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Western Animation: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

"Dashing and daring, courageous and caring,
Faithful and friendly with stories to share,
All through the forest they sing out in chorus,
Marching along as their song fills the air..."

Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears was an animated TV series by Disney. Although The Wuzzles was Disney's first original animated TV series, that was really a trial run for this series, which almost immediately made the company a dominant force in television animation. It had a total of 94 episodes, lasting from September, 1985 to February, 1991.

The series takes place in The Theme Park Version of medieval time, five-hundred years after the last of the Great Gummis fled across the ocean, while a small caretaker colony stayed behind the Kingdom of Dunwyn to maintain the civilization's extremely sophisticated infrastructure on the off-chance the Gummis could return to live with humans in peace someday.

Unfortunately, at the start of the story, Gummi Glen has declined to only six descendants who have forgotten most of their heritage. They come across a friendly human boy named Cavin who happens to own an ancient Gummi Medallion; the key that unlocks their library's Great Book of Gummi and all the knowledge contained inside.

The Gummis fight against Duke Igthorn of Drekmore and his army of ogres. He is out to conquer Dunwyn and upon discovering that the supposedly mythological Gummi Bears exist, he will stop at nothing to exploit their secrets and steal the recipe for their powerful Gummiberry juice.

And yes, the inspiration for the show did come from the candy, as you were probably wondering.

Gummi Bears includes examples of:

Affably Evil: Duke Igthorn.
An Ice Person: Chillbeard the frost giant.
And Your Little Dog Too: The witch Marzipan says this to Calla in "Eye of the Beholder", after being exposed.
- Only it's a pig rather than a dog. The pig being Sunni in disguise.
Badass Adorable: Cubbi is extremely cute, but he's usually very capable in their adventures, even though he's just a little bear cub. His badassery is exponentially enlarged when he takes on his "Crimson Avenger" secret identity.
- All the bears are this to an extent. Would you really expect something so cute and small to be able to open up such a can of whoopass?
Badass Longcoat: Flint Shrubwood, the Bounty Hunter Igthorn hires in "For A Few Sovereigns More" to capture a Gummi Bear. Unlike most minor villains in Disney cartoons, he's actually capable. He effortlessly captures Cubbi and subdues the Duke when he refuses to pay up. With a more reliable sponsor, this man would be a Hero Killer.
Badass Princess: Calla has saved her kingdom and her castle several times.
Badbutt: Gruffi.
Barefoot Cartoon Animals: Zummi, Gruffi and Grammi do not wear shoes.
Bears Are Bad News: Inverted, as you'd expect.
- Unless you're Duke Igthorn.
Berserk Button: Gruffi has a magical one in "Sweet and Sour Gruffi." The word "thanks" makes him evil.
Be Careful What You Wish For: In "When You Wish Upon A Stone" a young boy wishing to be bigger turned him into giant.
- Sunni takes to singing in "A Gummi In A Gilded Cage" and hopes she can sing in front of kings one day. Seconds after saying so, she's carried off by Carpies (giant vultures) who were ordered by their king to find a new "songbird". Sunni is not pleased.
Beware the Nice Ones: Gummi Bears are friendly, helpful, and loyal, but assuming they're weak is a big mistake.
Big Eater: Tummi.
Blind and the Beast: Tummi befriends a blind human woman in one episode.
- Given that Greg Weisman cited Gummi Bears as one of his sources for inspiration in Gargoyles (no really), she may have inspired Geoffrey Robbins.
Blind Without 'Em: Zummi.
Bluff The Eavesdropper: In one episode, the King tries to find out a famous chef's secret recipe by listening at the door, which the chef thwarts by reciting absolute nonsense instead of his ingredients. However, this does not thwart Cubbi, Sunni, and Tummi, who are hiding in the kitchen and can write down the actual steps he's taking.
Bouncing Battler: Gummiberry Juice makes Gummi Bears incredibly bouncy and quick. They usually save it for battles or emergency situations.
Bumbling Sidekick: Toadwart for Duke Igthorn.
Butt Monkey: Toadie. Even his fellow ogres pick on him.
Chained Heat: Cubbi and Igthorn in "For A Few Sovereigns More", after Igthorn tries to double-cross a bountyhunter he hired to capture Cubbi.
Chekhov's Volcano: Accompanied by Convection Schmonvection in "My Gummi Lies Over the Ocean".
The Chew Toy: Toadie.
City of Adventure: Dunwyn.
Clothes Make the Superman: In one episode, Toadwart gets a suit of armor that makes him invincible in battle.
Cloudcuckoolander: Gusto. Spending twelve years on an island with only a talking tucan for company can do things to a guy.
The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Averted in that Gruffi complains a lot, but his practical nature means his call on things is often right and the other Gummis respects him for it.
Conspicuously Light Patch: The various "secret doors" in particular almost always exhibit this.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: The Deluxe Torture Plan:
Toadwart: You'll be forced to listen to a medley of popular folk tunes sung by Gad and Zook.
Cool Big Sis: Calla is a surrogate one to Sunni.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Tummi.
Daddy's Girl: Sunni seems to have this relationship with Gruffi.
Deadpan Snarker: Gruffi.
- Grammi tends to repay him in kind.
Diet Episode: In "The Oracle", Tummi Gummi gets put on a diet.
Duck!: Someone shouts this when a fish goes flying through the air. Another character remarks, "That's not a duck, it's a fish," before getting hit in the face.
Dumb Muscle: The Ogres.
Elaborate Underground Base: Gummi Glen has an unusually realistic take on such a habitat and the various tasks necessary to maintain it and the consequences of neglecting it is a source of story material.
Embarrassing First Name: Duke Sigmund Igthorn.
"Siggy Soggy-Pants!"
Enemy Mine: In the episode "Just A Tad Smarter", Toadwart's cousin Tadpole takes over Castle Drekmore, kicks Duke Igthorn out, and orders the ogres to destroy all the Gummiberry bushes. Neither Igthorn nor the Gummis want the bushes destroyed, so they reluctantly team up to get rid of Tadpole.
- In "For A Few Sovereigns More", Duke Igthorn hires a bounty hunter to catch a Gummi Bear. When the hunter returns with Cubbi and Igthorn refuses to pay, he and Cubbi are tossed into a dungeon cell and have to work together to escape.
Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Calla.
Evil Twin: Played with. Igthorn is a twin, but he's the evil one. His heroic knightly brother Sir Victor (whom Cavin idolizes) is deeply ashamed.
Expository Theme Tune: Quoted above.
Expy: Cavin and Calla bear more than a passing resemblance to Taran and Elionwy, in both physical appearance and role in the story.
- Likewise, Toadie is a short, green, Sycophantic Servant who serves as second-in-command to the antagonist and is kicked around by larger minions. Just like Creeper
- The scene in "A Gummi In A Gilded Cage" where Tummi is trying to stop two Carpies from carrying Sunni off brings to mind Taran trying to stop the dragons from taking Henwen. Especially since in both instances, the flying monsters are kidnapping something their king wants.
Fantastic Racism: Part of the reason Gummi Bears are now the stuff of fairytales is they were all so mistreated by humans that they either sailed away or went into hiding as their numbers dwindled. Not suprisingly, many Gummis still distrust humans. Cavin often suffers for this.
Fate Worse Than Death: In Season Six episode "Thornberry To The Rescue", an evil spider The Spinster kidnaps Gummi Bears but they are rescued by Sir Thornberry and Cavin. To make sure that The Spinster never bothers them again, they leave her tied up in an underground cave, which entrance is later boarded up by Gruffi. It is also implied in the episode that the Spinster might be immortal as she was imprisoned first time by the ancient Great Gummis, which makes her fate even worse.
Feathered Fiend: Carpies
Five-Man Band:
- The Hero: Gruffi
- The Lancer: Cubbi
- The Smart Guy: Zummi
- The Big Guy: Tummi
- The Chick: Sunni
- The Sixth Ranger: Gusto
- Team Mom: Grammi
Food As Bribe: Igthorn tries to bribe Tummi with food to find the location of Gummi Glen.
Fountain of Youth: Gummiberry juice mixed with baby powder ends up turning Igthorn's ogre army into babies.
Gang of Critters
Gone Behind The Bend: "A Gummi A Day Keeps The Doctor Away" has a scene where Gruffi and Tummi get chased by ogres while saving a kindly doctor from Duke Igthorn. The chase scene then leads to the two Gummis and the ogres running around the top part of the castle, until only the ogres are seen running around.
Tummi: I wonder how long they're gonna keep this up.
Grand Finale: "King Igthorn."
Great Big Book of Everything: The Great Book of Gummi.
Grumpy Bear: A literal example with Gruffi.
Hot Witch: Lady Bane.
- Also Marzipan, until you see her true form.
Humans Are The Real Monsters: The ancient Gummis were forced into hiding because of greedy humans who wanted to take their magic and technology for themselves.
If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him: Cubbi's reason for rescuing Igthorn in "For a Few Sovereigns More." Cubbi had made a promise to Igthorn to rescue him, and only someone as treacherous as Igthorn would go back on a promise.
I Lied: Igthorn tries this on Flint Shrubwood, the bounty hunter, in "For a Few Sovereigns More". Big mistake.
I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: In Season One, Gruffi was voiced by the late Bill Scott who voiced Bullwinkle in Rocky and Bullwinkle. Grammi was voiced by June Foray who voiced Rocky in that same series.
I Was Beaten by a Girl: Calla, going undercover, defeats the squires in "Girl's Knight Out".
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gruffi.
Large Ham: Igthorn.
- And his brother.
Last Of Their Kind: There are elements of this. Most of the Gummi Bears set off in ships to find new land where they wouldn't be persecuted by humans. A small number remained in Gummi Glen, to watch and wait for the day it was safe for the other Gummis to return. Five hundred years later, there are six left. However, by the end of season One it's made clear that there's a thriving Gummi society across the ocean.
- On a slightly smaller scale, in Season Two the group come across another Gummi Bear called Chummi, who's really desperate to find other bears. The small bits he mentions about his past indicate he was from another warren that stayed behind but, like Gummi Glen, their numbers dwindled until there was only him.
Lethal Chef: Grammi's cooking.
- Also Sunni's various attempts to make Gummi Berry Juice before she gets it right. It's literally explosive.
Lost Technology: By the wagonload. Even the Gummis don't know what half of it does.
Love Potion: One causes Tummi to fall for Lady Bane and Lady Bane to fall for Toadie.
Mama Bear: Grammi. Literally.
Meaningful Name:
- Sunni is the Cheerful Child and has yellow fur
- Cubbi the cute Tagalong Kid and the youngest in the group.
- Tummi the Big Eater
- Grammi the Apron Matron
- Gruffi is a Grumpy Bear
- Gusto is Hot Blooded and energetic.
- Zummi is...um...is...we'll get back to you on that.
  - It may have something to do with his spoonerism tendencies, or to emphasize his "wizard-like" nature given that a lot of sound effect depictions have the letter Z, like Zap or Kazaam.
  - In the Russian dub he's renamed "Spellcaster," which still rhymes with the other Russified names the same way as it does in the original.
Medieval Stasis: Would instantly have been dispelled if humanity at large could have gotten their hands on Gummi technology.
The Middle Ages: A soft, light depiction.
Missing Mom: Princess Calla's mom is never mentioned in the series.
Mobile Suit Human: In "A Hard Dazed Knight", Gruffi uses one (in the form of an armored knight) to infiltrate Duke Igthorn's castle.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Igthorn on occasion, particularly in the finale.
Odd Name Out: See Meaningful Name above.
One Note Cook: The only thing that Granni can prepare correctly is Gummiberry Juice.
Older Sidekick: Tummi for Cubbi's "Crimson Avenger".
Our Dragons Are Different: Both the Medieval and Chinese kind appear.
Our Giants Are Bigger: They've appear on multiple occasions.
Our Gryphons Are Different: They're pink.
Our Mermaids Are Different: Standard fantasy version appears in "Water Way to Go".
Our Ogres Are Hungrier
The One Who Wears Shoes: Slightly more than normal for the trope, but Sunni, Tummi and Gusto.
The Other Darrin: After Bill Scott passed away, Corey Burton voiced Gruffi for the rest of the series. Also, Paul Winchell left the series after Season Five, so Jim Cummings took over as the voice of Zummi.
- Also, the voice artist for Cavin has changed regularly during the course of the show's run as the artist in question grew up and his voice broke and had to be replaced. In this case, Christian Jacobs first voiced Cavin during season 1, then Brett Johnson did the honors in season 2, followed by David Faustino in season 3, then Jason Marsden in seasons 4 and 5, and finally R.J. Williams in season 6.
Papa Wolf: Gruffi.
Pimped-Out Dress: Calla occasionally wears one.
Plot Hole: The first time the Carpies encounter the Gummis is when they kidnap Sunni to be the King Carpie's "songbird." He's rather obsessed with having a singer. The next time the King encounters Sunni, he doesn't recognize her at all.
Power-Up Food: Gummiberry juice. For Gummis it makes them bouncy and agile. For humans, it gives them a few minutes of super strength, but only works once a day. Ogres gets super strength too, but unlike humans, it lasts longer and can be renewed by drinking more juice.
Precocious Crush: Gusto for Sunni, who is either oblivious or politely uninterested.
Princesses Prefer Pink: Calla and Marie both wear pink dresses.
Puppy Love: It's clear Cacin and Call have a mutual crush on each other.
Reasonable Authority Figure: King Gregor.
Rebellious Princess: Princess Calla to a T.
Remembered Too Late: Zummi does this with the fact that Gummi berry juice only works on humans once a day.
The Renaissance Age of Animation: The Disney cartoon that finally introduced quality animation to made-for-TV cartoons, playing a big role in getting rid of lingering legacy of The Dark Age of Animation.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gruffi, the no-nonsense conservative, is often at odds with Grammi, who is far more progressive, and Gusto, who is out to lunch.
The Rival: Princess Marie to Princess Calla.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess Calla and King Gregor count for this in spades. In the series grand finale, it is Gregor, who actually kicks Igthorn's butt.
Scooby-Dooby Doors
Secret Keeper: Cavin and, later, Calla.
- Still later, we also get Calvin's grandfather, Sir Gowan (who Calvin received the Gummi medallion from).
She Cleans Up Nicely: Calla proves this on several occasions.
She Is All Grown Up: Happens to Sunni in the space of one episode, due to a Rapid Aging Phlebotinum. Unfortunately, the aging doesn't stop at "filled out"...
Shorter Means Smarter: The Gummis are both considerably smaller and considerably smarter than most of their opponents (though not their human friends and allies).
- Toadwart, who is extremely short for an ogre, also happens to be the smartest of them. Mind you, that isn't saying much.
Shout Out: The show has a lot of references to other Disney works.
- You can see a Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck statue on one of the sculptor's shelves in "The Sinister Sculptor."
- Princess Calla wears a dress very similar to Snow White's.
- In "Queen Of The Carpies" the Carpie King says "you bet your bear necessities."
- In "Sweet and Sour Gruffi", Grammi sarcastically calls Gruffi "Mr. Know-it-All" and later on exclaims "Hokey Smoke!". Since this is one of the episodes where Bill Scott voices Gruffi, this doubles as a Casting Gag.
- One episode has a dimwitted thief saying "I taw I taw a Gummi Bear".
Sibling Yin-Yang: Sir Victor fights for good while his brother Duke Igthorn fights for evil.
Smooch of Victory: Cavin gets one from Calla at the end of "Ogre For A Day."
Spiritual Successor: To The Black Cauldron.
Spoiled Brat: Princess Marie.
Spoonerism: Zummi megularly rakes these. Bit of a problem when he needs to use magic with Exact Wording.
Stop Helping Me!: A blind woman to Toadie and two ogres; she does it on purpose.
Sugar Bowl: Somewhat less than you'd think for a show named after a candy.
Super Hero Episode: Cubbi's stories as the Crimson Avenger.
Super Serum: Gummiberry Juice which makes the Gummis bounce and gives humans and ogres a few minutes of super strength. Not to mention it's also good as motor fuel for Gummi machines.
Those Two Bad Guys: Gad and Zook.
Tickle Torture: Igthorn does it to Grammi in one episode.
Title Theme Tune: Although it's a milder example than subsequent Disney animated shows.
Token Human: Cavin and Calla.
Took a Level in Badass: Cubbi when he becomes the Crimson Avenger.
- Anyone who drinks Gummiberry juice.
Too Dumb to Live: Sir Thornberry on the Gummi Bears' side.
- Gusto, sometimes.
- All the ogres, except Toadie.
Vanishing Village: Castle Gummadoon. Gummadoon's wizards cast a spell over the whole castle to stop humans from capturing it and taking Gummi technology for themselves. To everyone outside it's vanished and only reappears for one day every hundred years; to everyone outside one night has passed. Presumably they'll lift the spell when they think humans have changed.
Wave Motion Gun: The Gummiscopes. Although its real purpose is as a giant solar powered messaging machine, it can be used as as a massive energy cannon if there is enough solar energy to power it.
- By contrast, the Great Horn of Ursalia is definitely a Weapon Of Mass Destruction.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: While the Barbics' hatred and distrust of humanity is far from unjustified, their desire to destroy all of it puts them at odds with the Glen Gummis in "Return to Ursalia".
Wham Episode: The final two parter; Igthorn leaves the kingdom and after months of nothings happening, Zummi sends a message to the Great Gummis, announcing that the kingdom is finally safe and ready for their return. Then Igthorn suddenly returns, more terrible than ever, and quickly succeeds at completely destroying Gummi Glen, capturing the Gummis and stealing the secret of the Gummi Berry Juice from them, and immediately leading his army of super powerful ogres against Dunwin castle, demolishing its defenses and crowning himself as the new king. All of this is just one episode. Sure, everything turns out all right in the end, but still.
When Trees Attack
Whole Costume Reference: In one episode, Calla wears a dress identical to Snow White's iconic dress.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Zummi is deathly afraid of heights.
You Don't Want to Catch This: Gummioleosis, when Cubbi and Gusto are captured by the ogres.