The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine is the second television special to feature 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...

 characters. Made by Atkinson Film-Arts

Atkinson Film-Arts

Atkinson Film-Arts was an animation studio based in Ottawa, Ontario, The company is best known for the first two Care Bears television specials, The Land Without Feelings and The Freeze Machine, and the four syndicated specials that inspired The Raccoons...

 of Canada, it premiered in syndication

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 in April 1984.

Overview

The special, a follow-up to the previous installment The Land Without Feelings

The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings

The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings is the first television special to feature the Care Bears characters. Made by Atkinson Film-Arts of Canada, it was premiered on syndication in April 1983...

(from 1983), sees the return of the ten original Bears and the rarely-seen Cloud Keeper, as well as the villain Professor Coldheart. In addition, the special introduces Baby Hugs, Baby Tugs, Grams Bear, and Professor Coldheart's sidekick, Frostbite.

Release and reception

The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine aired on over 100 U.S. TV stations in April 1984, and was sponsored by the Kenner

Kenner

Kenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located, which is just north of Cincinnati's Union Terminal.Kenner introduced its...

 company. That same year, it won an award for Best Children's Program at the 13th National ACTRA

ACTRA

The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists is a Canadian labour union representing performers in English-language media. It has 22,000 members working in film, television, radio, and all other recorded media....

 Awards. A tie-in book based on the special (ISBN 0-910313-15-6) was written by Arthur S. Rosenblatt, illustrated by Joe Ewers and published by Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...

 as a part of the Tales from the Care Bears series.

The special was released on VHS and Beta

Betamax

Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...

 by Family Home Entertainment

Family Home Entertainment

Family Home Entertainment was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom. It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California.-General information:...

 in May 1985. This, and The Land Without Feelings, were among the ten best-selling children's videos on the U.S. market in 1985. It was released for the first time on DVD, as a special feature, on MGM Home Enteratainment

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

's 2007 re-issue of The Care Bears Movie

The Care Bears Movie

The Care Bears Movie is a 1985 Canadian animated film, the second feature production from the Toronto animation studio Nelvana. One of the first films based directly on a toy line, it introduced the Care Bears characters and their companions, the Care Bear Cousins. In the film, orphanage owners...

. The print featured on the disc is the syndicated edit (which aired on the 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...

 and Toon Disney

Toon Disney

Toon Disney was an American cable television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company. A spinoff of Disney Channel, it mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Cartoon Network and Nicktoons...

), not the original broadcast version.

In 1987, Don R. Le Duc referred to Freeze Machine as a "shallow merchandising marvel".