Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot is an American-Canadian animated television series based on the Care Bears franchise produced by American Greetings with animation provided by SD Entertainment. The series functions as part of the fourth incarnation of the franchise, and centers on the adventures and escapades of the titular Care Bears - Cheer, Share, Grumpy, Funshine, and Oopsy, as they help their fellow Care Bear friends and battle against the main antagonist Grizzle. The series originally aired on CBS as part of the network's KEWLopolis strand (which itself was co-run by American Greetings) from September 2007 until November 2008, with reruns airing until September 12, 2009. Along with the other shows in the KEWLopolis block, this series fulfilled the federal "E/I" requirements. The series officially began with a computer-animated pilot movie entitled Care Bears: Oopsy Does It! which saw a limited theatrical release in the United States in August 2007 and later in the United Kingdom in February 2008. Four half-hour specials were released straight to DVD in 2008, and this was followed up with three additional computer-animated films in 2010 part of a miniseries entitled the "Care Power Team". In August 2007, CTVGlobeMedia and Canwest (later Shaw Media; now acquired by Corus Entertainment), as well as Aardman Animations announced that they had acquired Canadian rights to the show. The show's theme song was changed and various Shaun the Sheep characters were added. The series aired on MuchMusic in Canada from 2007 until 2018. . Showcase and Action also aired the series from August 31, 2009 until April 1, 2019, History from December 2014 until December 2018, TVTropolis until August 26, 2013, M3 until September 1, 2016, and Disney Junior from March 6, 2010 until June 29, 2012. Since 2016, reruns have been shown on YTV.

Premise

While other Care Bears make occasional appearances in the show, the series primarily focuses on five Care Bears in particular: 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. 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.

Characters

Main characters

Villains

Supporting characters

Introduced in Shaun the Sheep

Care-a-lot

The new Care-a-Lot has four main places that make it up:

Houses and buildings

The houses in Care-a-lot are very different, but they all show the personalities of their owners:

Episodes

Theatrical pilot

Season 1

Half-Hour Specials

Season 2

Care Power Team movies

DVD release

In 2008, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released two DVDs of the series which contained double-length episodes from the second season which didn't air on TV at the time of release. "Grizzle-ly Adventures", released in February 2008 contained “Emma's Dilemma” and “Broken”; while "Ups and Downs", released in May 2008 contained “Cheer Up” and “Down to Earth”. In 2009, Lionsgate Home Entertainment took over DVD distribution of the series under a new deal with American Greetings, and in March 2009, released their first DVD for the series titled "Cheer, There and Everywhere". The company would continue on to release DVDs of the series which all focus on specific morals. Many of these releases have also been released on digital download.

References and footnotes