Western Animation: Adventures of the Gummi Bears aka: Adventure 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 is a truly groundbreaking series by Walt 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. Lasting from September, 1985 to February, 1991. A total of 94 episodes.The show was actually a major gamble for Disney, as it was a very new idea. Disney reasoned that the costs of a high-quality animated show could be recovered in syndication. The gamble worked, and a new era of unprecedented quality in western television animation was born.The series takes place in The Theme Park Version of medieval time, centuries after the Great Gummis fled across the sea while a small caretaker colony stayed behind in Gummi Glen in 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.Unfortunately, when the story begins, the Glen Gummis have declined to only six descendants who have forgotten their past skills. Fortunately, they meet a friendly human boy named Cavin who has a Gummi Medallion that unlocks their library's Great Book of Gummi, the essential book of their culture's knowledge. Inspired, the colony decide to rediscover their heritage and help the boy whose kingdom is under dire threat.That threat comes in the form of Duke Igthorn of Drekmore and his army of really dumb 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, like their powerful magic and technology, for his own use. Furthermore, he is but the most frequent of a whole host of enemies that the Gummi Bears and their human allies must oppose.At the most uncharitable, you could call this series TMS's (late) answer to The Littl Bits (as The Littl Bits came out in 1980, this did not came out until 1985), but it's more accurate to call it Disney's/TMS's attempt to show how to do the premise right (as The Littl Bits does have its fans). Apart from obviously lavish animation, the series addressed the major complaints of Tatsunoko's series and the basic ideology of the 1980s; for instance, individuality is celebrated in proper proportion to the value of cooperation and the primary characters are far more nuanced with carefully considered flaws and strengths. Furthermore, the female characters avoid The Smurfette Principle, with multiple characters with strong well-defined personalities who bow to no one.If you're wondering how they came up with a premise for, of all things, Gummi Bears, as the story goes, Michael Eisner was inspired when he was snacking on them. True story, straight from That Other Wiki.
Badass and Badass Longcoat: In the episode "For a Few Sovereigns More", Igthorn hires FlintShrubwood, the best Bounty Hunter in the land, to capture a Gummi Bear. Now, you wouldn't expect a hired gun in a Disney 80's cartoon to be intimidating or even particularly capable, would you? Think again. Flint, frequently referred to as "Stoneface", uses Precision Guided Boomerangs to frightening effect, effortlessly catching Cubbi. When Igthorn attempts to withhold his payment, he is subdued and imprisoned just as easily and ends up buying his own life with the gold. (Flint: "Go ahead. Take my pay.") Seriously, with a more reliable sponsor, this man would become a Hero Killer.
Given that Greg Weisman cited Gummi Bears as one of his sources for inspiration in Gargoyles (no, really), she may have inspired the Geoffrey Robbins character.
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.
Daddy's Girl: Sunni seems to have this relationship to Gruffi.
Deadpan Snarker: Gruffi in particular, Grammi tends to repay him in kind.
Diet Episode: In "The Oracle", Tummi Gummi gets put on a diet after sneaking a midnight snack.
Disney Princess: Calla isn't officially considered one by Disney, due to their conceit that they should not be promoting their past TV cartoons, but she is a princess in a Disney cartoon. She even dresses like Snow White sometimes.
Princess Marie is also "a princess in a Disney cartoon".
Duck!: In a scene where a fish goes flying through the air, one of the characters yells "Duck!", and another character remarks, "That's not a duck, it's a fish." either before or after getting it in the face.
Dumb Muscle: The Ogres definitely fall under this category.
Elaborate Underground Base: Gummi Glen and the various tasks necessary to maintain it and the consequences of neglecting it is a source of story material.
Fantastic Racism: Due to an unfortunately high number of humans being bastards, Cavin often suffers unfairly at the hands of gummis who don't know him.
Gone Behind The Bend: "A Gummi A Day Keeps The Doctor Away" had 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.
Humans Are Bastards: The Gummis were forced into hiding because of humans abusing their technology, the Barbic Bears lost their ancestral home because of humans, the principal antagonist is human — and if the average human on the street isn't intentionally malicious, they still tend to cause problems just the same. There definitely are good humans, but their poor reputation amongst many of the gummis isn't entirely without cause.
Also Sunni's various attempts to make Gummi Berry Juice, at least until she finally gets it right. (Poorly made Gummi Berry Juice is extremely unstable and explodes like nitroglicerine.)
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.
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 5, so Jim Cummings took over as the voice of Zummi.
Power-Up Food: Gummi Berry juice. For Gummis it makes them bouncy, agile and jump large distances. For humans, it gives them a few seconds of super strength, but just once a day. Ogres gets super strength too, but unlike humans, it lasts longer and can be renewed by drinking more juice.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gruffi, the no-nonsense conservative blue oni, is often at odds with red onis Grammi, who is far more progressive, and Gusto, who is out to lunch.
Spoonerism: Zummi megularly rakes these. Bit of a problem when he needs to use magic with Exact Wording.
Sugar Bowl: Somewhat less than you'd think for a show named after a candy.
Super Hero: Cubbi's stories as the Crimson Avenger.
Super Serum: Gummiberry Juice which makes the Gummis bounce and gives humans and ogres a moment of Super Strength. Not to mention it's also good as motor fuel for Gummi machines.
Tickle Torture: Igthorn does it to Grammi in one episode.
Title Theme Tune: Although it's a milder example than subsequent Disney animated shows.
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.
Wham Episode: The final saga was entirely made of this: Just in the first part, Igthorn leaves the kingdom and after months of not showing any signs of life, Zummi sends a message to the Great Gummis, anouncing that the kingdom is finally safe and ready for their return. Then Igthorn suddenly returns, more terrible than ever, and quickly succeds 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, completely defeating everyone and crowning himself as the new king. (Remember, all of this is just ONE episode.) The final episodes included Igthorn himself attacking the Great Gummis, followed by Zummi's (apparent) death and even after the union of Gummis, Barbics and Humans manage to defeat Igthorn for once and all, the existence of Gummi Bears is revealed to everyone and Gummi Glen is lost forever.
The Wonka: Gusto. Of course, let's see you spend twelve years on a Deserted Island with only a toucan for company, and see how sane you are when you finally escape.
. True story, straight from That Other Wiki.
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