The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie
Encyclopedia
The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie is a 2005 children's animated feature, produced by Nelvana
Nelvana
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation. It was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s...

 Limited and released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...

. Directed by Larry Jacobs and Ron Pitts, and written by Jeffrey Alan Schechter, the film is a follow-up to the Care Bears
Care Bears
The Care Bears are characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears...

' previous efforts in 2004's Journey to Joke-a-lot
Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot
Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot is a 2004 children's animated feature, produced by Nelvana Limited and released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment. Directed by Mike Fallows and written by Jeffrey Alan Schecter, this was the fourth film to star the Care Bears, and their first in over 15 years...

. It was the fifth film to feature the Bears, and the second to be computer-animated.

The Big Wish Movie centres on Wish Bear, a Care Bear who can make and grant wishes. After some of them do not work, she feels worried that the other bears have overlooked her abilities, and wishes for a few new friends who care more than she does. Those three—Messy Bear, Me Bear and Too Loud Bear—cause further trouble for Wish Bear, her wishing star Twinkers, and all of Care-a-lot.

As with Journey to Joke-a-lot, Toronto's Nelvana produced and self-financed the Big Wish Movie; additional work was handled by India's Crest Animation Productions. Production involved various personnel from the previous film, among them Ron Pitts, composer Ian Thomas
Ian Thomas (Canadian musician)
Ian Thomas is a singer, songwriter, actor and author. He is younger brother to famed comedian and actor Dave Thomas.-Career:...

 and various voice actors including Stephanie Beard
Stephanie Beard
Stephanie Beard is a Canadian actress, voice actress and television and radio personality. Her radio host persona goes by Suga BayBee, and as co-host of The Zone, she was called Sugar.Beard was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...

, Stevie Vallance and Julie Lemieux
Julie Lemieux
-Character voices:Julie Lemieux has provided the voice for characters such as Sammy Tsukino and Young Sapphire in Sailor Moon, Darien Shields in Sailor Moon R the Movie: Promise of the Rose, and Peruru in Sailor Moon Supers the Movie: Black Dream Hole. She has also played Funshine Bear Care Bears:...

. The Big Wish Movie was released on DVD by Lions Gate on October 18, 2005; prior to this, it premiered on U.S. and Canadian television, and was accompanied by a tie-in book from Scholastic Press
Scholastic Press
Scholastic is a global book publishing company known for publishing educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents, and selling and distributing them by mail order and via book clubs and book fairs. It also has the exclusive United States' publishing rights to the Harry Potter book...

. It subsequently received favourable reviews from Parenting
Parenting (magazine)
Launched in 1987 by Time Inc., Parenting is a magazine for families published in the United States. In February 2009, the magazine became two separate, age-targeted editions: Parenting Early Years, for moms of infants, toddlers and preschoolers; and Parenting School Years, for moms with kids in...

 magazine and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...

. This was Nelvana's final production with the Care Bears, before SD Entertainment
SD Entertainment
SD Entertainment is an animation studio specialising in direct-to-DVD movies for children. The "SD" in the initials of the company name stand for Sabella Dern, the respective last names of its founders: former MGM Animation employees Paul Sabella and Johnathan Dern.The company is based in Woodland...

 of California assumed responsibility for future instalments in the franchise.

Plot

Atop the roof of an observatory
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...

 at their cloud-filled home of Care-a-lot, the Care Bears hear Wish Bear's story of how she (as a Cub) found her new friend, a wishing star named Twinkers. The Care Bears are touched by this tale, but are a bit worried when she uses Twinkers' inherent power to wish them all some popcorn. Another bear, Cheer Bear, raises concern about the frivolous use of this power. Wish Bear, however, assures everyone that she is a trained professional.

The next day, Wish Bear uses the wishing power to help her friends. She wishes for plenty of rainbow sap for Share Bear, and for Grumpy Bear's rocket to have "zoom", but the wishes backfire when the sap overflows and the rocket spins out of control.

A monthly meeting of Care-a-lot's steering committee (with Champ Bear presiding) reveals a problem with the Caring Meter. The machine, which measures how much caring there is in Care-a-lot, has moved towards the raincloud side. Wish Bear suggests using her wishes, but is rejected since not all of them work as intended ("I Wish"). Disappointed, she decides to wish for other bears who like wishing as much as she does. This causes three new bears to arrive in Care-a-lot: Me Bear, Messy Bear, and Too Loud Bear.

Everyone is pleased to welcome the new neighbours at first, but things soon get out of control. The new bears unwittingly make a huge mess of everything (especially when the huge mansion they asked for causes pollution). Then, after a confrontation with them at a picnic ("Get a Lot") Wish Bear accidentally wishes Twinkers away to the new bears; they soon abuse the star's power with an amusement park focusing on Me Bear, a mud pie for Messy Bear, and a huge noisy motorcycle for Too Loud Bear. Once the new bears finally realise their problem, they try to fix it with more wishes, but to no avail—Care-a-lot becomes a blank white space, the bears begin to glow in color, Grumpy Bear turns black and white, and Messy Bear turns into Messy Cub. When they try to wish Twinkers back to Wish Bear, the star ultimately loses his power from exhaustion (because they had been pushing him way too hard). Wish Bear uses Grumpy Bear's rocket to bring him to the Big Wish, a grandmother star, in the sky. Big Wish restores his power, but not before Wish Bear assures her that she has learned her lesson.

Before everyone works together to make their home beautiful again ("It Takes You and Me"), Wish Bear tells them that wishes are not an effective solution any more. Afterward, Me Bear, Messy Bear, and Too Loud Bear see the error of their ways and ask if they can still live in Care-a-lot. The rest of the bears agree, and decide to go on a road trip.

Cast

Name Character Source
Stephanie Beard
Stephanie Beard
Stephanie Beard is a Canadian actress, voice actress and television and radio personality. Her radio host persona goes by Suga BayBee, and as co-host of The Zone, she was called Sugar.Beard was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...

 
Wish Bear
Stephen Ouimette
Stephen Ouimette
Stephen Ouimette is a Canadian actor and director, born and raised in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, and a graduate of the University of Windsor...

 
Too Loud Bear
Tracey Hoyt
Tracey Hoyt
Tracey Hoyt is a Canadian voice actress and alumna of York University and the Second City National Touring Company , possessing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater Performance. She played the first North American voice of Rini in the Sailor Moon R series and movies. Hoyt played the voice of Me Bear...

 
Me Bear
Ron Rubin
Ron Rubin (voice actor)
Ron Rubin is a veteran voice actor whose voice is most easily recognized as that of Artemis from the English translation of Sailor Moon.-Career:...

 
Messy Bear
Scott McCord
Scott McCord
William Scott McCord is a Canadian actor, voice actor, singer and bandleader for the soul/rock pop band . On television he is best known for playing Dan Kuso in Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Owen and Trent in Fresh Animation's Total Drama series.- Animation:* 6teen - Stone* Babar and the Adventures of...

 
Bedtime Bear
Linda Ballantyne
Linda Ballantyne
Linda Ballantyne is a Canadian voice actress.Born in Toronto, Canada, she is best known for voicing the title role of Serena/Sailor Moon in the the second half of the English version of Sailor Moon....

 
Champ Bear
Sunday Muse
Sunday Muse
-Biography:Muse launched "Sunday Muse Cartoon Voices for Kids", a workshop in Toronto, New York, California, and Vancouver, as a way to share everything she gained during her years as a lead voice actress. Her clients had roles on Family Guy, Super Why!, Will and Dewitt, Miss Spider, Rolie Polie...

 
Cheer Bear
Kelly Megzter  Friend Bear
Julie Lemieux
Julie Lemieux
-Character voices:Julie Lemieux has provided the voice for characters such as Sammy Tsukino and Young Sapphire in Sailor Moon, Darien Shields in Sailor Moon R the Movie: Promise of the Rose, and Peruru in Sailor Moon Supers the Movie: Black Dream Hole. She has also played Funshine Bear Care Bears:...

 
Funshine Bear
Susan Roman
Susan Roman
Susan Roman is a Canadian voice actress best known for voice acting the role of Lita/Sailor Jupiter in the North American DiC dub of the anime, Sailor Moon. She is one of the few voice actors to remain throughout the entire run of the series...

 
Good Luck Bear
Robert Tinkler
Robert Tinkler
Robert Tinkler is a Canadian actor and television actor who is primarily known for his voiceover work. He is the voice of Howie on Almost Naked Animals, Max on The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, Delete in the series of Cyberchase, Cenotaph & Brooklyn in Beyblade, Rubeus in the...

Grumpy Bear
Athena Karkanis
Athena Karkanis
Athena Irene Karkanis is a Canadian actress best-known for her role on The Best Years as fictitious Dominican-American actress Dawn Vargaz.-Filmography:*Chappelle's Show .... Caller...

 
Harmony Bear
Angela Maiorano  Love-a-lot Bear
Stevie Vallance  Share Bear
Andrew Sabiston
Andrew Sabiston
Andrew Sabiston is a Canadian actor, theatre and television writer and lyricist. He went to St. Michaels University School in Victoria, British Columbia, graduating in 1982, the same year as classmate Leslie Hope. Both had been cast in their final year in the Paul Almond movie, Ups & Downs, which...

 
Tenderheart Bear
Elizabeth Hanna
Elizabeth Hanna
Elizabeth Hanna is a Canadian film and television actress, most notable for her voice acting work in animated films. She later complemented her voice acting skills by becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist.-Early history:...

Big Wish
Richard Binsley  Twinkers

Production

As with 2004's Journey to Joke-a-lot
Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot
Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot is a 2004 children's animated feature, produced by Nelvana Limited and released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment. Directed by Mike Fallows and written by Jeffrey Alan Schecter, this was the fourth film to star the Care Bears, and their first in over 15 years...

, The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie was self-financed by the Nelvana
Nelvana
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation. It was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s...

 studios in Toronto, Ontario. The second computer-animated production with the Care Bears, it is also the franchise's fifth feature instalment. Director Larry Jacobs had previously worked on another Nelvana venture, a public television series entitled Cyberchase
Cyberchase
Cyberchase is an American educational television series for children age 6-12, that teaches children discrete mathematics. The show airs on Public Broadcasting Service and PBS Kids GO! in the United States. Seasons one through five were produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and Nelvana...

. Mike Fallows, the director of Joke-a-lot, served as the supervising director. The film featured various voices from Joke-a-lot, among them Stephanie Beard, Julie Lemieux, Stevie Vallance, Robert Tinkler, Andrew Sabiston and Scott McCord. Animation was handled by Nelvana in Canada, and Crest Animation Productions in India. Big Wish marked the last time Nelvana embarked on a Care Bears project; from 2006 onward, the California-based SD Entertainment
SD Entertainment
SD Entertainment is an animation studio specialising in direct-to-DVD movies for children. The "SD" in the initials of the company name stand for Sabella Dern, the respective last names of its founders: former MGM Animation employees Paul Sabella and Johnathan Dern.The company is based in Woodland...

 was responsible for future animated fare with these characters, starting with Oopsy Does It!
Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!
Care Bears: Oopsy Does It! is a computer-animated film released on August 4, 2007 by Kidtoon Films. It was developed by American Greetings as part of the Care Bears' 25th anniversary, and produced by SD Entertainment...

 in 2007.

Release

The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie first aired on Canadian television on October 3, 2005; in the United States, it premiered on cable television's Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...

 on October 17. The day after the U.S. premiere, it became one of Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...

's five direct-to-DVD "marquee" offerings for young viewers; restaurant chain Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...

 served as the promotional partner. Twice during 2005, Stephanie Beard
Stephanie Beard
Stephanie Beard is a Canadian actress, voice actress and television and radio personality. Her radio host persona goes by Suga BayBee, and as co-host of The Zone, she was called Sugar.Beard was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...

 (the voice of Wish Bear) promoted the film in the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

under the alias
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 Suga Baybee; in October, she proclaimed that it "is going to be a classic". The film charted on
Video Business
Video Business
Video Business was a trade publication and web site owned by Reed Business Information serving the information needs of retailers, distributors, content suppliers, and other professionals related to the electronic entertainment industry....

 Top Kids Rentals list for January 23, 2006, where it ranked 20th. On August 11, 2007, it placed seventh on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

's Top Kid DVD Sales chart. Jeffrey Alan Schechter, the film's writer, was nominated for a Writers Guild of Canada
Writers Guild of Canada
The Writers Guild of Canada represents more than 1,800 professional writers working in film, television, radio, and multimedia production in Canada...

 Award. The film is known under two French-language titles: À vos souhaits les Calinours ! (in Canada's Quebec province) and De Nouveaux Arrivants chez les Bisounours (in France).

Days before the release of the Big Wish Movie, Scholastic Press
Scholastic Press
Scholastic is a global book publishing company known for publishing educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents, and selling and distributing them by mail order and via book clubs and book fairs. It also has the exclusive United States' publishing rights to the Harry Potter book...

 published a Care Bears storybook based on the film; it was written by Sonia Sander and illustrated by Jay Johnson. One scene in the book involves Wish Bear and the three new Bears grocery shopping; this does not appear in the film. Later in the book, when Messy Bear wishes for everything to be like it used to be, it causes the Bears to travel back to the age of the dinosaurs; in the film, Twinkers just turns Messy Bear into Messy Cub.

Bruce Kluger of Parenting
Parenting (magazine)
Launched in 1987 by Time Inc., Parenting is a magazine for families published in the United States. In February 2009, the magazine became two separate, age-targeted editions: Parenting Early Years, for moms of infants, toddlers and preschoolers; and Parenting School Years, for moms with kids in...

 magazine referred to the Big Wish Movie as "Cute stuff, if a tad sticky-sweet: Heart-shaped toothbrushes, toasters, and waffles abound." Cristina Rouvalis of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...

gave it three stars out of four, and said that "Young Care Bear fanatics will wish for more." In April 2010's Journal of Aging Studies, Sylvia Henneberg commented that Big Wish, the grandmother star, served as "a poor substitute for a truly three-dimensional maternal figure".

Music

The music for the Big Wish Movie was composed by Ian Thomas
Ian Thomas (Canadian musician)
Ian Thomas is a singer, songwriter, actor and author. He is younger brother to famed comedian and actor Dave Thomas.-Career:...

 (also from Journey to Joke-a-lot), and conducted and orchestrated by Peter Cardinali. At his studio, Thomas worked with the Hamilton Children's Choir on the film's opening theme. In February 2005, Stephanie Beard said that "I Wish", a track she performed, "is my favourite cartoon song yet. It's so cute; I can't wait for the world to hear it."
Song Writer Performer(s) Producer(s) Notes
"Big Wish Theme" Members of The Hamilton Children's Choir Conducted by Zimfira Poloz; choir recorded by Bob Doidge; assisted by Amy King at Grant Avenue Studio, Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

"I Wish" Creighton Doane; Daniel Gerrard Leblanc Stephanie Beard Creighton Doane; Daniel Gerrard Leblanc Song animation by Ron Pitts
"Get a Lot" Noah Shilkin and Amos Carlen; The Brumby Brothers Cast Noah Shilkin and Amos Carlen; The Brumby Brothers
"It Takes You and Me" Creighton Doane; Daniel Gerrard Leblanc Michael Borkosky Creighton Doane; Daniel Gerrard Leblanc
"The Power of Wishing" Anthony Vanderburgh; Don Breithaupt Daniel Galessierre

See also

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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