Back in the 1980s, my sister was absorbed into the Care Bears collective. Created in 1981 by American Greetings for greeting cards, these cute pictures of bears were turned into a series of stuffed animals, gained their own television series, and even starred in three feature films. And every so often, a franchise like the Care Bears must be reborn, and in 2002 and 2007 these cuddly, lovable characters were reintroduced to the world. They even celebrated the 25th anniversary of the toy line back in 2007.
For those of you who don't know or who have remained blissfully unaware of the Care Bears phenomenon, each bear is a different color and has a different symbol on its belly. They made ten different bears initially, but the population has grown wildly each time the franchise was reintroduced. A few of them were:
- Bedtime Bear, who was blue with a sleepy crescent moon on his belly
- Birthday Bear, who was yellow with a cupcake with a candle on his belly
- Cheer Bear, who was pink with a rainbow on her belly
- Good Luck bear, who was green with a four leaf clover on his belly
- Grumpy Bear, who was blue with a dark raincloud and raindrops on his belly
In 2007, there was a new Care Bears animated television series introduced, and it used five of the bears as main characters: Share Bear, Cheer Bear, Funshine Bear, Grumpy Bear, and Oopsy Bear. The Care Bears: Cheer, There & Everywhere DVD set that was just released includes eight different stories from the series.
The goal for the series was to provide a set of role models for younger children to teach how to deal with things they'd face while growing up. Lessons about friendship, helping others, and using your talents are among those on the stories included.
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