Care Bears Nutcracker Suite
Tags: fantasy

Plot synopsis:
At a school called P.S. 5, a teacher named Miss Walker tells some children a version of E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, involving the Care Bear Family. As the story begins, the Care Bears and their Cousins prepare for Christmas in their home of Care-a-lot; the two youngest bears, Hugs and Tugs, are searching for an ornament. While the others spend time in the Hall of Hearts decorating a tree, another bear called Funshine suddenly alerts them of an unhappy girl named Anna. Enlisting Grumpy Bear to go along, she takes a Cloud Mobile down to Earth.
When the two bears visit Anna, they learn that her past friend Sharon has moved, and her brother Peter is fond of acting as a pirate. As they talk about the virtues of friendship, a burst of light startles them. Eventually, a tall wooden soldier called the Nutcracker emerges from a black portal, along with a band of rats (led by the Rat King) who are after him. When the group hides from their foes, the soldier recollects his memory and explains that he arrived from a place called Toyland; the rodents work for an evil Vizier who is plotting to conquer and destroy that land.
Soon, Funshine and Grumpy send out beams of light from their stomach, sending a "Care Bear Stare" to their assistants in Care-a-lot; Lotsa Heart Elephant, Brave Heart Lion and Tenderheart Bear (along with stowaway Hugs and Tugs) later join them. The baby bears are asked to stay behind with Peter, but those three venture into Toyland nonetheless.
At his castle, the Vizier wants to know the whereabouts of a powerful ring worn by Toyland's former Prince, so that he can control the place. His captive, a small creature called the Sugar Plum Fairy, refuses to tell him; he is more outraged when the Rat King arrives without the Nutcracker. The Vizier soon takes notice when the soldier and his friends enter Toyland, and take a train through its various sights.
When they stop for the night, the friends contend with a group of toy jesters who also want the train, but advise them to leave Toyland. One of them later explains how they tried to save their land, after the Vizier and the rats overthrew its Prince and captured his castle. To make sure the Vizier never got it, the Fairy hid the Prince's ring away from view. The Nutcracker is determined to end the Vizier, despite the rats' barricade.
Upon reaching the castle by raft, the group secretly sneaks inside and frees the Sugar Plum Fairy. With her help, the Bears and Cousins try to get a walnut containing the ring, but the Vizier seizes it and turns them into firewood. This leaves Peter, Hugs and Tugs to fight with the rats for the item. Soon, the Fairy saves it from the Vizier, and when the Nutcracker wears it on his finger, he turns back into the Prince of Toyland. The Bears and Cousins break free from the ruler's spell, and use their Stare on the villains to save the place. Afterward, they and the humans say good-bye to the Prince; as Anna returns, she realises it was a dream and wakes up to meet a new neighbour, Alan Prince, who looks exactly like the Prince in Anna's dream.
When Miss Walker finishes her tale, one of the children wants to ask what happened to Anna. Suddenly a grownup Alan appears at the door. As he and the teacher, now revealed to be Anna, leave the stage together, the other children start rehearsing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet. Unknown to all of them, the Care Bear Family has been listening all along.

Review: Heartwarming Yuletide fun with the Care Bears. I love animation and Christmas as well as the timeless story and Tchaikovsky's music. I also grew up with The Care Bears, even if I am not a huge fan overall, though I love the show and enjoyed the 1985 movie, A New Generation and Care Bears in Wonderland. Care Bears Nutcracker Suite was one of my first exposures to the story alongside The Nutcracker Suite and the Barbie movie(also love the House of Mouse take), and while it is not one of my favourites of anything to do with Christmas or ever, it is heartwarming fun. The writing does have occasions where it is on the corny and saccharine side, then again that's true of the Care Bears movies in general, and while the take on the story is clever, the essence of the story is there and there are a number of entertaining moments I couldn't help thinking that the storytelling, as heart warming and charming as it is often, was a little overstretched. On the other hand, the animation if not as fluid as the first two movies) is colourful and vibrant and the score is whimsical with the parts of Tchaikovsky's ballet score delightful(though I would have personally loved to heard more of it). The characters are likable enough, the Care Bears, Nutcracker and the two children are sweet, well-meaning characters, the villain rats are very humorous especially the Rat King and the vizier is like the long-lost brother of the Wizard from Care Bears in Wonderland except not as subtly-voiced(still enthusiastic though). All in all, heart-warming, fun, cute and harmless, not mind-blowingly brilliant or life-changing but overall recommended and not to be a subject of scorn. 8/10 Bethany Cox. This might be okay. It's hard to judge this as a movie because it's literally just a bunch of episodes of the show that were compiled into a movie. I'm still going to try to judge it as one. It starts with the Care Bears theme song and ends with the Care Bear credits. I have to admit that growing up, I was never a fan of "Care Bears". I might have seen a tiny bit when I was really little. Well, I've still seen every movie now. This really is no worse or better than any other Care Bears movie. Honestly, I thought there were some good parts. I thought the characters were represented pretty well.I did kind of like Grumpy Bear, even though he quickly lost his grumpiness. What I didn't like was that the animation was just plain clumsy. This is like the fourth movie where they've reused that blonde girl with blue eyes design. I shouldn't think further into that. Even the villain is just cut and paste from the previous movie. Still, the film's entirely harmless. If you have kids who are fans of the Care Bears, then I suggest you watch this with them. If not, it's pretty forgettable. **