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13->''"Care-a-lot is a place we all can go\
14Whenever we choose it\
15Care-a-lot is a feeling we all know\
16We never do lose it"''
17
18''The Care Bears Movie'' is the first theatrical film in the ''Franchise/CareBears'' franchise.
19
20The story is presented via the FramingDevice of a man telling the children in his orphanage the tale of three lonely orphans: the siblings Kim and Jason, who are helped by the Care Bears, and an older boy named Nicholas, who is tempted by an evil, sentient book.
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22The book gives Nicholas magical powers, and then convinces him to turn everyone he sees into hateful people. This damages Care-a-lot, causing earthquakes and threatening to destroy it all. Kim, Jason, and the Care Bears have to go and stop what's happening. Their quest gets sidetracked when they are forced to go to another land, which turns out to be the home of the Care Bear Cousins.
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24This is easily the [[DarkerAndEdgier darkest]] of the film trilogy, featuring a spell book with a haunting green face that seems to prefer the world in heavily implied global anarchy rather than just plain {{Jerkass}}ry towards one's fellow man, eerie rides with creepy clown faces, children put in life-threatening situations and the corruption of a misguided youth into [[WingDingEyes crazed eyed]] possessed sorcerer. Even the soundtrack can be threatening at times.
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26This film was a modest success, thwarting Disney's offering, ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', at the box office and becoming the highest-grossing animated film to not be released by the Mouse at the time. The film would, however, nonetheless be bested in this category by ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' only a year later. It was also immensely profitable for American Greetings, and led to two more ''Care Bears'' sequels and a TV series.
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28----
29!!''The Care Bears Movie'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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31* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The Care Bear Cousins live in the Forest of Feelings.
32* AnimatedMusical: A grand total of seven songs.
33* AnimationBump: In several spots, going from LimitedAnimation to having fluid animation and visa versa during the same scene.
34* AwardBaitSong: The opening song, sung by Carole King. One thing to note is that Carole sounds ''bored'' out of her mind while singing it, as WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic points out in his review. Strangely, a much catchier and more upbeat new wave song titled "Fantasy" by Helen Christie was recorded to have been used for the introduction (you can still buy the ''45 single on vinyl, which credits the song to "Care Bears Movie"), but the Carole King song was eventually chosen regardless and the Helen Christie song was scrapped.
35* BigDamnHeroes: Happens a few times in the movie.
36** Several of the Cousins are introduced as this, showing up out of nowhere to help the characters out of a sticky situation. Special mention has to go to Swift Heart Rabbit, whose heroic intro scene is easily the most tense and action-packed: The evil spirit has possessed a tree, which grabs not only Kim and Jason, but Friend Bear, Secret Bear and Playful Heart as well. Brave Heart tries to fight the tree and free the others, but doesn't really manage... then Swift Heart rushes in, easily evades the tree's attempts at grabbing her, gnaws over the branches holding the captives and frees everyone.
37** Later in the movie, the evil spirit tries to attack Kim and Jason in the form of a huge bird, and is just about to swoop down on them, when all of a sudden it's hit with a Care Bear Stare from the Care Bears who just arrived with their boat.
38* BigYes: [[TheQuietOne Secret Bear]] gives one during the "In A Care Bear Family" song.
39* BookEnds: The movie begins and ends with Mr. Cherrywood, telling the story of Nicholas, Jason, and Kim to the children in the group home he runs with his wife.
40* CareBearStare: Although it's used to stop a monster, [[spoiler:even that isn't enough to save the day. It's up to ThePowerOfFriendship for real to do that]].
41* ChekhovsGun: The key, which has its importance [[spoiler:greatly subverted by the fact that it can be duplicated rather easily]].
42* CorruptTheCutie: This is pretty much the book spirit's schtick -- turning the kids in the world evil, starting with Nicholas.
43* DarkerAndEdgier: This film is easily the darkest of the trilogy in tone. It has a villain that lacks any funny quirks, children are put in life-threatening situations, Care-A-Lot is slowly wiped out in a gradual apocalyptic manner, and [[MagicIsEvil the more frightening elements involve the gradual corruption of youth into a crazed sorcerer]].
44* DeadlyBook: There's an evil book that wants to trick Nicholas into using it to turn everyone in the world into jerks and cause implied dystopian anarchy.
45* TheDogBitesBack: Nicholas was picked on for being a bad magician. However, once he gets his hands on the magic book containing the evil spirit...
46** That happens again near the end of the film, when [[spoiler:Nicholas finally stands up to the spirit (who emotionally abused him into eliminating compassion from the world even when he expressed hesitation) after Kim and Jason manage to talk him down by closing the book and holding it shut with Tenderheart Bear's help until Jason can lock it again]].
47* TheDragon: Nicholas is this to the book spirit, who is really running the show.
48* FollowTheBouncingBall: "In a Care Bear Family" features a brief sequence that prompts the viewer to follow the bouncing heart with the chorus.
49* ForTheEvulz: The book's motive for turning everyone in the world into jerks is never explained or even hinted beyond sadism. It is implied by Tender-Heart that she deliberately wants to destroy Care-A-Lot for personal reasons, but this is never elaborated on.
50* FramingDevice: The entire movie is a story being told to the children in an orphanage by their guardian, Mr. Cherrywood.
51* GunshipRescue: Combined with BigDamnHeroes. When it looks like the giant crow spirit is going to make a snack out of a couple of Care Bears and the Care Bear Cousins (who can't do anything at this point in the movie), the Care Bears' flagship comes around the riverbend. Its passengers blast the bird with a CareBearStare siege cannon, allowing the two endangered bears to turn the tables and finish it off.
52* HappilyAdopted: By the end of the movie, Jason and Kim have become this, sitting in the audience at Nicholas's magic show with their new parents.
53* HatePlague: A spell the book spirit teaches Nicholas.
54* HeavySleeper: Bedtime Bear actually falls out of the boat while the exploration team is working their way through the Forest of Feelings. Even falling into the ''river'' doesn't wake him, and it's suggested that he might have drowned if not for the intervention of Cozy Heart Penguin.
55* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Nicholas]], thanks to The PowerOfFriendship, makes one of these in the end.
56* INeverToldYouMyName: Friend Bear addresses Kim and Jason by name without an introduction. Jason asks how the Bears know their names, but never gets much in the way of a straight answer.
57* InformedAttribute: On their first meeting, Friend Bear notes that Kim [[{{Bookworm}} reads a lot]].
58* KiddyCoveralls: Jason, the younger of the pair, is seen sporting overalls, indicating a slightly more rough-and-tumble nature than his older sister Kim.
59* KnightOfCerebus: The Spirit is easily the darkest villain in the entire Care Bears franchise. Dark Heart is a LargeHam with sympathetic qualities, who eventually does a HeelFaceTurn; No Heart has [[BumblingHenchmenDuo Beastly and Shreeky]] to keep him from being too scary, as does the Vizier with the Mice; the Checkerboard Wizard is a SissyVillain, aside from his infamous NightmareFace; and Grizzle from more recent works is about as threatening as [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Team Rocket]]. The Spirit doesn't have any of these qualities to tone her down: she's played deadly serious every time she appears.
60** To be specific, she's a [[SoftSpokenSadist suave and calm speaking sadist]] who gradually [[HatePlague corrupts the world into implied global anarchy]] and [[CorruptTheCutie turning Nicholas into a gleefully evil sorcerer like her]]. And she gets very close to wiping out Care-A-Lot than any other villain and is able to NoSell a barrage of the Care-Bear Stare from almost all of the Care-Bears.
61* MagicIsEvil: At the very least, the way the Evil Spirit has Nicholas channel magic is portrayed as inherently wrong and unnatural- causing people [[HatePlague to become hateful and cause implied global anarchy]] as an early demonstration and would later summon [[EldritchAbomination sentient spells that can turn into animals or possess objects]]. It also slowly [[SanitySlippage causes Nicholas to abandon his reluctance and engage in psychopathic behavior]].
62* NarratorAllAlong: [[spoiler: At the end of the film, it is revealed that the narrator, Mr. Cherrywood, is an older Nicholas, and his wife is heavily implied to be Kim.]]
63* NoNameGiven: The book spirit, which is why we'll just have to go on calling her "the book spirit."
64* OrphanageOfLove: The Cherrywoods run one of these, as seen in the movie's BookEnds.
65* PinkMeansFeminine: Kim has a pink sweater and hair bow.
66* PlotCoupon: The key that will lock the book; Tenderheart Bear entrusts it to Jason, and it's mentioned a few times throughout the film. [[spoiler:Subverted when they attempt to use it and the Spirit manages to ''destroy'' it. Secret Bear has to come up with a substitute on the fly.]]
67* PlotTriggeringBook: When Nicholas, the assistant to a stage magician, sorts through a trunk the magician just purchased, which includes an evil, sapient SpellBook, the movie is kicked off into motion.
68* ThePowerOfFriendship: [[spoiler:Kim and Jason talk Nicholas down by explaining that they want to be his friends so he won't be lonely anymore.]]
69* TheQuietOne: Secret Bear has no lines in the film other than the above-mentioned BigYes, and Friend Bear has to translate for him.
70* SealedEvilInACan: The book spirit, which Nicholas inadvertently ''un''seals when he first opens the book.
71* ShoutOut: The spirit has facial similarities to the Wicked Queen from ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''.
72* SuddenlySpeaking: [[spoiler: Secret Bear gets one very brief line when he shouts [[BigYes "YEAH!"]] during the end song "In a Care Bear Family."]]
73* TomeOfEldritchLore: A living example in the book's case; she apparently was planning to teach that HatePlague spell to the first person to open the book, which happened to be Nicholas.
74* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Kim and Jason don’t find anything odd about bears talking to them. Annoying, yes, but not odd.
75* VillainHasAPoint: Whilst the Evil Spirit's motives and intentions are beyond malicious, she does at one scene make a valid point when Tender Heart tries to intervene: ''"Where was he when you needed him?"''. While Tender Heart does manage to back himself up by explaining that he's now with Nicholas when he needs him the most, it doesn't change the fact that [[NiceJobBreakingItHero neither him or any of the other Care Bears did anything to help Nicholas prior to meeting the spirit as doing so could've likely prevented Nicholas from getting involved with the spirit in the first place.]]
76* VileVillainSaccharineShow: The book spirit. [[spoiler: Nicholas becomes this in the third act.]]
77* VoiceForTheVoiceless: Friend Bear for the always silent Secret Bear; she's the only bear who can understand and interpret his body language, and the one to whom he occasionally whispers.
78* WhenTreesAttack: A tree, possessed by a spell from the book, tries to capture Kim and Jason.

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