By far, the Nelvana series from the late '80s is one of the best-animated, most relevant TV cartoon series I've ever watched. I'm not just saying that from a collector's viewpoint, or because I have a soft spot for the bears. The morals hold up, it is cute and aesthetically appealing to young children, and is one of the rare "timeless classics" rumored to circulate out there somewhere.While My Little Pony will always be my favorite vintage show, Care Bears Nelvana surpasses it in many ways, namely quality, continuity, and storyline. I'm a 15-year-old frequent watcher of both shows, mature enough to compare the two but still childish enough to appreciate them. Care Bears has virtually never had glaring mistakes like My Little Pony, and the animation is uniform and does not obviously change from episode to episode.My very favorite Nelvana episodes were the earliest ones. These featured a diverse cast of characters and focused on what the Care Bears did best-helping young children in need. With a pastel color palate to die for and everyone's favorite bears getting at least a supporting role, these episodes are appealing for "collector-types"-those who like to see as many characters as possible, rather than just a few favorites.The later episodes are not up on my favorites list. They feature a very limited cast of about 10 characters (including Brave Heart Lion, Bright Heart Raccoon, Cheer Bear, Grumpy Bear, Champ Bear, Grams Bear, Hugs 'n Tugs, and the dubiously-placed Treat Heart Pig, unreleased in the '80s and nonexistent today). The other bears and cousins were relegated to supporting roles and were most often not seen at all for several episodes in a role. The same thing is happening today with the Oopsy Bear cast, but I guess in the late '80s the call for core characters and rehauls was sweeping the toy industry in the same way as it is today. Why else would almost every major toy line redesign and narrow all at once? It happens about every 20 years...Anyway, I digress. The most appealing parts of the later series were the more complex plots, dealing with parodies of existing adult stories such as Frankenstein and Star Trek. In addition, most of the characters got their own unique style, such as jackets, hats, a ponytail for Cheer Bear etc...that make them stand out. Not appealing to me, but probably for most it is considered cute.I highly recommend the earlier shows, and somewhat suggest the later shows, but mainly for older kids. You have to appreciate core characters to see the true beauty in the later seasons. As for the earlier DIC series, not so much. Simple, poor animation, lame voices, derived plots and horrible sound effects...go with the Canadians on this one.

**** out of ***** 4/5 9/10 They say that "The Care Bears" is aimed for little kids. But, if it is aimed for little kids, why did I like it? I'm a 11-year old and I known this show for within two years. And then I came up with a few thoughts such as "A great show, really funny and heartwarming, which gives a fantastic message for little kids". For me, a Tiny Pop fan myself, I was dazzled by how this show is presented, especially the plot, in the land of Care-a-lot a group of Care bears has funny adventures finding things out and having fun. But the evil Shrieky, Beastly and No-Heart will stop at nothing to get the Care Bears. Also, like I said, this show delivers a great message to young kids, that always be nice and respect your elders and always fight for what you believe in. It was a great inspiration to me too. The theme of the show is, of course, animation. And as well all know, this show was created in the late 80's and the animation is quite old and gloomy. Bit I'll let this one get away with it, because it was made over twenty years ago and I have to say, I quite liked the animation. Overall, it exceeds my expectations, a great education show for young kids and at the end of the show you always learn something.CARE BEARS COUNTDOWN: 4 3 2 1! YIPPIE!! :)

Like most kids I watched every toon in the 80's. I enjoyed unique characters, the simple stories and fuzzy feeling of this series. It didn't appeal to me like the action series in the time. Unlike for example Transformers I've never seen a Care Bears rerun until last month.One morning I stumbled on the series opening just having heard the theme song again recently I decided to watch for old time sake. The episode goes like this: It was the annual holiday or something cause a selected group of bears where to compete in a marathon. Some sort of villain, can't recall who exactly tried to sabotage the race and eventually the slowest, Lotsa Heart Elephant, won from the fasted Care Bear, Swift Heart Rabbit.It still holds up today. Actually I had to check the credits to make sure it was the 80's series and not some 21th century remake.

The Care Bears seem to mean different things to different people, some hate them with a passion that is almost holy while others, like myself can look back at them and see the warm fuzzy memories of childhood. There are doubtlessly other variations between those two extremes, those just happen to be the two examples I've run across.I have always loved the Care Bears, like so many of the cartoons of the eighties, the combined good animation (well at least good for the day), that has held up relatively well over the years, with interesting storylines that don't feature the violence and sheer stupidity that so many 'kids shows' do today. Even when the 'new care bears' was released (and it wasn't quite as good) Care Bears continued to actually teach kids something about life through it's cute little half-hour episodes...can you really say that about Barney and Friends or Teletubbies? Please.Some of the episodes are still out on video, do yourself a favour and pick one up...a walk down memory lane never really hurt anyone.