Awww. The cute Care Bears were a big hit with little kids in the late eighties, with their own cartoon series, range of soft toys and even duvet covers (they actually first appeared as greetings cards back in 1981). Simply animated and just brimming over with niceness, they are pastel-coloured bears with names like Love-a-lot Bear, Tenderheart and Bedtime Bear who live in a land in the clouds full of love and rainbows while helping children down on earth. And in this feature, they’ve got their eyes on Kim and Jason, who have no parents, and the trickier Nicholas, who is very lonely and under the spell of an evil spirit that wants to rid the world of caring.
While little boys may get bored as nothing gets destroyed or blown up (the Care Bears can do a ‘care bear stare’ that shoots rays out of their tummies when there is a bad guy around, but that only happens once in a blue moon), little girls will love the cuddly-wuddly bears and all the mushy loveliness. Do note that very little ones may be frightened by the evil spirit and Nicholas when he is in its control. Various sequels have followed, including Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986), The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987), in which they meet Alice and the Mad Hatter, and made-for-TV films like Care Bears: Big Wish Movie (2005).
Is The Care Bears Movie suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
As mentioned above, the evil spirit who talks to Nicholas will probably scare little ones.
If you like this, why not try: The Brave Little Toaster, Curious George, Babar: The Movie, The BFG, Clifford's Really Big Movie,