The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie

The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie is a direct-to-video movie that was released on DVD and VHS in the United States by Lions Gate Home Entertainment on October 18th, 2005, following the success of Journey to Joke-a-Lot. It stars Wish Bear.

The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie

Genre:	Animation Musical Comedy Family Fantasy
Directed by:	Larry Jacobs Ron Pitts
Produced by:	Cynthia Taylor
Written by:	Jeffrey Alan Schechter
Starring:	Sugar Lyn Beard Stephen Ouimette Tracey Hoyt Ron Rubin
Distributed by:	Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Release date:	October 18th, 2005 (United States)
Runtime:	75 minutes
Country:	United States Canada
Language:	English
Franchise:	Care Bears
Prequel:	Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-Lot (2004)
Sequel:	Care Bears: Oopsy Does It! (2007)

Plot

This movie starts when, atop the roof of an observatory 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. Cheer Bear raises concern that this may be a frivolous use of Twinkers' 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 rain cloud side. Wish Bear suggests using her wishes, but is rejected since not all of them work as intended; they didn't like their wishes ("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 neighbors 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 realize their problem, they try to fix it with more wishes, but to no avail—Care-a-lot becomes a blank white space (wishing that all of this was gone), the bears begin to glow in color (wishing for everything to be back how it was, but with more color), Grumpy Bear turns black and white (wishing for less color), and Messy Bear turns into a cub (wishing for everything to be like it used to be). When they try to wish Twinkers back to Wish Bear, the star ultimately loses his power from exhaustion (because they had been pushing him much 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, which is wishing is fun, but it is far more important to work hard to achieve your dreams.

Wish Bear tells them that wishes are not an effective solution any more, and everyone works together to make their home beautiful again ("It Takes You and Me"). At the end, Me Bear, Messy Bear, and Too Loud Bear, having seen the error of their ways, apologize 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.

Bad Qualities

Lack of continuity: This is supposed to take place after the events Journey to Joke-a-Lot, yet Wish Bear still looks like a child.
Animation errors such as Wish Bear and Twinkers brushing their teeth, and when they're finished, they used a teeth smile expression.
Wish Bear is very out-of-character in this film because she wanted to make more wishes, yet she is famous for her wishes, showing that it is okay to be different from the others. She also has double standards since at the end she still wants her wishes back.
Cheaply-made CGI animation, even for 2005 standards, to look like a PS2/GameCube video game, with the same character designs for the Care Bears once more.
Some forgettable and annoying songs (especially the "Get A Lot" song).
Big Wish gives a creepy vibe throughout the entire movie.
Most of the film's new characters don't feel right on a film with Too Loud Bear, Me Bear, and Messy Bear in it.
Wish Bear's origin story is a ripoff of Tinker Bell's from Disney Fairies.
Rarely even follows up the events of the Scholastic book.

Good Qualities

The ending is heartwarming, in which Too Loud Bear, Me Bear, and Messy Bear are going on a road trip with Wish Bear and Twinkers.
The voice acting is surprisingly good and it was slightly improvised. In fact, Stephen Ouimette, Tracey Hoyt, and Ron Rubin did a great job voicing Too Loud Bear, Me Bear, and Messy Bear.
The "I Wish" song is catchy.
It feels more true to the source material, unlike some of the other Lionsgate DTV movies like Pinocchio 3000, Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, and Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever.

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