The film centres on Funshine Bear, a Care Bear who loves to laugh and tell jokes. After one of his jokes backfires against Grumpy, another of the Bears, Funshine runs away to find a place where others can appreciate his talents better. He discovers a town known as Joke-a-lot, where laughter and humour are the order of the day, and soon becomes the area's "King". Unknown to the Bear, a rat named Sir Funnybone is using him that way in order to possess an important object called the Royal Sceptre.
Journey to Joke-a-lot premiered in the United States on October 5, 2004, through Lions Gate, and was subsequently released overseas through Universal Pictures Video. It received generally positive reviews, although the computer animation was singled out. In the midst of this installment's success, Lions Gate released a 2005 sequel, The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie. A soundtrack album, featuring the film's songs and some original tracks, was released by Madacy Kids on the same day as the film's debut.
Plot
The Care Bears live in a cloud-filled land known as Care-a-lot ("With All Your Heart"). One of the Bears, Grumpy, is working on a rainbow carousel for the upcoming Care Bear Fair. His fellow Care Bears come by for a look; one of them, Funshine, loves telling jokes and making the other Care Bears laugh. After they reluctantly agree to try the carousel, it goes out of control and sends them into the sky before crashing down. Grumpy feels even worse after Funshine tries to cheer him up with a joke on height restrictions, which the other Bears find funny. Grumpy is not amused and even goes so far as to tell Funshine that if he doesn't understand that cheering up isn't making fun of, then maybe Funshine doesn't belong in Care-A-Lot. As a result, the Bears force him to make up with Funshine by apologizing. Upon reaching his house, they find no trace of their friend. Reading from a note, Tenderheart Bear realizes that Funshine has felt sorry for Grumpy and has gone in search of a place where his talents can be better appreciated. The other Bears are worried about his fate; as they cannot hold their Fair without him, they decide to look for him regardless and bring him back to Care-a-lot. Five of them— Tenderheart, Grumpy, Wish, Cheer and Share volunteer, while Laugh-a-Lot, Love-a-Lot, Friend, Good Luck, Bedtime, and Champ stay home to get ready for the fair.
The day after he runs away ("Make Em Laugh") from home, Funshine hears circus music in the distance and strays from his camping spot to find out. Taking a seat on a bumper car, he embarks on a long ride which leads him to Joke-a-lot, a town where humour is dominant ("In the Land of Joke-a-Lot"). The area's residents are astonished when he lands via parachute upon the town square; a female piglet called Gig tells him where he now is. Then a rat named Sir Funnybone arrives at the scene and dubs Funshine the area's long-lost King (although Funshine insists otherwise). Funnybone actually placed the car within the woods so that he could begin to gain his own power; he tells that to his henchmen, a trio of houseflies named Phido, Cleon, and Bidel.
Eventually, Funshine learns the hard way that "serious" is a very bad word in Joke-a-lot. The Joke-a-lot residents celebrate a "Laff-Fest" in his honour; Funnybone gives him a tour of the town and takes him to his Royal Palace, where Funshine learns of the last two Kings and is introduced to the Royal Sceptre. Stored in a vault within the voice-activated Royal Treasury, the sceptre holds the Royal Jewels of Joke-a-lot, which Funnybone says are "the source of the magic power behind all the fun" there; only the king is granted access. Funshine wants to look, but Funnybone tells him that a coronation is about to take place. He plans to take command of the sceptre, now in the hands of a slow, elderly alligator called Grand Duke Giggle.
At the coronation, Joke-a-lot's new "king" tells his audience two jokes to pass the time, before Grand Duke Giggle proceeds to give him the sceptre. Meanwhile, the other Care Bears find his belongings and take the same ride that he did. After they crash into the Royal Palace, Funshine is delighted to see them, but the Bears are a bit puzzled over what he has become. They miss Funshine and want him to return home to Care-a-lot where he belongs. Even Grumpy apologizes for his earlier harsh words towards him. Thus, he must make a very difficult decision—to head back home with them, or remain King of Joke-a-lot ("Here I'm a King") and no longer live with his fellow Care Bears. He then announces that he will go home, but Sir Funnybone wants him to stay as king.
During the "Laff-Fest", Giggle gives the sceptre to the new king. Funnybone orders Phido, Cleon, and Bidel to steal it when Funshine is not looking. He gets into the Treasury with it, unlocks the Royal Jewels, and escapes with this loot on a pink dirigible. As Grumpy is fixing his carousel, the other Bears must use it to stop Funnybone. The machine spins onto the dirigible, bursting the balloon and sending it aground.
When the Care Bears come to Funnybone, he reveals his real name and homeland—Basil Ratbone, from the No Fun Atoll, whose inhabitants have lived through a "serious" modus operandi. He wanted the jewels so much to enliven his fellow residents that he planned on stealing them from Joke-a-lot, and even pretended that Funshine's "tummy symbol" was the royal birthmark. Instead, the real one—a "smiley mouth"—was at the back of Gig's ears. The other Bears open the chest to find a jack-in-the-box, and other toys, which Funshine assures them are the real magic jewels. Funnybone apologizes for his misdeeds, and soon all of Joke-a-lot attends a coronation in which Gig becomes their Princess (though she is really more like a Queen). The Bears promise to return to Joke-a-lot some other day and ride home to Care-a-lot on the flying horses from their carousel thanks to Twinkers.
Journey to Joke-a-lot was produced at Toronto's Nelvana studio,[5] and also at Sparx Animation,[4] under the working title The Care Bears in King Funshine the Great.[5] The first in a tentative series, it was self-financed by Nelvana in the US$3–5 million range; a team headed by the studio's executive vice-president, Scott Dyer, oversaw its production.[3] In early 2003, Artisan Entertainment acquired the distribution rights to the film from Nelvana.[5] Glenn Ross, the president of Family Home Entertainment (then owned by Artisan), announced the characters' reinvention and re-introduction to parents and young viewers.[5]
Release
Upon release, Journey to Joke-a-lot was the fourth film to feature the Care Bears,[6] and their first one in over 15 years.[7][nb 1] It was also the first computer-animated installment in the franchise,[9] and its first feature to go direct-to-video.[10] Backed by an advertising campaign worth more than US$2 million,[11] the film was released in North America by Artisan's successor, Lions Gate,[7] on October 5, 2004;[12] overseas rights were handled by Universal Studios soon after.[1] In the U.S., the film's release coincided with the second annual National Care Week;[13] it debuted at eighth place on Billboard's VHS sales chart in late October 2004,[14] and sold more than 500,000 copies by April 2005.[3] In January 2005, Journey to Joke-a-lot was a nominee in the "Animated DVD Premiere Movie" category at the fifth annual DVD Exclusive Awards.[15] The film aired on U.S. cable television's Disney Channel in December 2004[16][17] and May 2005.[18] In the midst of Joke-a-lot's success, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released another computer-animated film with the Care Bears, Big Wish Movie, on October 18, 2005.[19]
The DVD contains seven deleted scenes: "Laugh If You Want To!", "Caring Is Serious Business", "Which Way to Funshine?", "I Wonder", "Packs-A-Magic!", "Unpacks-A-Magic!" and "The Great Escape!".[4] In his introduction to those scenes, director Mike Fallows says to the audience, "Congratulations on finding your way this far."[4][20] All of the scenes have partially completed animation except the last one, "The Great Escape!", which has finished animation.[4]
Reception
A writer for the Video Business magazine said of Journey to Joke-a-lot: "While [it] ain't no Shrek—the gold standard—the movie is still amusing enough to charm the target demographic of ages 2–5 and should do well with parents looking for harmless kiddie fare."[20] Bruce Kluger of Parenting commented likewise: "The computer animation might not be as quaint as the pen-and-ink of the 1980s version, but the new songs and brisk pace make this one a keeper for a new generation."[21] In July 2005, Rob Lowing of Sydney, Australia's The Sun-Herald gave it three stars out of five, and wrote: "Adults will find this computer-generated cartoon as sickly sweet as fairy floss but tiny tots will love the colourful blobs—oops, we mean the Care Bears. [...] Support characters that look like toys, four bright songs and lots of giggling will score with the under-fives."[22] Saskatchewan's The Star Phoenix also praised the film and its soundtrack, adding that "Even the movie is "bear"-able for grown-ups with subtle adult humour woven into the silliness."[2] However, MaryAnn Johanson of the Flick Filosopher called it a "horrifying attempt at children's entertainment", adding that "The cold CGI animation removes any vestige of coziness that might have been found in what is essentially a giant advertisement for itself." She referred to the title setting, Joke-a-lot, as "a sort of Oz-meets-Candyland with just a soupcon of pastel near-oddity Tim Burton might have pondered in a moment of sentimental weakness".[23]
The music for Journey to Joke-a-lot was composed and produced by Canadian musician Ian Thomas; Jane Siberry wrote and performed the opening track, "With All Your Heart".[4] A soundtrack album released by Madacy Entertainment's Madacy Kids label[25] features 13 tracks,[26] five of which were featured in the film:[27] "With All Your Heart", "Make 'Em Laugh", "In the Land of Joke-a-lot", "Here I Am a King" and "I Like My Friends a Lot".[4] Some weeks after the release of Joke-a-lot, Siberry performed "With All Your Heart" at the Alix Goolden Hall in Victoria, British Columbia; Adrian Chamberlain of that province's Times Colonist wrote that "[she] performed [the song] with absolute sincerity, even the jaunty refrain which is whistled. Only an artist like this—so intensely focused, so innately talented—could deliver such a diversity of elements in a potent and convincing manner."[28] In 2005, Ian Thomas was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Original Score for an Animated Program or Series, for his work on the film.[6]
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride is a 1998 American animated direct-to-video musical romantic drama film. It is the sequel to Disney's 1994 animated feature film, The Lion King, with its plot influenced by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and the second installment in The Lion King trilogy. According to director Darrell Rooney, the final draft gradually became a variation of Romeo and Juliet.
The Lion King 1½ is a 2004 American animated direct-to-video musical comedy film produced by the Australian branch of DisneyToon Studios and released direct to video on February 10, 2004. The third and final installment released in the original Lion King trilogy, it is based on The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa and serves as an origin story for the meerkat/warthog duo Timon and Pumbaa while the film is also set within the events of The Lion King (1994). A majority of the original voice cast from the first film returns to reprise their roles, including Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella as the voices of Timon and Pumbaa, respectively. The plot of the movie is inspired by Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a tragicomedy that tells the story of Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters.
Care Bears are multi-colored bears, originally painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. They were turned into plush teddy bears and featured in The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings (1983) and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine (1984) before headlining their own television series called Care Bears from 1985 to 1988. They also made multiple more feature films including: The Care Bears Movie (1985), Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986), and The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987).
The Care Bears Movie is a 1985 animated musical fantasy film directed by Arna Selznick from a screenplay by Peter Sauder. It was the second feature film from the Canadian animation studio Nelvana after the 1983 film Rock & Rule, in addition to being one of the first films based directly on a toy line and the first based on Care Bears. It introduced the Care Bears characters and their companions, the Care Bear Cousins. The voice cast includes Mickey Rooney, Georgia Engel, Jackie Burroughs and Cree Summer. In the film, an orphanage owner tells a story about the Care Bears, who live in a cloud-filled land called Care-a-Lot. While traveling across Earth, the Bears help two lonely children named Kim and Jason, who lost their parents in a car accident, and also save Nicholas, a young magician's apprentice, from an evil spirit's influence. Deep within a place called the Forest of Feelings, Kim, Jason and their friends soon meet another group of creatures known as the Care Bear Cousins.
Care Bears is an animated television series based on the franchise of the same name. After two specials in 1983 the main series began in 1985. The series was produced by DIC Audiovisuel's American branch DIC Enterprises and aired on syndication a while after the theatrical release of the first movie in the series.
Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation is a 1986 animated musical fantasy film produced by LBS Communications and Nelvana. It is the third animated feature from Nelvana and the second film based on the Care Bears franchise. It was directed by Dale Schott, written by Peter Sauder, and produced by Nelvana's three founders; Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert, and Clive A. Smith. It stars the voices of Alyson Court, Cree Summer, Maxine Miller and Hadley Kay. In the story, The Great Wishing Star tells the origins of the Care Bears and the story of their first Caring Mission. True Heart Bear and Noble Heart Horse lead the other Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins in aiding Christy, a young camper who is tempted by the evil shape-shifting Dark Heart. This is also the first appearance of the Care Bear Cubs, who also had their own line of toys.
The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland is a 1987 animated musical fantasy film and the third theatrically released film in the Care Bears franchise. It was released in the United States and Canada on August 7, 1987, by Cineplex Odeon Films, and is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. The fourth feature film made at Toronto's Nelvana studio, it was directed by staff member Raymond Jafelice and produced by the firm's founders. It starred the voices of Keith Knight, Bob Dermer, Jim Henshaw, Tracey Moore and Elizabeth Hanna. In the film, the Care Bears must rescue the Princess of Wonderland from the Evil Wizard and his assistants, Dim and Dumb. After the White Rabbit shows them her photo, the Bears and Cousins search around the Earth for her before enlisting an unlikely replacement, an ordinary girl named Alice, to save her true look-alike. Venturing into Wonderland, the group encounters a host of strange characters, among them a rapping Cheshire Cat and the Jabberwocky.
The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings is the first animated television special to feature the Care Bears characters. It was made by Ottawa's Atkinson Film-Arts studio, and premiered in syndication on April 22, 1983. The special features the ten original Bears, along with the Cloud-Keeper and the villain Professor Coldheart; they would return in 1984's The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine.
The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie is a 2005 computer-animated musical fantasy film, produced by Nelvana Limited and released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment. Directed by Larry Jacobs and Ron Pitts, and written by Jeffrey Alan Schechter, the film is a follow-up to the Care Bears' previous efforts in 2004's Journey to Joke-a-lot. It was the fifth film to feature the Bears, and the second to be computer-animated.
Care Bears Nutcracker Suite is an animated television film featuring the Care Bears characters. Produced by the Canadian animation studio Nelvana in 1988, it is loosely based on the 1892 Nutcracker ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The film was directed by Joseph Sherman and Laura Shepherd, and produced by Nelvana's founders: Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith.
Julie Lemieux is a Canadian voice actress.
Care Bears: Oopsy Does It! is a 2007 American computer-animated fantasy 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 and Shari Lewis Enterprises. Oopsy is the first Care Bears film made by Polygon Pictures than Nelvana, the Canadian company responsible for the previous feature-length installments and most of the television episodes. The movie was released on DVD on October 23, 2007. This film serves as a pilot episode of Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot.
Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot is an American animated television series produced by Sabella Dern Entertainment and American Greetings. The show is distributed by DIC Entertainment and later Cookie Jar Group in reruns. The series, a follow-up to the movie Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!, is the third Care Bears television series, after the first version and the second version. The 2007 version features songs with music by Andy Street and lyrics by Judy Rothman.
Care Bears: Share Bear Shines is a 2010 American animated adventure film featuring the Care Bear Power Team. The film was produced by SD Entertainment and Shari Lewis Enterprises, who also made 2007's Care Bears: Oopsy Does It!.
Care Bears: The Giving Festival is a 2010 animated fantasy film starring the Care Bears characters. It was made by SD Entertainment and released on DVD by Lionsgate on November 2, 2010. In the film, the Care Power Team—which includes Funshine Bear, Cheer Bear and Share Bear—organizes their annual Giving Festival, and must rescue a princess named Starglo from impending weather.
Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, also known as Welcome to Care-a-Lot, is an American animated television series based on the Care Bears franchise and produced by American Greetings Properties. Unlike its previous predecessor Care Bears shows, this was AG's first CGI animated "Care Bears" TV series, despite several films in the franchise having been released in the format.
Care Bears & Cousins is an American animated adventure television series released on November 6, 2015, on Netflix. The series, a continuation of the previous series Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, re-introduces four of the Care Bear cousins - Brave Heart Lion, Bright Heart Raccoon, Lotsa Heart Elephant and Cozy Heart Penguin.
The Care Bears Family is an animated series produced by Nelvana based on the American franchise of the same name, and is the successor series to the series produced by DIC Entertainment. It was originally broadcast from September 13, 1986 to January 23, 1988 on the Global Television Network in Canada. In the United States, the first two seasons were broadcast on ABC and third was aired in syndication. All 13 episodes also available on the Boomerang subscription app.
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1 2 Foley, Doug (November 18, 2005). "Gemini contender is only eight". The Hamilton Spectator. TDNG Inc. p.G12.
1 2 "In the Pipeline: Lions Gate Cares a Lot with New 'Journey to Joke-a-lot". Video Store. Advanstar Communications. 26 (19): 34. May 9, 2004.
↑ "Fair days: buyers flocked to American International Toy Fair 2004 to check out the latest product offerings". License!. Advanstar Communications. 7 (3): 44. April 2004.
↑ "Care Bears (New & noteworthy: what's new in licensing)". Children's Business. Fairchild Communications. 19 (6): 15. June–July 2004.
↑ Magiera, Marcy (May 10, 2004). "Just Announced: Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot". Video Business. Reed Business Information. 24 (19): 11.
↑ Alexander, George (June 1, 2004). "Licensed Drivers: There's no speed limit on sales velocity for these market movers". Playthings. Reed Business Information. 102: 22.
↑ "Top VHS sales". Billboard. Vol.116, no.44. VNU/Nielsen Business Media. October 30, 2004. p.37.
↑ Hettrick, Scott (January 3, 2005). "Spidey takes on Frodo in DVD kudos". Variety. Reed Business Information. 286 (1–2): 16.
↑ Staff (September 20, 2005). "Time Off: Prize will make you laugh a lot; Care Bear DVD brings your favourite teddies to life". Liverpool Daily Echo. The Liverpool Daily Post & Echo Ltd. p.20.
↑ Chamberlain, Adrian (November 30, 2004). "Siberry performs purely from the heart". Times Colonist. Canwest Interactive. p.D7 (Arts).
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