The Care Bears Movie (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	62:53 (Case: 77)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Arna Selznick
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Georgia Engel Jackie Burroughs Mickey Rooney Sunny Besen Thrasher Eva Almos Patricia Black Melleny Brown Bob Dermer Jayne Eastwood Anni Evans Gloria Figura Cree Summer Brian George
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	John Sebastian Carole King

    The Care Bears are cute bears - each with a different name, fur colour, symbol, personality and character quirk. They were originally created for a line of greeting cards manufactured by American Greetings in 1981 and were then subsequently marketed as "plush" toys in 1983.

    Just in case you are wondering about the different bears, here they are:

• Laugh-a-lot Bear
• Champ Bear
• Bedtime Bear
• Cheer Bear
• Friend Bear
• Funshine Bear
• Good Luck Bear (Dan Hennessey)
• Grumpy Bear (Bobby Dermer)
• Love-a-lot Bear (Georgia Engel)
• Share Bear (Patricia Black)
• Tenderheart Bear (Billie Mae Richards)
• Wish Bear (Janet-Laine Green)

    The Care Bears Movie is the first feature length animated film starring our colourful furry friends. It features Mickey Rooney as the narrator Mr. Cherrywood. It also features the theme song by Carole King and other music by John Sebastian.

    In this movie, the Care Bears are shown at their home in a world called "Care-a-lot" (a reference to King Arthur's Camelot) which is up in the clouds and rainbow coloured. Their mission, besides having fun, is to ensure that the human beings in the world care for each other.

    At the beginning of the movie, we see the Cherrywood children being tucked into bed by their mother. Mr. Cherrywood (Mickey Rooney) says goodbye to them, and they demand a bed time story. He then tells the following story ...

    Two Care Bears, Friend Bear and Secret Bear, visits a park in a town where they try to cheer up two sad orphans: a brother and sister called Jason (Sunny Besen Thrasher) and Kim (Cree Summer). Jason and Kim accidentally get "beamed" (a la Star Trek) back to Care-a-lot where they learn to find happiness and care for each other.

    However, Tenderheart Bear discovers that evil is afoot when he visits Nicholas, the poor magician's apprentice who could never do anything right. One day, Nicholas is cleaning out the contents of an old trunk when he discovers a magic spell book. Unfortunately, the spell book contains an evil spirit (Jackie Burroughs) determined to rid the world of caring. The spirit tricks Nicholas into releasing a spell that will make the world stop caring for each other.

   The Care-O-Meter drops to dangerously low levels at Care-a-lot and the Care Bears realise they have to stop Nicholas and the evil spirit before it's too late and Care-a-lot is destroyed through a lack of care. They try and beam Jason and Kim back, but due to the damage sustained by the Rainbow Rescue Beam, the children and the bears end up in the Forest Of Feelings where they meet additional cute animals such as Brave Heart Lion (Dan Hennessey) and Playful Heart Monkey (Marla Lukofsky).

    In the meantime, the rest of the Care Bears board a cloud ship to try and rescue their missing friends. After many adventures, the Care Bears, their "Cousins" and the two children arrive at the playground where Nicholas is trying to weave the final spell that will eradicate all care from Earth. Will they be able to stop Nicholas and the evil spirit before it's too late?

Video

    The transfer is presented in 1.33:1. I am not sure what the intended aspect ratio is, but judging from the framing I suspect the film was animated in full frame, but probably masked to 1.85:1 for theatrical release.

    The transfer is reasonably clean, although grain is visible and there are specks of dirt visible every now and then. Fortunately, there were no observable signs of compression artefacts.

    It's hard to judge the colour saturation as most of the film is presented in pastel shades but I suspect some degree of colour fading has occurred in the print. The overall look of the transfer is a bit soft.

    I noticed that pans were slightly juddery, but I am not sure whether this is due to the lower frame rate used by the animators, or because the transfer may have originally been in NTSC and subsequently converted to PAL.

    There are no subtitle tracks.

    This is a single layered single sided disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are four audio tracks on the disc: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), German Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), French Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), and Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    The overall quality of the soundtrack is rather mediocre, lacking in strong dynamics or "body" and comes across as fairly bland.

    I engaged Dolby Pro Logic II but did not notice any significant surround presence.

    Dialogue was reasonably clear throughout and there were no issues with audio synchronization.

    There are a few songs in the film. The title song is by singer/songwriter Carole King (Tapestry) and additional songs are by John Sebastian. They are cute and inoffensive just like the Care Bears.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The only extra is a theatrical trailer.

Menu

    The menu is full frame and static, but comes in several languages.

Theatrical Trailer (2:08)

    This is presented in 1.33:1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Spanish audio track
• Subtitle tracks and closed captions

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• German and Italian audio tracks

    I would rate both versions as substantially identical.

    The Care Bears Movie successfully introduced a set of cuddly bears originally envisaged as greeting card characters to a new audience. In this feature, our cute friends help to prevent an evil spirit and an unloved young magician from making everyone on Earth stop caring for each other.

    The video and audio transfers are mediocre.

    The only extra is a theatrical trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall