

throughout the last 25 years. Well, color changes

and symbol changes, I don't really mind because

I may not notice that right away. But gender

changes? I mean, come on. Yeah. You people that

decided that in 2002 should be shot. Yeah. Or

have your gender changed. Wow. Wow. Just my opinion.

You know, I'm not even going to mention any of

these people that are listed in the directors

and credits because I don't recognize any of

them. It was directed by some people and it was

written by some people. Yeah, that's about it.

So into the actual show. Alright, so how are

we doing this? We're not. No, I'm just saying.

Basically, the history is that they started as

greeting card things, like we said before. Just

like Strawberry Shortcake, I believe it was the

Get Along Gang, and a couple other ones like

that. They started as a marketing scheme to put

on greeting cards for kids. So that's how it

started. Obviously in the 80s, it was announced

for a toy line. by Parker Brother and Kenner

the following spring. And basically in 83 they're

introduced as toys. And this is why I'm remembering

it from even when I was younger. I was thinking

it didn't come out until 1985 so how could I

remember it when I was like two or three or four.

The first actual television special was in 1983

and I did watch that. That's on YouTube. It's

called The Land Without Feelings. It's not super

great quality but you can see Professor Coldheart

and you can see some of the main There's on that.

I think it's about 20 23 minutes long at the

most So it starts greeting cards toys and then

a TV special then basically in 84 they have another

special and then in and then basically as that

is gaining popularity they decide to do a full

-out series and a Movie, you know them. So basically

actually the movie came out first though, which

is kind of weird. I think I think the movie hit

first. I could be wrong. But basically they're

almost happening at the same time. And the Care

Bears movie we'll talk about a little bit later.

So basically you have in the 80s both movies

and the TV series happening at the same time.

An interesting thing to note that over 40 million

Care Bears were sold between 1983 and 1987. And

during the decade American Greetings printed

over 70 million of their cards. In whole the

sales of the merchandise reached over 2 billion

during the 1980s. This made them one of the most

successful toy lines of its time alongside My

Little Pony and the Transformers. I'll let you

cover the 90s. No. We're not. Should happen in

the 90s. That's it. Basically there's a couple

different attempts at revival that don't work.

Yeah, pretty much. Just to clarify one thing,

remember the 90s is the time of the Beanie Babies?

Yeah. So Care Bears was kind of competing with

that and trying to imitate it at times and that's

kind of why they failed because they weren't

official Beanie Babies and they weren't Care

Bears. It was just kind of a weird morph bad

thing. Yeah. And in 2002 was the hard relaunch.

2007 was probably another horror and relaunch

yeah 2007 was the relaunch where the oopsie -doopsie

does it whatever bear came along as the way you're

right that's the worst fucking name ever basically

that is for sure so basically they had a 20th

year anniversary relaunch and then they had a

25th Right. Yeah. And then in... This is one

of the things that I want to cover. The late

2009 reimagining. In late 2009, American Readings

announced that the Care Bears will be reimagined

in with the launch of a new series, Care Power

Team. Oh, God. Oh, God. I'm seeing it now. Care

Bears with Zords. Don't ever say that again.

Care Power Rangers. I hate Power Rangers. Come

on. The re -imaging while reusing the adventures

in Care Lot designs will now have the Bears sport

Quote -unquote enhanced belly badges and see

the Bears taking on emergencies This series will

start by releasing a DVD entitled share bear

shines. Oh, I'm telling you This is care bear

version of Power Rangers if you look at that

line and see the Bears taking on emergencies

What the hell the Power Rangers do they stop

giant fucking monsters from destroying angel

grover outer space or what? I'm even if it's

bad. It'll be better than the Power Rangers Now,

I will say, just because we're kind of going

over this quickly, but the 2000 relaunches so

far, they have looked completely different. It's

not something like... I know My Little Ponies

had a relaunch, and they actually look very close

to the 80s versions to me. The bears are completely

different. If you if you look I mean they have

classic episodes on YouTube and they also have

the the 2000 I don't know if it's the 2002 or

the 2007 one but they're like littler skinnier

bears with bigger heads Like they don't actually

look like bears like the original ones looked

like teddy bears these are weird I'm not saying

they're bad. They just don't look like bears

to me. Yeah, you know it goes along with You

know the fact of as far as the characters and

as far as the toys the reimagining of the toys

You know the other thing you can you could also

equate it to is the as far as the toy aspect

of it is The fact that they're not looking like

the original ones Whereas Masters the universe

and Mattel did an awesome job making that classics

line and pretty much updating every single Masters

the universe 80s figure into a Superposable figure

it kept all the same designs for the most part

just paid total homage to the 80s toys Whereas

this this sucks. Yeah, and even the Masters the

universe I haven't watched all the episodes of

the newer version, but even that was somewhat

more you know close on to I mean it They respected

what had come first. Since we're on the major

show thing, I just want to bring up a couple

things that we've kind of mentioned. Like you

said before, this is meant for a young crowd.

It's meant, like you had said off air, it's basically

like a half -hour PSA every time. It's basically

trying to instill good feelings and good thoughts

into kids, which I will give it credit because

kids... a lot of times have problems handling

emotions or communicating emotions and dealing

with that type of stuff. So it is a unique thing

where a cartoon basically tackles all the different

emotions and gives you a way to kind of see that

through somebody else. So that part is cool and

that's probably why I liked it as a kid plus

all the symbols and it was just kind of cool

and all that stuff. It is very hard, and I'm

not trying to be mean, but unless you are a child

of the 80s that is now an adult and female, and

I'm not trying to be sexist here, but it's very

hard to watch now. Yeah. It's so, like you said,

it's like a sugar high and then having more sugar

and all that kind of stuff, and it's just like

so, so positive, and it's not just that, but

the stories are so drawn out. What they could

do in 15 minutes, they do in a half hour. The

Care Bears movie, what could have been done in

a half hour was done in however long it was.

Yeah. And it's just drawn out and so positive

that as an adult, you're so cynical by this point,

it's hard to stomach. I mean, yeah, I wish I

was a kid that could still take it all serious

and think it's all like, oh, yes, everybody can

care and everybody can be nice. yeah i know different

uh... unfortunately as that is you know you know

it's funny you're you're talking about the sugar

high and all this stuff the only i can think

of is you'd have to be you'd have to be like

bivis and need dvd for your bumhole to to to

even watch this thing now all you need to do

is eat one of those remember those giant pixie

sticks oh god you need five of those then you

have no problem watching this show The music

segment some people did the music Honestly, I

don't know it's a long -lost relative of Peter

Cullen though It could be his wife Patricia Cullen

series original music by I don't know I don't

I have Ray Parker or something somewhat familiar

But I don't know any of these well Ray part see

see I know I don't know if the Ray Parker listing

if they mean Ray Parker jr. As in Ghostbusters

Yeah, I don't know probably not Probably not,

but anyway, going into the legacy segment. Uh,

Care Bears in popular culture. In video gaming,

the term Care Bears is used to describe a player,

particularly in MMORPGs, who would prefer not

to take part in player versus player combat in

favor of playing cooperatively with other players

versus completing quests and achievements unmolested.

Oh wow, that's horrible. Yes, that's what it

does say in the information, folks. The nickname

Care Bear is sometimes used for girls whose names

are pronounced like Care, and I actually had

an ex -girlfriend that's name is Carrie, and

they called her Care Bear all the time. So if

your name is Carol, Karen, Carrie, something

like that, you probably are called Care Bear

from time to time. One notable example is that

Carrie Underwood's fans have been known as Carrie's

Care Bears. On the NBC series Heroes, the cheerleader

character Claire Bennett is called Claire Bear.

And then step by step, there's a character called

Karen Foster who's called Care Bear. So it's

a popular nickname. That's got to say, I don't

mean to cut you off, but that's got to say something

about the effect it had on people that 20, 30

years later people are still referencing that.

It's something that pops in their head as a nickname.

Over the years, the Care Bears have been featured

in a bit parts or had influence in several other

films and television series. Cinematic appearances

and references include, but are not limited to,

movies such as Police Academy 4, Citizens on

Patrol, South of Wawa, Snow Day, and Blade Trinity.

I gotta re -watch Blade Trinity. Wow, yeah. Wow.

Um, on the TV show The O .C., Merissa Cooper

has a share bear that reoccurs frequently throughout

the show. Until she gets shot in Season 3. Sorry.

Um, in two strips of the comic Pearls Before

Swine, Pig suggests that Harmony Bear be sent

to bring peace to the Middle East. Oh, God! That's

an awesome, send all the Care Bears and just

stare. Wow. In one strip of the comic, Deflocked,

Mamet is overheard playing with a Barbie and

an unnamed Care Bear. Mamet calls Sir Care Bear.

Then of course, like most 80s things that were

popular or successful, it has a lot of parodies

and satires, basically. There's a group of characters

called the Squishy Bears. Okay since he's oh

godding over there in robot chicken Poked fun

fun of the care Bears with various skits the

Simpsons episode the fat and the furriest take

care bear who is introducing himself is an intensive

care bear and brandishes a tire Which over incorrectly

calls crowbar? Appears as one of the Bears Homer

sees in his hallucination. Oh my god. I have

to go back and look at that episode In the Family

Guy episode, Brian sings and swings, all of Meg's

toys run away to avoid watching the video of

her ballet recital. One of them, a Care Bear

named Sunshine Bear, chooses to throw itself

into the path of an oncoming truck rather than

go back to Meg. And yeah, he uses the Care Bear

Stare to defeat Jackie Chan and Zombie Abraham

Lincoln. Oh, God. Maybe he had the Rainbow Monkeys

from Codename Kid Next Door. The Share Bear Boxers

from The Suite Life on Deck with Cody. So basically,

they're all over the place. You've seen a lot

of different types of bears show up. You know,

with the most violent... Parody of the Care Bears

is... What's that? HAPPY TREE FRIENDS! Oh jeez.

I love Happy Tree Friends. You've lost it. No,

I'm just kidding. I love Happy Tree Friends.

It's funny, but it's also violent. It's just

hilarious. Besides showing up in lots of different

pop culture references, there's been a lot of

merchandise over the years. They've been torn,

they've been basically put in with, we're going

in the legacy here. Well we are, we already are

in the legacy. Yeah, but basically there's a

lot of connections with the Gummy Bears and the

Care Bears. Of course all the greeting cards

which is the original home for Care Bears. There's

been party goods, cell phone covers, stickers,

clothing accessories, Valentine's stuff, candy,

there's been a lot of stuff. that has been put

in Care Bear images. And then you have of course

books, you have music. Care Bears wasn't like

a strictly musical cartoon like some, but there

was a lot of music scattered throughout. Oftentimes

you would see a song in an episode or some of

their specials or movies had two songs or so

or three songs. So there is some music. That's

some of its good some of its bad I forgot to

mention it back when we were talking about music

but the theme the actual theme song to the original

80s cartoon is in my opinion one of the 20 best

theme songs of the 80s. It's actually a pretty

good song Because it feels like a song it's got

energy it gets you excited for the show So the

theme song is actually worth worth listening

to the actual songs in the episodes The actual

songs are bad, but the theme song is cool. You

know, it's one of those things where it's just...

It's so dated now. And that's kind of sad. Like

you said, there is video games. You know, one

thing that isn't listed here and it didn't have

anything was the DVD releases. haven't seen any

DVD releases ever I don't know if they have like

there might be some that just have a few like

I know that Care Bears movie I think is somewhere

out there I don't know if it's on DVD though

yeah I know it's out on VHS but I'm not sure

if it's out on DVD but yeah I'd have to do a

double check to see and since I just mentioned

the movie I do want to say one thing though unfortunately

I have to admit this but uh the Care Bears movie

actually Outshined just about every outside of

Disney just about out did every animated movie

in the 80s As far as box office goes Okay, for

a sec there. I thought you're talking about as

far as quality of the movie No, no, no as far

as bringing in money it demolished the transformers

movie It it destroyed just about every cartoon

movie that was out there It just must have been

time just perfect as far as when it came out

but uh it was also one of the best movies that

that company had ever put out as far as box office

numbers go and it was oh the one other quick

trivia for you it's the first movie that is based

directly on a toy line that ever came out according

to internet sources because it came out in 85

yeah well wasn't the wasn't the movie like They

basically did the reverse of He -Man and Transformers

where the movie was also the pilot of the show.

I'm trying to remember. You said that the movie

premiered in 85 and then the show started, correct?

Well, I should take that back. There was a special

that aired in 83. Right. There was another special

that aired in 84. Right, but as far as the actual

cartoon series, the actual deep cartoon, I believe

the Nelvana one had aired before the original

movie somehow. I'm not sure on the timing there.

I know the movie aired before the Deep did. I'm

not sure if Nelvana came out a little bit before

that or at the same time or a little after that,

but it was almost simultaneous it seemed. Which

is different from like the Transformers movie

who came out basically at the end of the run.

G .I. Joe movie was at the end of the run. Yeah.

So it was kind of maybe that's why because they

put out the movie more towards the beat when

the popularity was there. rather than waiting

for that group to be, you know, dwindling. Yeah.

But it did set some precedence as far as being

a movie that was directly based on toys and,

you know, a lot followed in the 80s that did

the same thing. All right, well, we are going

to take a quick break and we will be back with

final thoughts. Whenever we choose it, Keralat

is a feeling we all know. We never do lose it.

We can find a secret place to rest and make a

new start. If you don't know where it is, look

inside your heart. Keralat is a playground For

sliding and swinging carousels Playing music

in your mind For dancing and singing Sometimes

you feel so glad Sometimes you feel blue Share

your feelings, it's not bad Feelings are just

you It always helps when you sing a song Good

cheer carries you along Through darkness leads

to sunlight A new day comes, it's alright Keralat

is a place you'd like to be Riding on a cloud

you'll care a lot It's a rainy day laughing out

loud. All right, so final thoughts on the Care

Bears. I'm gonna go first this time. I like gummy

bears much better and we'll be getting to the

gummy bears in episode 55. So yeah, that's my

final thought. You just got me super excited

about the future. I love the gummy bears. I'll

say this much, okay. As a child of the 80s, you're

always accused... of whenever you're talking

about stuff that was around when you were a kid

you're always oh you're watching it through rose

-tinted goggles and oh that's just the nostalgia

talking and and blah blah blah shut up um that's

basically what you're accused of when you like

shows that were from your childhood and everyone

says no that doesn't stand up you know it's still

it's horrible blah blah blah this is one of the

rare times where they're right if you're liking

this show it's because either you're just the

most positive lovey -dovey person in the world

or it's because you grew up with it and that's

the only reason because the show really does

not stand up to the test of time there's a lot

of shows from my childhood that do stand up this

one's not one of them that being said it Was

good for its time and if you were a kid during

the time when it came out It was probably had

positive effects on you and it was a good show

to watch Like I said it kind of holds a special

part in my heart as far as you know that when

I was Three or four or whatever age I was this

is one of the things I loved But I am glad that

I graduated on to bigger and better Yeah Some

of which we'll be talking about in the second

half of this Tooncast life. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah

Um, you know, like I said, only you said it,

it's just, it's way, it's, I get the fact that

people need to be positive. Especially kids nowadays.

That's fine. But this is like, like, oh my god,

I'm curly, I just did something stupid and Moe

is gonna hit me with that fucking hammer. Seriously,

that's what this is, it's like getting hit over

the head with a hammer. Yeah, you can't take

too much of this, that's for sure. No. If the

episodes were five minutes long, it might be

easier to take. But, you know, they came up with

some cool things. The emblems on their stomach

was a great thing that they came up with. I like

that there was a variety of characters because

then you could all have your favorites. It's

not like there was only... four main characters

or five main characters where you know likes

the same one i'd like shows where there's a variety

where everyone can have a different favorite

character i'd like how they introduce the cousins

in the movie and i did like some of the cousins

but i could never watch the entire series of

this new uh... it's a it's a it's a nostalgic

thumbs up and uh... uh... twenty some of our

uh... i don't know if it's not a thumbs up reality

thumbs down That's what I'm saying. All right.

We have an all -new outro. Thank you for joining

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on Ananananan underdog. Wow, I think I did that

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Thank you for listening, until next time.