Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation

On the ocean, a yellow bear and a purple horse, who live in a giant ship, look after a pack of baby animals known as the Care Bear Cubs and Care Bear Cousin Cubs. During their journey, a red sea serpent threatens them; it is revealed to be one of the many forms of Dark Heart, an evil shape-shifting spirit that brings chaos to the land. They escape by following a rainbow up to the sky, while the boat transforms into the Cloud Clipper. In the sky, they meet the Great Wishing Star, who gives the group their iconic "symbols", which indicate each creature's role or specialty, and are attached to their chests. True Heart Bear and Noble Heart Horse, as the characters come to be known, become founders of the Kingdom of Caring, a land which comprises Care-a-Lot and the Forest of Feelings. For the Bears' first Caring Mission, True Heart and one of the cousins, Swift Heart Rabbit, travel to Earth at a summer camp, where they meet three of its participants: a kind and determined young girl named Christy and her best friends, twins John and Dawn. Christy and the twins are concerned because a boastful boy nicknamed the "Camp Champ" always emerges victorious in showdowns. They decide to confront him, only for him to assign them to trash duty. A distraught Christy resolves to run away with her friends, only to get lost in the nearby forest. True Heart soon finds and rescues John and Dawn and brings them to the Kingdom of Caring. Upon arriving, the children hear a bell toll from the Caring Meter, which tells the Bears how much caring is taking place on Earth. Noble Heart and True Heart tell them to babysit the Cubs before leaving to search for Dark Heart and Christy. Meanwhile, in the forest, Christy meets Dark Heart, disguised as a human teenage boy, and asks him to make her the new Camp Champ. He grants her wish, but warns she must pay him back later and walks away as she finally encounters her friends. Aware of Dark Heart's potential, True Heart and Noble Heart take action by moving the Bear Cubs to Care-a-Lot, and the Cousin Cubs to the Forest of Feelings. Both sets quickly grow up to become the Care Bear Family. Later, while the Bears and cousins decide to celebrate the Kingdom of Caring's anniversary and prepare a party for the Kingdom's founders, Dark Heart sneaks into Care-a-Lot disguised as a repairman to capture the Family. A cluster of Star Buddies, an army of stars which defend the kingdom under the command of the Great Wishing Star, drive him off; he then morphs into a red cloud of mist. The Bears shoot light at him from their bellies, forming the "Care Bear Stare"; the Cousins also help by using their "Care Cousin Call". After Dark Heart is fended off, True Heart and Noble Heart decide to search for and defeat him, leaving the Bears to handle missions by themselves. During their patrol, the Bears and Cousins spot Christy stranded in a canoe within a lake, but before they can rescue her, Dark Heart appears as an aura of mist and attacks them. The family decides to retaliate, only to be captured and trapped in his magic bag, which was the favor he wanted Christy to do all along. The few Family members at hand determine that she has teamed up with him. This prompts Tenderheart Bear to hold a press wheel in the Hall of Hearts. John and Dawn join the conference after Friend Bear and Secret Bear save them from a moose that was under Dark Heart's influence and listen to Tenderheart Bear discuss his plans to successfully put down Dark Heart. Later that night, Dark Heart brainwashes everyone staying at the camp, causing them to wreak havoc. The Bears and Cousins search for any stranded Family members and engage Dark Heart again, only for Dark Heart to imprison them—first in cages, then freezing them inside big rubies hanging from a chandelier. Meanwhile, John and Dawn tell Christy of their conviction to rescue the Family from Dark Heart. Feeling guilt, she finally comes to her senses and pays him back by admitting what she has done. Her bargain with Dark Heart is over, and she finally admits that he must be expelled once and for all. True Heart, Noble Heart, whom Dark Heart tricked into leaving the family alone while chasing his shadow, John, and Dawn partake in a heist to reach and destroy Dark Heart inside his lair. After sending Grumpy Bear and other two mates in an attempt to steal a necklace with a key, Dark Heart attacks them again. Christy soon joins the heist and threatens Dark Heart to release the bears. He refuses, and shows her the chandelier in which the Family is trapped. After an argument with Christy, Dark Heart warns her that if she saved his life, she should run and save hers before shooting bolts of red magic into True Heart and Noble Heart. Both confront Dark Heart, which transforms again into an aura of red magic. Christy attempts to intervene, only to be struck by one of Dark Heart's bolts of lightning. In a last ditch effort, she flicks a marble into the lever holding the chandelier before dying. When the chandelier breaks, the family confronts Dark Heart one final time. He looks at Christy, who tells him that be it good or bad, he is still a person. Dark Heart's evil magic fades and he begs the family to bring her back to life. To resurrect her, the family, John and Dawn chant to Christy that they care, ask the audience to join in and Dark Heart, who is hesitant at first, finally opens his mind and starts caring. Christy comes back to life, and due to Dark Heart's magic perishing, his lair collapses. After a successful escape, Dark Heart is freed from the dark magic and becomes a human permanently, much to everyone's delight. After a large celebration, the bears bid farewell to the campers and return home. The Great Wishing Star delivers an ending speech, which is followed by Harmony Bear and Brave Heart paddling a rowboat past the castle and flashbacks of the family's childhood. ==Cast==

Development The Care Bears franchise was created in 1981 by Those Characters from Cleveland, a division of the greeting card company American Greetings. Early in their tenure, the characters appeared as toys from the Kenner company, and also in greeting cards by Elena Kucharik. They starred in two syndicated television specials from a Canadian animation studio, Atkinson Film-Arts of Ottawa: The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings (1983) and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine (1984). It was distributed in the United States by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, an independent outfit, and grossed US$22.9 million at the North American box office, the largest amount for a non-Disney animated film at the time. which was in consideration by May 1985. As with the original, production took place at Nelvana's facilities and Taiwan's Wang Film Productions; the Canadian studio also hired South Korean personnel to handle inking and painting. This time, over one hundred Nelvana animators worked on the film over a seven-month period American Greetings and Kenner commissioned Nelvana to make the sequel television syndicator LBS Communications, a co-financier of the first one, became the producer and presenter. Care Bears Movie II was Nelvana's third animated feature film, after 1983's Rock & Rule and The Care Bears Movie. It marked the directorial debut of Dale Schott, a Nelvana staff member who served as assistant director on the first Care Bears Movie, as well as the Nelvana/Lucasfilm TV series Ewoks. and Charles Bonifacio handled animation duties. Jack Chojnacki, the co-president of American Greetings' licensing division Those Characters from Cleveland, served once again as an executive producer. At one point, The Samuel Goldwyn Company was about to release A New Generation, but lost the distribution rights after turning down demands from the producers. Eventually, Nelvana went into negotiations with Columbia Pictures, which acquired worldwide theatrical rights in early 1986. Elliot Krieger of Rhode Island's Providence Journal also took note of such a theme, headlining his review "Faust goes to summer camp". In regards to continuity issues, a reviewer in The Scarecrow Movie Guide observed a "montage showing the Care Bears and their Cousins growing up together from infancy to full Care Bear maturation—nullifying everything that happened in the first movie". Mike McLane of Florida's Gainesville Sun gave a few suggestions of the storyline's possible religious subtext. He compared the Great Wishing Star to God, the Bears' "beautiful cloud kingdom" of Care-a-Lot to Heaven, and Dark Heart to Satan; he also hinted that the Bears protected humankind like angels did. Patricia Cullen composed the score for Care Bears Movie II. Los Angeles musicians Dean and Carol Parks were credited as producers, writers and performers of the film's six songs, Vincent Canby wrote in his review, "[There are] unseen loudspeakers [that] pour out a nonstop Hit Parade of songs to be interred by, including 'I Care for You,' 'Our Beginning' and 'Forever Young. ==Release==

North America Initially intended for a mid-year release, Care Bears Movie II opened on March 7, 1986, in the U.S. and Canada, grossing US$243,161 from 55 theatres, At this stage, it managed to rank above a reissue of Disney's 1959 production Sleeping Beauty, which also premiered that same weekend. However, when the final weekend box office results were announced Sleeping Beauty outgrossed Care Bears II by $59,000. Over the next two weekends, it earned little more than $1 million in 12th place. During release, it faced competition from another toy-based film, Atlantic Releasing's GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords. Ultimately, this installment earned US$8,540,346 in North America—about a third of what the previous one earned; By 1988, it made over US$12 million worldwide. on July 25, 1986; it later appeared on home video in that country under the RCA/Columbia Pictures and Video Collection International labels. released it on April 8, 1987 as Les Bisounours II—Une nouvelle génération; publishing rights were held by Hachette Livre. The film is also known as Gli orsetti del cuore II in Italy, and Krambjörnarna: på nya äventyr in Sweden. The Warner-Columbia branch in West Germany released it under the title Glücks-Bärchis, Teil 2—Jetzt im Abenteuerland (Care Bears lucky, Part 2 Now in Adventureland) on December 11, 1986. It sold 174,550 tickets and ranked 84th place among the year's releases in that market (excluding re-issues), grossing approximately (the equivalent of DM1,300,000, or US$824,000). By comparison, Filmwelt's release of the first film that same year placed 47th with 538,487 tickets. and on April 3, 1987 in the Philippines. By the early 1990s, it was marketed as Ursinhos Carinhosos II in Brazil. In China, it is known under the title of Baby Love Bears (). In Russia, the movie was distributed under several names, such as Wonder Bears: The New Generation (), in a more corresponding translation to the original () and other. In Japan, the film was released direct to video through the VHS market on November 21, 1990, under the title Little Bears of the Fairy Star (). Subtitled and dubbed versions have been released. ==Reception==

Critical response The film was lambasted by critics, in part because of their theory that Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation was part of the franchise's marketing scheme at the time of release. This led The New York Times' Vincent Canby to begin his review by proclaiming, "Product merchandising marches on." Another reviewer claimed to have seen almost every collectible within the film's first twenty minutes. The plushes, measuring 11" in height, consisted of Bedtime Cub, Cheer Cub, Funshine Cub and Share Cub; the line of Care Bear Cousin Cubs included Li'l Bright Heart Raccoon, Li'l Proud Heart Cat and Li'l Swift Heart Rabbit. Kenner announced the introduction of the Cubs in 1985, shortly before the film opened, and showcased them at the American International Toy Fair in February 1986. In The Motion Picture Guide 1987 Annual, Jay Robert Nash wrote that its title "refers to the new featured characters who, more than coincidentally, have ended up on the toy shelves of stores everywhere." Steve Millburg from the Omaha World-Herald, however, found it misleading and complained that the Cubs "are not 'a new generation' at all". Several critics considered the film a prequel to the original: the Omaha World Herald reviewer; Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times; and Bill Cosford of The Miami Herald. According to Michael H. Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "Care Bears Movie II is what the film industry calls a 'requel,' tracing the origin of the Care Bear family and relatives of other species." In his Animated Movie Guide, animation expert Jerry Beck gave Care Bears Movie II a half-star (½) out of four, and offered this consensus: John Stanley expressed his views likewise in his 1988 film guide, Revenge of the Creature Features: "Care Bears Movie II is a sort of pre-sequel that, I suspect, requires its audiences to have some prior knowledge of Care Bears," Vincent Canby said in his New York Times review. "Very young kids may love this, but anybody over the age of 4 might find it too spooky." The Miami Herald's Bill Cosford gave it two and a half stars out of four, Edward Jones commented that "The animation can't compare with the best of Disney. Take a look at Sleeping Beauty [...] and you'll see the difference." (along with "Thumbs Down" on At the Movies—the Siskel & Ebert TV show having not been introduced yet), while Leonard Maltin gave it a "BOMB" rating in his Movie Guide, and added: "Your kids deserve better entertainment than this treacly stuff about the Kingdom of Caring. Prefab animation from the era of toy merchandising tie-ins." The Gale Group publication, ''VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever, gave it one bone out of four in its 1992 edition, but revised it to two later on. In 2001, the Los Angeles-based Hastings Bad Cinema Society picked A New Generation as one of The 100 Worst Movies of the 20th Century. "Even suffering through a Barney video would be preferable to sitting through this," said compiler Michael Lancaster. The film itself had also been nominated for Worst Picture back at their 1986 awards.Common Sense Media gave it slightly negative reviews, as the group responses "Young preschoolers may be frightened by this movie, which offers very little in the way of learning.". The group also aged this movie 6+, as the subplot is too dark for the Care Bears''. The film received some positive reviews, however. Writing for The Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Norma Dyess Michaud deemed it "a must-see for preschoolers, especially those who are in the throes of the current Care Bear mania". Richard Martin praised the script and climax, along with the performances of the orphan Cubs. "Their pastel, birthday-cake-and-whipped-cream world has never looked sweeter," he stated. by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video on August 21, 1986, and debuted in 12th place on Billboard's Top Kid Video Sales chart on September 27 that same year. The film aired during 1987 on the Disney Channel, a premium television station, and was broadcast in later years on CBS, HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel. It returned on VHS as part of the Columbia TriStar Family Collection on August 13, 1996. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment premiered it on DVD on April 8, 2003, as the film is digitally remastered with the picture and color enhanced. The only special features in this edition were trailers for several of the company's family-oriented titles. This was the last animated feature to be released by Columbia Pictures until Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001. ==Sequel==

In 1987, Nelvana followed A New Generation with The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland. In this third film, the Bears and Cousins travel to Wonderland and save its Princess from a wizard; Alice, a girl from the real world, takes her place. Self-financed by Nelvana It grossed US$2.6 million in the North American market, and US$6 million worldwide by February 1988. ==See also==