Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot

Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot is an American animated television series based on the Care Bears franchise for The Hub. Produced by American Greetings and animated by MoonScoop Entertainment, the series centers on seven colorful teddy bear characters named "Care Bears" who go on adventures throughout the magical land of Care-a-Lot, as well as helping children who have issues they need to solve.
This was the first television series in the franchise to be computer-animated, although several films had previously been animated this way before the show's announcement. The show ran for a single season of twenty-six episodes, which aired on The Hub weekly from June 2 until December 8, 2012.
Despite the series not being renewed for a second season after The Hub rebranded into Discovery Family, Netflix commissioned a continuation of the series titled Care Bears & Cousins, which ran for two six-episode seasons: the first season was released on November 6, 2015 and the second season was released on February 5, 2016. This series continues where Welcome to Care-a-Lot left off and reintroduces four of the Care Bear Cousins as central characters.
Set in Care-a-Lot, a magical land in the clouds, Tenderheart Bear, Cheer Bear, Grumpy Bear, Share Bear, Harmony Bear, Funshine Bear and new playful, curious cub Wonderheart Bear all go on adventures that emphasize messages of caring and sharing. Human children from Earth often visit Care-a-Lot and participate in new adventures and valuable lessons learned. The Care Bears' mischievous King Beastly often attempts to make trouble for the bears.
Care Bears: A Belly Badge for Wonderheart the Movie was released on home video formats on August 6, 2013. Though marketed as a direct-to-video feature-length film, the release consists of no newly produced material, but is rather a compilation of three previous installments of the television series featuring the character Wonderheart Bear, edited to run in sequence at feature length.
Partnering with American Greetings, Hasbro released a toy line based on the series in 2013. The license transitioned to Just Play in 2015, and by quarter 2 the company produced a line of Care Bears plush (8" bean bag plush, 12" medium plush packaged with DVDs featuring episodes of "Welcome to Care-a-Lot," 16" jumbo plush, and Sing-along animatronic plush), action figures (5-packs exclusive to Toys R Us, a 14-pack at Target, as well 2-packs exclusively available in the UK), and as of Spring 2018, 6 series of small blind bag figurines based on Welcome to Care-a-Lot and Care Bears & Cousins' style guide and characters. In Summer of 2016 Just Play's merchandise transitioned to the Care Bears & Cousins branding.
The premiere of the series, along with Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters, saw The Hub earn its best performances amongst targeted demographics in six months. In an early review of the series, Blogfully.net stated that "If you've never seen a Care Bear's [sic] episode on the Hub, you're missing out."
Cartoon Brew reported that "The Hub's earlier series, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, sparked an unlikely following among adult males, otherwise known as the Brony phenomenon, but one fandom isn't enough for the Hub. They think their Care Bears show needs an adult male fanbase, too, and they're shamelessly encouraging it themselves." ComicsAlliance also said that "In case you're wondering, "Belly-Bros" is a term offered by the Hub as a potential name for the legions of male fans who'll enjoy this new Care Bears series as much as they do Friendship is Magic. If you're not feeling it, however, they're also suggesting "Care-Dudes," which sounds more like the way that William S. Preston would describe someone who works in an assisted living facility." In a statement in response to these articles, The Hub's Crystal Williams said, "...I came across your story on Cartoon Brew titled "The Hub Hopes Men Will Start Calling Themselves "Belly Bros" and "Care Dudes." In response, I wanted to let you know that this was an unapproved and unsanctioned pitch by our PR agency...The Hub TV Network nor American Greetings Properties had any knowledge of the pitch angle. It is not our intention to compare Care Bears to My Little Pony and/or the Brony community."