The Care Bears are all stuffed teddy bears with symbols on their tummies. These symbols give them their names and personality, like Champ Bear with a trophy on his tummy and Cheer Bear with a rainbow on hers. There are also Care Bear Cousins. Like the Care Bears, the cousins also have symbols on their tummies but the cousins are a variety of animals, like Brave Heart Lion and Treat Heart Pig. No Heart is the enemy of the Care Bears, but he doesn’t do the dirty work himself. His niece Shreeky is out to capture the Care Bears and turn them over to No Heart in some of the episodes. Beastly is almost always there as No Heart’s lackey. Beastly comes up with all sorts of plans and schemes and it’s up to the Care Bears and their Cousins to stop him. Their true power comes out when they perform the "Care Bear Stare," which allows them all to join their caring powers and make magical things happen.
The Care Bears episodes aren’t linked to each other at all, so you can watch them in any order that you want. This makes it really easy to just put a random disc in and not confuse anyone as to what has already happened in the show. Some episodes are on Earth, so that the Care Bears can help upset children. Some of the episodes are set solely in Care-a-Lot because No Heart likes to start there when trying to capture the Care Bears. No Heart also likes to try and destroy Care-a-Lot. Some episodes are on a spaceship very much like the Enterprise in Star Trek except with the cute Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins running things. The Nutcracker movie that is also included with the set is a re-telling of the classic Nutcracker story with the Care Bears helping save Toyland.
These characters entertain, but they also teach kids about things that they should and shouldn’t do. There are plenty of episodes about being friends and playing well with others, even some about how to entertain yourself for things that you should do. There are also episodes about not being a bully, safety rules that you should know, and the importance of working together and sharing because "Sharing is Caring." I was really happy to see an episode about working hard to earn money to pay your bills before you go shopping as these are things that even adults could learn a lesson from! I also really enjoyed the two episodes where the Care Bears sing-a-long to classic childhood songs. I couldn’t resist singing along as well! These songs are fun for children and so much more appropriate than some of the stuff they hear on even kid’s channels today.
The 80’s were full of cartoons that also taught valuable life lessons. Some of them were pretty obvious about it and some weren’t. The Care Bears were aimed at a younger audience than a lot of cartoons, but they still manage to provide life lessons and entertain children at the same time. Although they might seem a bit silly to us as adults now, I can tell you first hand that this DVD collection will keep a 5-year-old entertained longer than anything else I have seen her watch, so I think that is a sign that even children of today will love the Care Bears! If you’re looking for a cartoon that is appropriate for all ages and will entertain, check out Care Bears: The Original Series Collection today.
