Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot is an American animated television series produced by Sabella Dern Entertainment and American Greetings. The show is distributed by DIC Entertainment and later Cookie Jar Group in reruns. The series, a follow-up to the movie Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!, is the third Care Bears television series, after the first version (produced by DIC Entertainment in 1985) and the second version (produced by Nelvana in 1986). The 2007 version features songs with music by Andy Street and lyrics by Judy Rothman.
The series aired on the CBS KEWLopolis programming block from September 15, 2007 to December 6, 2008. Along with the other shows in the KEWLopolis block, this series fulfilled the federal "E/I" requirements. Reruns continue to air on CBS until September 12, 2009 when KEWLopolis was dropped and replaced by Cookie Jar TV.
Overview
Unlike the previous animation created by DIC and Nelvana in the 1980s, and as with Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!, this series features the new redesigned Care Bears with redesigned tummy symbols (also called "belly badges"). It also features a redesigned Care-a-lot. Additionally, there was initially no interaction with humans or other supernatural entities like those found in the previous iteration. Instead, as an immediate follow-up to Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!, the series inherits the sole villain from the movie, Grizzle, who has robots to do his bidding.
While other Care Bears do make appearances in the show, the series primarily focuses on five Care Bears in particular as seen on the Care Bears website: Cheer Bear, the new leader of the group, Share Bear, who's now a horticulturist, Grumpy Bear, now an inventor, Funshine Bear, now an energetic fun bear instead of a jokester, and introduced in Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!, Oopsy Bear. The show's theme song is performed by Kay Hanley.
Characters
Main characters
Cheer Bear (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) is optimistic, outgoing and intelligent. She is carnation pink with a rainbow as her tummy symbol and wears a rainbow-colored bow. She also seems to be the "doctor", as seen in the episodes "Care-Ful Bear", "Bubbles" and "King Grumpy". Funshine Bear (voiced by Ian James Corlett) he's determined and active. He often gets hooked on an idea and rarely lets go (as seen in the episodes "Care-ful Bear" and "Rainshine Meadows"). He is somewhat overconfident, which sometimes gets him into trouble. He has sunshine yellow fur with a sun as his tummy symbol and wears a red baseball cap. Share Bear (voiced by Tracey Moore) has an innocent, naive, and airheaded demeanor. She is a horticulturist, often growing flowers in a garden she owns (along with a knowledge about them), and always carries a purse full of lollipops to share with her fellow Care Bear friends. She is lavender and has two lollipops crossed like an X as her belly badge. Grumpy Bear (voiced by Scott McNeil) is cynical, bitter and fairly blunt, yet he is a prolific inventor by creating gizmos and gadgets intended to make a Care Bear's life easier, although some of his gadgets are absolutely nonsense (for example, he was working on a rainbow-powered windmill in the episode "All You Need Is..."). Whenever Oopsy makes accidents on him or his property, he utters phrases like, "Bumbling Blizterbugs!" and "Typhonic Typhoons!" He is sky blue and his belly badge is a rain cloud with raindrops shaped like hearts. Oopsy Bear (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) is clumsy and accident-prone. He is light green and, unlike the other Care Bears, doesn't have a belly badge; he usually draws on his belly with a special belly badge crayon, often that of a shooting star, although he can erase it and change it according to his feelings (as seen in the Intro).
The villain
Grizzle (voiced by Mark Oliver) the main villain that resembles a brown wicked Bear and wears a big metal suit. He hates the Care Bears because he doesn't understand what all of their caring is for, and wishes to take over Care-a-lot. He usually deploys robots or uses strange contraptions to carry out his dirty deeds, but it usually backfires on him. He exhibits megalomania, delusions of grandeur, and symptoms of mild schizophrenia, as he often seen talking to an inanimate bird made of spare parts named "Mr. Beaks" and replying to it as if it were speaking.