The Care Bears Movie (1985) on Netflix

G19851h 17mAdventure Animation Comedy

The Care Bears live in Care-a-Lot, a land in the clouds. Friend Bear and Secret Bear meet siblings Kim and Jason, and apprentice Nicholas opens a book that frees an evil spirit.

Netflix3.5/5
IMDb5.6/106,401 votes
Rotten Tomatoes43%

Trailer

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Plot summary

Entertaining the children at his orphanage, Mr. Cherrywood tells a tale about the Care Bears, who live in Care-a-Lot above the clouds and watch over young people on Earth. Friend Bear and Secret Bear set out to cheer someone up and meet Kim and Jason, a brother and sister whose parents died in a car crash and who now keep to themselves. At an amusement park, Tenderheart Bear notices Nicholas, a magician's apprentice, who comes across an old book fastened with a diary-style lock and opens it, releasing an evil spirit that takes the shape of a woman's face. The spirit begins to work on him, aiming to strip caring from the world. Back in Care-a-Lot, two cubs, Hugs and Tugs, meddle with the bears' new Rainbow Rescue Beam, and Kim and Jason come through the portal.

Cast

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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Care Bears Movie (1985)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Nelvana took the job on the edge of collapse. Its first feature, 1983's Rock & Rule, had swallowed almost all the studio's resources at around $8 million and then failed to find proper distribution, leaving the company close to shutting down.
To win the contract, Nelvana co-founder Michael Hirsh ran a test modeled on the Pepsi Challenge adverts, showing the toy and greeting-card partners clips from Nelvana and rival studios and asking them to pick the best. Nelvana scored highest, and his partners told him they knew he had rigged it by choosing the clips, but liked the approach.
Directing it made Arna Selznick only the third woman ever to direct an animated feature, and one of just four women to have done so.
The South Korean end of the outsourced animation nearly stopped the film. Patrick Loubert, Clive A. Smith and colleague David Altman spent three days persuading unpaid animators to hand back vital layout sketches, which Nelvana finally bought back with the equivalent of $20,000 in won.
With the film unfinished and a deadline closing in, Michael Hirsh showed exhibitors Leica reels and a few moments of finished color animation. He believed it was the first time an animated work in progress had been screened to buyers, a ploy Disney later used for Beauty and the Beast at the 1991 New York Film Festival.
Months later Disney's The Black Cauldron, at $25 million the most expensive animated film made to that point, took less money than Nelvana's bears. Disney animator Ron Clements recalled the mood: "Everyone was kind of scared about the future of Disney animation. It wasn't a good time. It was really a terrible time."