Care Bears

The Care Bears are a set of characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. more...

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In 1983, Kenner took the characters and made the first in a line of very successful teddy bears based on the Care Bears.

Each Care Bear comes in a different color and with a specialised insignia on its belly: for example, "Bedtime Bear" is pastel blue and sports a sleepy-looking anthropomorphised crescent moon, and "Cheer Bear" is pink with a rainbow insignia. A spin-off collection, called the Care Bear Cousins, feature stuffed monkeys, lions, and other such animals in the same style as the teddy bears.

The Care Bears appeared in their own television series from 1985 to 1988, in addition to three feature film spinoffs: The Care Bears Movie (1985), Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986) and The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987).

As of 2006, Care Bears are still being marketed. The new toys offer features such as light-up bellies when pressed. As part of this comeback, the Bears have appeared in their first two computer-animated movies, Journey to Joke-a-lot (2004) and the Big Wish Movie (2005).

The "Care Bears" trademark and the copyrights in the character designs are owned by Those Characters from Cleveland, part of American Greetings.

History

Following the success of their first big franchise (Strawberry Shortcake) back in 1979, American Greetings introduced the Care Bear characters in late 1981 through a line of greeting cards. Children's book illustrator, Elena Kucharik, did the original artwork for the cards. The line was developed jointly by Those Characters from Cleveland, AGC's licensing division, and MAD (Marketing and Design Service of the toy group of General Mills).

As they had done with Strawberry Shortcake back when it was called "Project I", AGC called the Care Bears franchise "Project II" as they strove to make the character program secret until advertising was ready. At the start of the franchise, Care Bears was already established as its working title.

In 1982, the Care Bears were announced as a toy line for production by Parker Brothers and Kenner the following spring, as well as pre-licensed characters and media stars. In 1983, they were introduced to the general public, and starred in their first television special, The Land Without Feelings, which Kenner produced and sponsored.

1984 saw the release of another special, The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine; a miniseries based on the toys was distributed by Lexington Broadcast Services Company in syndication. A spin-off line, the Care Bear Cousins, was introduced the same year.

Read more at Wikipedia.org