If you are not a Care Bears fan to begin with, then this film should be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS, because it's the *ABSOLUTE WORST* version of the 1980s franchise. It completely justifies why so many people became COMPLETELY CYNICAL about the Care Bears, which is TRULY TRAGIC considering how extraordinary the franchise can be when it's presented properly. The first Care Bears movie from 1985 was not the best by any means but it is still *INFINITELY BETTER* than this - and so is the 3rd movie, 'The Care Bear Adventure in Wonderland'. I really don't know WHAT Peter Sauder the writer and the rest of the "creative" team were SMOKING, DRINKING AND/OR SNORTING when they made this egregious 2nd film.
For the record, I actually *USED TO LIKE THIS FILM* some time ago, and looked back on it with FOND MEMORIES while acknowledging general corniness. However, I just re-watched all 3 of the 80s Care Bear films back to back, with objectivity, and was absolutely stunned and perplexed at the *VAST CHASM* in quality, style and substance between this film and the other 2 - which apparently never quite jumped out at me the same way before, as I had watched each film at different points in my life. Everyone keeps harping about the songs here, so let me get those out of the way first........they are some of the MOST *INSUFFERABLY* INSINCERE songs ever written, especially when you take off the blinders of nostalgia and compare them with the songs in the other films. The "sentiments" expressed in the songs are PHONEY BALONEY *BULLSHIT*!!!!
For instance, one of the songs goes on and on about the power of "colour" - which is UNFORGIVABLY HYPOCRITICAL when you consider that ALL the human characters/children in this story are WHITE. Seriously???? You're going to have a song about HOW SPECIAL AND WONDROUS *COLOUR* is and yet you don't even have a SINGLE child/character of colour?? This would be possible to overlook if they didn't have the DAMNED COLOUR SONG. I guess they were only interested in merchandising the toys to white children......and the only "colour" they cared about are FANTASY COLOURS, not actual skin colours and hues that make up the beautiful diversity of human beings. They could have made such a powerful statement with the colour song if they featured children of colour in the story, but no no no no no........that would require them to actually *CARE* (pun intended), which they DO *NOT*. The songwriters and creators were simply SPOUTING *TRIPE* in a disgustingly cynical attempt to give the (white) targeted children demographic and their parents whatever would PULL THE WOOL OVER THEIR EYES. Apparently it worked, given how many dolts here still praise the film well into adulthood. They have basically "sold their souls to Dark Heart" - there, I said it, for everyone who militantly and vociferously declares that they love this film so much.
It is also UNFORGIVABLE that the creators, starting with write Peter Sauder, would *COMPLETELY IGNORE* AND DISREGARD the entire first film when concocting this garbage story. Seriously?? What does that say about their OWN SELF-RESPECT, to eradicate THEIR *OWN WORK* with a single stroke of Peter Sauder's pen? The toy manufacturers decide they want to release a "cub" line of the Care Bears and their cousins, so just like that they are willing to ERADICATE the entire first film's story and continuity - even though the first film was made JUST A YEAR AGO!!!! You cannot reboot a whole franchise one year after you yourself created the original which did *JAW-DROPPINGLY WELL* at the Box Office. The First Care Bears movie was THE MOST SUCCESSFUL NON-DISNEY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM *EVER MADE* at the time - so much so that EVEN DISNEY could not believe their eyes - and yet, the deplorably greedy toy manufacturers together with American Greetings and Nelvana decide that they are going to SPIT ON THEIR OWN *MONUMENTAL SUCCESS* from the previous year, and revise the origins of the Care Bears and their Cousins in a PATHETICALLY NONSENSICAL way. That's right, this "rebooted" origin story does NOT EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE, which shows you how cynical the writer and the creative team were - they were just going through the motions and churning out some CRAP in order to placate American Greetings and Kenner the toy company.
I don't expect Peter Sauder to have read Aristotle, but the CONCEPT OF TIME in this "story" is BEYOND LOONY TOONS LEVEL. True Heart and Noble Heart go chasing the 'shadow' of Dark Heart around the world for.................how long exactly, for starters???? Months? YEARS? They make such a big plot point about moving the cubs to the allegedly "much safer" Care-a-Lot and the Forest of Feelings from the Kingdom of Caring, to protect them from Dark Heart, but Dark Heart FINDS THEM in Care-a-Lot WITH *ZERO EFFORT*. The children down on earth remain the EXACT SAME AGE despite at least a couple of years spanning between the beginning of the film and the end - during which time the Care Bear and Cousin Cubs have reached full maturity up above - which makes THE LITTLE BOY in particular seem like he's *STUNTED*. And really, True Heart and Noble Heart who are supposed to be the older, wiser guardians of all the Care Bears are portrayed as *BUMBLING IDIOTS* to have not realized that they were being sent on a wild goose chase by Dark Heart for...........again, GOODNESS KNOWS HOW LONG - we are talking AT LEAST months upon months on end, if not years. Apparently the writer thought that the viewers would be JUST AS IDIOTIC not to notice the discrepancies and glaring, gaping holes in the story.
And don't even get me STARTED on the SICKENINGLY CREEPY *SEXUAL SUBTEXT DYNAMIC* between Chrissy and Dark Heart!!! These are supposed to be pre-pubescent children - well, one is actually a FRICKING EVIL DEMON *PRETENDING* to be a young boy - and they keep shoving this DISGUSTING ROMANTIC/SEXUAL TENSION between them throughout the story. It reaches a PARTICULARLY HEINOUS crescendo as the Demon "redeems himself", and then we finally see him SHIRTLESS with Chrissy in the lake......after which they hold hands together in their very last scene. YUCCCCCCCCKKKKKK. How any sane parent could allow their children to watch this and be okay with it speaks to the DEPRAVITY AND MORAL BANKRUPTCY of those so-called parents. So much for "caring" - apparently you care NOTHING for your children's moral well-being to allow them to be SUBLIMINALLY *SEXUALIZED* in this manner, looooooong before they have even hit puberty.
I could go on and on, but as other viewers have already touched on the other horrors to be found in this mockery of a film - including the INFAMOUS "Peter Pan/Tinkerbell" rip-off which is handled *SO OBNOXIOUSLY* that you can hear the voice actor's cynicism during the calls for caring - I will conclude by urging everyone reading this to SPEND THEIR TIME MORE PRODUCTIVELY than watching this. Last but not least, the voice acting itself is *ABYSMAL* here, whereas the voice acting in the first film was *ABSOLUTELY TOP NOTCH*. The same voice actors who did such a great job with Nicholas in the first film sounds *RIDICULOUS* as Dark Heart here - coming across as a RANK AMATEUR particularly in his attempts to sound "evil".........it sounds *EXCRUCIATINGLY EMBARRASSING*, to the point where it feels like you would be better off going to see a Kindergarten Play!!!!!!! Even the voice actor who brought Brave Heart to such GLORIOUS LIFE in the first film and in subsequent incarnations of the franchise sounds like he is *PHONING IT IN* cynically here, and I really can't blame him given the BLATANT *COMMERCIALISM* that pervades this entire "project".
I firmly believe that it was THIS ATROCIOUS FILM that signaled the downward spiral of the Care Bears franchise, which could have otherwise reigned supreme well into the 1990s, given what a ROARING SUCCESS the first 1985 film was. But nope........the powers that be GAVE INTO THEIR *GREED* and their MOST *BASE INSTINCTS* in order to create a "requel" (which is basically a reboot and a prequel combined), thinking that they could cash in DOUBLE, but in fact, this film barely made ONE THIRD of the profits made by the first film, so the joke was on them!!!!!!! It is pathetic and tragic that so many people continue to praise and defend the film all these years later, JUST TO CLING ONTO some semblance of their childhood - but that is a *FALSE AND UTTERLY DANGEROUS* FORM OF NOSTALGIA which should have no place in the mind of a sensible, smart and morally sound adult.
For the record, I actually *USED TO LIKE THIS FILM* some time ago, and looked back on it with FOND MEMORIES while acknowledging general corniness. However, I just re-watched all 3 of the 80s Care Bear films back to back, with objectivity, and was absolutely stunned and perplexed at the *VAST CHASM* in quality, style and substance between this film and the other 2 - which apparently never quite jumped out at me the same way before, as I had watched each film at different points in my life. Everyone keeps harping about the songs here, so let me get those out of the way first........they are some of the MOST *INSUFFERABLY* INSINCERE songs ever written, especially when you take off the blinders of nostalgia and compare them with the songs in the other films. The "sentiments" expressed in the songs are PHONEY BALONEY *BULLSHIT*!!!!
For instance, one of the songs goes on and on about the power of "colour" - which is UNFORGIVABLY HYPOCRITICAL when you consider that ALL the human characters/children in this story are WHITE. Seriously???? You're going to have a song about HOW SPECIAL AND WONDROUS *COLOUR* is and yet you don't even have a SINGLE child/character of colour?? This would be possible to overlook if they didn't have the DAMNED COLOUR SONG. I guess they were only interested in merchandising the toys to white children......and the only "colour" they cared about are FANTASY COLOURS, not actual skin colours and hues that make up the beautiful diversity of human beings. They could have made such a powerful statement with the colour song if they featured children of colour in the story, but no no no no no........that would require them to actually *CARE* (pun intended), which they DO *NOT*. The songwriters and creators were simply SPOUTING *TRIPE* in a disgustingly cynical attempt to give the (white) targeted children demographic and their parents whatever would PULL THE WOOL OVER THEIR EYES. Apparently it worked, given how many dolts here still praise the film well into adulthood. They have basically "sold their souls to Dark Heart" - there, I said it, for everyone who militantly and vociferously declares that they love this film so much.
It is also UNFORGIVABLE that the creators, starting with write Peter Sauder, would *COMPLETELY IGNORE* AND DISREGARD the entire first film when concocting this garbage story. Seriously?? What does that say about their OWN SELF-RESPECT, to eradicate THEIR *OWN WORK* with a single stroke of Peter Sauder's pen? The toy manufacturers decide they want to release a "cub" line of the Care Bears and their cousins, so just like that they are willing to ERADICATE the entire first film's story and continuity - even though the first film was made JUST A YEAR AGO!!!! You cannot reboot a whole franchise one year after you yourself created the original which did *JAW-DROPPINGLY WELL* at the Box Office. The First Care Bears movie was THE MOST SUCCESSFUL NON-DISNEY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM *EVER MADE* at the time - so much so that EVEN DISNEY could not believe their eyes - and yet, the deplorably greedy toy manufacturers together with American Greetings and Nelvana decide that they are going to SPIT ON THEIR OWN *MONUMENTAL SUCCESS* from the previous year, and revise the origins of the Care Bears and their Cousins in a PATHETICALLY NONSENSICAL way. That's right, this "rebooted" origin story does NOT EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE, which shows you how cynical the writer and the creative team were - they were just going through the motions and churning out some CRAP in order to placate American Greetings and Kenner the toy company.
I don't expect Peter Sauder to have read Aristotle, but the CONCEPT OF TIME in this "story" is BEYOND LOONY TOONS LEVEL. True Heart and Noble Heart go chasing the 'shadow' of Dark Heart around the world for.................how long exactly, for starters???? Months? YEARS? They make such a big plot point about moving the cubs to the allegedly "much safer" Care-a-Lot and the Forest of Feelings from the Kingdom of Caring, to protect them from Dark Heart, but Dark Heart FINDS THEM in Care-a-Lot WITH *ZERO EFFORT*. The children down on earth remain the EXACT SAME AGE despite at least a couple of years spanning between the beginning of the film and the end - during which time the Care Bear and Cousin Cubs have reached full maturity up above - which makes THE LITTLE BOY in particular seem like he's *STUNTED*. And really, True Heart and Noble Heart who are supposed to be the older, wiser guardians of all the Care Bears are portrayed as *BUMBLING IDIOTS* to have not realized that they were being sent on a wild goose chase by Dark Heart for...........again, GOODNESS KNOWS HOW LONG - we are talking AT LEAST months upon months on end, if not years. Apparently the writer thought that the viewers would be JUST AS IDIOTIC not to notice the discrepancies and glaring, gaping holes in the story.
And don't even get me STARTED on the SICKENINGLY CREEPY *SEXUAL SUBTEXT DYNAMIC* between Chrissy and Dark Heart!!! These are supposed to be pre-pubescent children - well, one is actually a FRICKING EVIL DEMON *PRETENDING* to be a young boy - and they keep shoving this DISGUSTING ROMANTIC/SEXUAL TENSION between them throughout the story. It reaches a PARTICULARLY HEINOUS crescendo as the Demon "redeems himself", and then we finally see him SHIRTLESS with Chrissy in the lake......after which they hold hands together in their very last scene. YUCCCCCCCCKKKKKK. How any sane parent could allow their children to watch this and be okay with it speaks to the DEPRAVITY AND MORAL BANKRUPTCY of those so-called parents. So much for "caring" - apparently you care NOTHING for your children's moral well-being to allow them to be SUBLIMINALLY *SEXUALIZED* in this manner, looooooong before they have even hit puberty.
I could go on and on, but as other viewers have already touched on the other horrors to be found in this mockery of a film - including the INFAMOUS "Peter Pan/Tinkerbell" rip-off which is handled *SO OBNOXIOUSLY* that you can hear the voice actor's cynicism during the calls for caring - I will conclude by urging everyone reading this to SPEND THEIR TIME MORE PRODUCTIVELY than watching this. Last but not least, the voice acting itself is *ABYSMAL* here, whereas the voice acting in the first film was *ABSOLUTELY TOP NOTCH*. The same voice actors who did such a great job with Nicholas in the first film sounds *RIDICULOUS* as Dark Heart here - coming across as a RANK AMATEUR particularly in his attempts to sound "evil".........it sounds *EXCRUCIATINGLY EMBARRASSING*, to the point where it feels like you would be better off going to see a Kindergarten Play!!!!!!! Even the voice actor who brought Brave Heart to such GLORIOUS LIFE in the first film and in subsequent incarnations of the franchise sounds like he is *PHONING IT IN* cynically here, and I really can't blame him given the BLATANT *COMMERCIALISM* that pervades this entire "project".
I firmly believe that it was THIS ATROCIOUS FILM that signaled the downward spiral of the Care Bears franchise, which could have otherwise reigned supreme well into the 1990s, given what a ROARING SUCCESS the first 1985 film was. But nope........the powers that be GAVE INTO THEIR *GREED* and their MOST *BASE INSTINCTS* in order to create a "requel" (which is basically a reboot and a prequel combined), thinking that they could cash in DOUBLE, but in fact, this film barely made ONE THIRD of the profits made by the first film, so the joke was on them!!!!!!! It is pathetic and tragic that so many people continue to praise and defend the film all these years later, JUST TO CLING ONTO some semblance of their childhood - but that is a *FALSE AND UTTERLY DANGEROUS* FORM OF NOSTALGIA which should have no place in the mind of a sensible, smart and morally sound adult.