Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-Lot (2004)

A Brilliant Conflict

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I have never seen CGI this bad in my entire life. This is CGI that, if it were to be handed in as an assignment at any art school for first year students, would fail. And that is not an exaggeration. For one, the unwrapping is horrendous; Nothing connects together and it is completely broken. One example is on a bridge, where the underside of the bridge is the exact same at the up side, and where the sides of the bridge do not connect together with the up- and underside of the bridge. (If you don't know what unwrapping is, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYW0y8y2hk0)The CGI materials are also enormously inconsistent; sometimes they use bump or specular mapping, sometimes they don't, despite them being the same kind of object. (such as wood or dirt on the ground) That is not how one does CG. And the placement of the objects themselves... there are trees that clip right into the ground with no trunk whatsoever. And the story... it's not worse than the 80s movies, which were already insanely bad, and the story actually focuses on one specific Care Bear that develops his character throughout the story, which is a godsend for this franchise. Still, there is nothing interesting about it and the narrative falls apart in its own plot holes and contrivances.So, unless you want to punish your child, do not let him/her watch this movie. Put on the original Winnie the Pooh instead.

Just for the record, I don't hate the Care Bears. By all means I'm not a huge fan, but I do think some of the hate the franchise and characters garner do verge on unfair. Although I loved the 1980s show and the original movie, and enjoyed New Generation, Wonderland and Nutcracker, I found myself disliking Journey to Joke-a-Lot. It seemed cute on paper and the character of Gig certainly is so. But the jerky character designs and lurid colour schemes make the film visually unappealing, while the score lacks whimsy and apart from a couple of delightful ones the songs are mostly limp with uninspiring lyrics. The script is a very uneven mix of weakly-done silly and sweet moments, Funshine's coronation speech is one of the, perhaps even the, worst single scenes of anything to do with Care Bears. The story is structurally thin, some scenes such as most of the songs and the middle are little more than lazy filler and the messages are handled in a very heavy-handed way. The characters are not the simple and charming ones from especially the 1980s, the villains are completely insipid, Funshine is now a bully and Grumpy is an utter wimp here. The voice work is terrible sadly too, too high in pitch with next to no subtlety and it also sounded as though they had been recorded in a helium balloon. All in all, a poor movie and a bland one. 2/10 Bethany Cox

I enjoyed the original 2d movies for their charm & imagination. My favourite characters were Grumpy Bear (reduced to a whiny toddler in this mess), Hugs & Tugs (baby bears) & the Care Bear Cousins. The babies & cousins were absent, as were any humans. The bears learn a lesson about there's a time to laugh & a time to be serious, but the way they treat Grumpy at the beginning is appalling. The original Grumpy was an able handy bear & he growled about things, but beneath was a heart of gold. You admired him. Here he just comes across as a wimp. The new voice was dreadful. The others were just as bad. In fact the only character I cared about was a sweet pig called Gig. The villains in the original films were scary, but the rat & mosquitoes aren't even vaguely threatening. Care-a-lot had been radically redesigned. 3d computer animation doesn't have the same appeal for me as 2d. It's too hard edged, perfect & unfluffy. Certainly inappropriate for Care Bears. Some bears had been coloured differently. Better to seek out the originals. This newbie lost its way entirely. 3/10

Just to start my comment off... I am a thirteen year old girl. At school, anyone would die of embarrassment to be caught watching Care Bears... except me. I love the Care Bears, and this movie is no exception. I thought it was cute, and touching at the same time. I am reluctant to admit this, but when Funshine sings about going home... and questions about whether or not he is making the right choice, I cried. Actually... crying is sort of an understatement- I bawled. Even though I know that the Care Bears are not real... and in fact are animated- I still view them as real beings and follow their actions by caring. This movie is cute, funny, sad, and sentimental. I love the Care Bears!