Nostalgia Critic slaughtered the Care Bears Movie (1985), where it had its flaws, Care Bears fans really feel it is the best of the trilogy of animated movies. Care Bears beat Black Cauldron in the Box Office and later An American Tail the following year. The basic premise is two orphaned kids befriend the Care Bears and a magician assistant is led by an evil book to make the Earth careless. On the journey, the Care Bears meet the Care Bear Cousins from the Forest of Feelings. While Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Garfield, and other 80's nostalgia already had live-action films with CGI characters. The songs are cringy,. So here is my idea for a live-action Care Bears film, it will be partially based on the original film. It wouldn't be a musical.
I would keep the evil book, but give her a background story and motive. Nicholas is a magician assistant, who is forbidden to use the book his boss dug out of his dead teacher's belongings. The Boss finally got the book he wanted. The book is chaos itself, it doesn't have feelings, so it wants everyone to be the same. The book rejects the magician and wants Nicholas, it convinces him to use a spell against the magician. Tenderheart tries to stop Nicholas but gets locked up. The Care Bears are tasked to cheer up disenfranchised kids or kids who need to get in touch with their emotions. Two siblings were recently abandoned by their mother and live in a foster home where they don't feel loved. So the Care Bears befriend them. Two bears (don't have to be Friend Bear and Secret Bear like in the original) take them to the carnival where they meet Nicholas and become friends. Once the siblings leave, the book makes Nicholas change the bully kids into careless shells. It is more of a slow process of corruption. The siblings then free Tenderheart and he takes them to Care-A-Lot. When he escapes, he finds a mysterious key, which belongs to the book.
Tenderheart gives Secret Bear the book key to keep. A storm torments Care-A-Lot because the book corrupts the kids. The siblings and the bear duo get swept away and end up in the Forest of Feelings. Grams tells them about a legend about other animals like the Care Bears being in a fabled forest. Tenderheart and three other bears use a transport device to track down the kids and they land on the other side of the forest of Feelings, where it's revealed it is an island. The two groups eventually meet up, not with Braveheart Lion showing the bears ancient etchings of the bears and cousins together, a "Prophecy of Caring." The bears do their Care Bear Stare on a minion of the book Spirit, which was sent to get the siblings. The Cousins feel left out and wish they could do a stare. The two groups go to Care-A-Lot for reinforcements. The Bears, cousins, and siblings have a plan and arrive at the carnival.
Nicholas is slowly corrupted by the book. The book makes Nicholas make a strong spell to destroy Care-A-Lot and corrupt the siblings, who are the last children who care in town apparently. The Book explains they must take over the town first, then the country, etc. The eldest sibling pretends to want to join Nicholas, for the Bears to take away the book. One of the cousins blows on the real book to close it and a Bear replaces the book with a copy. They escape with the real book. Nicholas then goes to use the fake book and realizes he has been duped. He turns around to find he is alone. Secret Bear takes out the key Tenderheart gave her and they try to lock up the book, but the book is too strong. The other corrupted kids come to stop the Bears. They return the book to Nicholas. The Bears use the Care Bear Stare to release the kids and they run away. The bears try using the stare on the book and fail. The cousins start roaring and calling, but it doesn't work. The siblings tell Nicholas they care for him and hug him. He remembers how they were kind to him before he was corrupted. He and the bears close up the book and try using the key again. The book struggles and blasts the bears unconscious. The cousins try the "Call" again and the Belly Badges appear and their Care Bear Cousin Call blasts the book. They lock the book and destroy it with the Stare and Call combination. Nicholas frees his magician boss and he makes him a partner.
No wrap-around story of orphans like in the original and no songs. I thought of tying some plot holes like why was there a river of water in Care-A-Lot and making it clear the Care Bears are in the clouds and the Forest of Feelings on some magical island in a dimension on Earth. Plus, have Grams mention a legend of the cousins and the cousins having a prophecy etching of the two groups. The book needs a motive and backstory, having the magician connected to it would explain more. Also, the orphanage frame device was narmy, also unclear if Nicholas' wife was Kim and they didn't say what happened to Jason. I would also want to have elements of the kids and adults being confused as to why there are colorful bears in the first place, not make fun of it, but at least show some unusualness about the whole thing. I don't like it when the MCU makes fun of the comic book names but I do like it when movies call out things at first.
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