The Care Bears Movie/Production

The Care Bears Movie was one of the first films to be based directly on an established toy line.
It featured the ten of the original Care Bears (along with six additions to the lineup) and also marked the media debut of the Care Bear Cousins.
Produced for at least US$2 million, the film was financed by American Greetings, the owners of the Care Bears franchise; General Mills, the toys' distributor; and television syndicator LBS Communications. The Kenner company also took part in the production.
Brought in under budget, The Care Bears Movie became Nelvana's second feature-length production and was made over an eight-month period that lasted until February of 1985.
Nelvana was responsible for the script and several special effects (including those for the "Care Bear Stare") and hired musicians and voice actors.
With this project, Arna Selznick became the third of only four women ever to direct an animated feature; prior to this, she worked on several Nelvana productions (including Strawberry Shortcake and the Baby Without a Name).
The founders of Nelvana: Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert, and Clive A. Smith participated as the main producers.
The studio's roster included Charles Bonifacio, the director of animation and supervising animator David Brewster (who previously took part in the animation courses at Ontario's Sheridan College.
Dale Schott, who served as a storyboard artist, remarked that "Nelvana had a lot to do with reviving the low-budget feature" with its efforts on the film.
Four employees of the film's financiers served as executive producers: Louis Gioia Jr., president of Kenner's Marketing Services division; Jack Chojnacki, co-president of TCFC; Carole MacGillvray, who became president of General Mills' M.A.D. (Marketing and Design) division in February of 1984 and Robert Unkel, LBS' senior vice-president of programming A fifth producer, American Greetings staffer W. Ray Peterson, went uncredited.
Three associate producers worked on the film: Paul Pressler, another employee at Kenner; John Bohach, who later became LBS' executive vice-president and Harvey Levin. Lenora Hume, the director of photography on Rock & Rule was the supervising producer.
The movie was Nelvana's first foray into animation outsourcing. The production took place at Nelvana's facilities, Taiwan's Wang Film Productions (Cuckoo's Nest Studio) and the newly established Hanho Heung-Up and Mihahn studios in South Korea.
Delaney and Friends (a Vancouver-based outlet) did uncredited work.
Nelvana faced several problems with their Korean contractors: among them, the language barrier between the Canadian crew and the overseas staff, and the unwieldy processes through which the film reels were shipped to the West.
At one point, Loubert, Smith and fellow staffer David Altman spent three days trying to persuade several unpaid animators to return important layout sketches. In exchange for the layouts, Nelvana gave them US$20,000 in Korean won.
By then, the production was falling behind schedule, and an opening date was already set. Loubert sent half of the work to Taiwan (where Lenora Hume supervised) while the remainder stayed in Korea under Loubert's and Smith's watch.
Back in the Americas, Hirsh tried to promote the unfinished feature before its deadline; unable to get available footage, he instead managed to show potential marketers some Leica reels and a few moments of completed colour animation.
According to him, it was the first time an animated "work in progress" was screened to exhibitors; this ploy has since been used by the Disney company, particularly in the case of the movie Beauty and the Beast at the 1991 New York Film Festival.
According to Hirsch about the experiment, "People loved the movie anyway. I was told it was considered great salesmanship. It made [them] feel that they were part of the process because they were seeing unfinished work".