While originally conceived as greeting card mascots with an accompanying toy line, the Care Bears debuted in a market where children's media was freshly-deregulated and immersed in shameless commercialism. It was perhaps inevitable that these characters would be spun off into an animated toy commercial that was barely masquerading as an entertainment property, but the success of the IP was far from certain. Still, despite its limited budget and rushed production schedule, the first Care Bears movie made a killing at the box office in 1985, outgrossing the much more expensive Disney effort The Black Cauldron. A theatrical continuation then become compulsory, resulting in The Care Bears II: A New Generation less than 12 months later. While it too was a cheap-looking cash grab, it made a healthy profit and encouraged the further development of a franchise that is still pushed to nostalgic millennials (and their kids) to this day.
Ryan is joined by Sylvan and Cheryl for a talk about this deeply cynical yet highly affecting franchise. Sylvan is the big Care Bears fan of the group and goes into detail about how the franchise explores emotional intelligence in ways reminiscent of kids TV icons like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Ryan, lacking too much to say about the Care Bears, makes strained comparisons to The Get Along Gang, Faust, the philosophy of Thích Nhất Hạnh.
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