Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot
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Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot is an American 3D animated television series produced by Moonscoop Group/Splash Entertainment, made to celebrate the Care Bears' 30th Anniversary. It first premiered on The Hub on June 2, 2012.
After the series' cancellation, Netflix announced a sequel series titled Care Bears and Cousins, which premiered on November 6, 2015. Due to the fact that both shows are pretty much the same, they are both placed into one page.
Synopsis
Set in Care-a-Lot, a magical land in the clouds, Tenderheart Bear, Cheer Bear, Grumpy Bear, Share Bear, Harmony Bear, Funshine Bear, and new playful, curious cub Wonderheart Bear all go on adventures that emphasize messages of caring and sharing. Human children from Earth often visit Care-a-Lot and participate in new adventures and valuable lessons learned. The Care Bears' mischievous frenemy King Beastly often attempts to make trouble for the bears.
Why it Rocks
- The series returns the franchise back to its roots, by using variants on the Bears' original designs, Tenderheart returning as the leader of the Care Bears and humans becoming a focus again.
- Wonderheart Bear, the niece of Tenderheart, is introduced to the series. She is a Care Bear cub who wants to finds out what her Belly Badge power is.
- Nice CGI animation for the environments and the Bears.
- Well-written episodes with decent morals.
- Many Heartwarming moments.
- Good music.
- Fitting voice acting for the characters, and in true Care Bears fashion, it shows emotion well.
- Many other supporting Bears are brought back to the series after long hiatuses (such as Grams Bear), although being mostly background characters.
- King Beastly is a charming Anti-Villain who mostly provides good mischief and some comic relief around Care-a-Lot.
- Care Bears & Cousins reintroduces four of the Care Bear Cousins (Brave Heart Lion, Bright Heart Raccoon, Cozy Heart Penguin, and Lotsa Heart Elephant) after a long hiatus, too.
Bad Qualities
- Welcome to Care-a-Lot lasted a single series due to Hasbro's meddling of the series (and meddling of the toys, which caused American Greetings to revoke their toy license and transfer it over to Just Play Toys) and the eventual re-brand of Hub Network into Discovery Family, which caused the cancellation of the series.
- Wonderheart can be a bit bratty at times, and the series doesn't explain her origins.
- The character designs for the humans isn't that impressive.