All spoilers from the show and the movie are left unmarked on all pages. You Have Been Warned!
We Bare Bears: The Movie is a Made-for-TV Movie based on the hit Cartoon Network animated series We Bare Bears, serving as its Grand Finale.
The citizens of San Francisco are finally fed up with the antics of Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear after one of their recent actions caused a citywide blackout. All this discontent catches the attention of the Department of Wildlife Control, with one of their top agents proposing that the best course of action would be to permanently separate the siblings and send them to their natural habitats. Naturally, the trio has only one recourse: craft a new life in Canada. And so the chase begins, as the Bears go on the run to escape the authorities, all while reminiscing about what made them become brothers in the first place.
The film was released digitally in the United States and Canada on June 30, 2020
and played on the network in September 7, 2020, with a marathon leading up to it.
The official trailer can be viewed here.
Tropes:
- Adoption Diss: When Officer Murphy objects to cruelly separating the bears as they are brothers, Agent Trout responds by mocking their adoptive status, outright saying they do not resemble one another.
- All for Nothing: After everything they had been through while on the run, the bears are turned away at the Canadian border because they do not have passports... and then the Darkest Hour happens.
- All of the Other Reindeer:
- The entire plot of the movie, as the bears are harshly discriminated by Agent Trout.
- To a lesser extent, the popular internet animal celebrities when they find out the bears aren't really internet celebrities. Luckily, the bears get through to them by explaining their situation, earning their sympathies.
- Animation Bump: Averted. The animation is about on par with a normal episode of the show. With that said, there are more car chase scenes and action sequences than there usually are in the show and they are nicely animated.
- Animal Gender-Bender: For some reason, Jacked Up Kangaroo clearly sports a pouch.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Agent Trout mentions that of all the unnatural things the Bears do, the worst is their stacking. The audience react to the picture of the Bearstack as if it was something indecent.
- Ascended Meme: The stadium with famous internet animal celebrities is basically this.
- Attention Whore: Pizza Rat, who only has one million followers, threatens to sue a mouse with a plate of spaghetti for copying his video, and informs Trout of the bears' whereabouts to get his henchmen to follow him.
- Bears Are Bad News: At the start, the public is outraged at all the damage caused by the bears while rushing to get poutine from the food truck.
- When the bears attempt to make a viral video, their 15 Minutes of Fame are forgotten when the power overload causes a city-wide blackout and further outrages the citizens.
- Big Bad: Agent Trout of the Department of National Wildlife Control.
- Big Brother Instinct: After remembering how he became brothers with Panda and Ice Bear and that it's his promise and duty to save them, Grizzly bends the steel bars holding him and frees the other bears to fulfill it.Grizzly: I'm strong, I'm a big brother!
- Big Red Button: The control panel for the van's defense system has a big button that fires a huge explosive blast of lava lamp juice. After pushing it almost blows up the factory they're in, Panda decides not to push it again, but when the van falls down a bridge under construction, Panda accidentally pushes it again, and the blast sends them back on the bridge and to safety.
- Bile Fascination: Invoked. Everyone who watches the Bears' stream say it's very cringey because of how dated the references are, which makes them laugh raucously as it goes on.
- Bindle Stick: Baby Grizzly has one when he's walking along the train track bridge.
- Bookends: The film begins with the Bears being cast out of California as threats to society, and ends with them receiving newfound acceptance after their heroic acts.
- By-the-Book Cop: Officer Murphy, who prefers community service instead of harsh punishments for the Bears' offenses and finds Trout's methods disagreeable; he ultimately arrests Trout and helps bring the other bears back to the city along with Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear.
- Call-Back: The ending scene of the bears enjoying a stack of food has a bear walking with her kids while holding a "Tote Life" bag.
- Chekhov's Gun: The van which was fixed by the Internet celebrity animals has a button which activates a secret weapon that fires lava lamp gel.
- Chekhov's Skill:
- Several times, Ice Bear shows off his axe skills. At the climax, Grizz throws an axe to him, and he uses it to escape the cage and free Panda from his.
- All the bears stack on top of each other to reach the helicopter to escape from the burning conservation camp.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: During his "Reason You Suck" Speech, Panda tells Grizz that "none of this would've happened if you haven't pushed us into making that stupid video".
- Darkest Hour: Once the bears arrive at the Canadian border, they get rejected due to lacking passports. Panda lashes out at Grizzly for his stupid ideas with Ice Bear trying to calm him down, and then Trout and his men appear and capture them. They are then taken to the "reserve" where Trout plans to separate them by sending Panda to China, Ice Bear to the Arctic, and sending Grizzly to the other bears they captured where he feels like a failure of a big brother.
- Demoted to Extra: Almost all the friends of the bears barely have any speaking lines in the movie, with their human friends only having one line each while calling out Trout before disappearing completely. The only exception is Charlie, who proves crucial in taking the bears away from Trout and spends more time with them before they leave.
- Despair Event Horizon: Grizzly crosses it when the three bears get captured by Agent Trout, caged and about to be separated to different parts of the world, making him feel like a failure of a big brother especially since he's the one who thought of hosting the stream that caused the blackout and their journey to Canada.
- Digital Destruction: In the european Spanish HBO Max release of the movie, the last ten minutes of the movie were accidentally cut, resulting in the movie ending with Trout succesfully capturing the bears with a last shot of Grizzly trapped in a cage in the reserve alone without his brothers, with the following scene being the credits scene featuring other bears celebrating happily with happy music.
- Dirty Coward: When the forest is burning, Agent Trout uses the bearstack made by all the bears to make his way up to the helicopter, mocks the bears, and expects Officer Murphy to evacuate while leaving the bears to die in the wildfire. However, Officer Murphy won't have any of it as he angrily smacks out Agent Trout (with a donut) while handcuffing him so that he himself can transport the bears to safety.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Ice Bear rigs a dish antenna that would automatically beam the Bears' video to every screen in the city. Unfortunately, it also overloads the electrical grid and causes a city-wide blackout.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Three main characters, who are not very well liked by the community they live in because of the trouble cause, are forced to go on the run and flee to a place where the leader assures them they will be safe and being pursed by the antagonists after one Zany Scheme pushes the people to their limit. But in the end, they earn their happy ending and are accepted by the community. Sounds familiar to another cartoon network movie that served as the finale for the series.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After they spend the entire movie on the run from Agent Trout, dodging obstacles every step along the way, being turned away from the Canadian border, and fighting their way out of the Animal Reserve Center, the main bears are able to return home, where they are hailed as heroes, while the bears from the reserve are allowed to live in the city, creating a new utopia between bears and humans.
- Evil Overlooker: The poster above has Agent Trout glaring down at the bears.
- Flashback: The beginning of the movie shows how the bears met, as well as an additional scene later in the movie showcasing the pact they made to stick together as brothers.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: As the bears rush through the city to the poutine truck, you can see nearly all of the important characters along the path, such as the human trio meant to mimic the bears.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Pizza Rat is routinely mocked for his relatively low follower count of 1 million.
- Frozen Face: Angry Kitty. She explains that her Perpetual Frowner status is from this, and she's miserable because people always assume she's angry even when she has other emotions. She's an expy of Grumpy Cat, who had a friendly personality despite her grumpy appearance.
- Grand Finale: Serves as one for the present-day Bears (a Baby Bears spin-off is being prepared), as a mass migration of bears to San Francisco causes the main trio to not be as alone.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Invoked. Ice Bear mentions at the Internet Animal Fest that he is popular in Asia, a reference to the show's popularity on that continent.
- Helpful Hallucination: When Grizz is trapped in a cage and his brothers are about to be deported to the Arctic and China respectively, he hallucinates a baby version of himself, who reminds him of their childhood promise to always be "bros for life". This motivates him to break out and free the other bears before going after his brothers.
- Hero Insurance: Deconstructed. The entire plot is the result of everyone finally getting so angry about all the destruction of property and collateral damage caused by the Bears' adventures.
- Hope Spot: Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear reach the Canadian border, only to be refused entry because they don't have passports.
- How Is That Even Possible?: Asked verbatim by Panda when his follower count hits -1.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Agent Trout is this personified, being absolutely speciesist towards all animals for no reason other than being a strong believer in humanity's position as the dominant species of life on Earth.(After the Bears are captured and Grizzly gets locked up in a cage)
Agent Trout: (mockingly) What's wrong? You don't like your new home?
Grizzly: (desperate) Why are you doing this to us? We never did anything to you!
Trout: Why shouldn't I? Humans have been nature's dominant predators since the beginning of time. And this is the closest I will ever get... to hunting you. (Slasher Smile) - Identical Stranger: After pulling up to a roadblock, the bears put on Paper Thin Disguises to try and fool the cops. When their backs are turned, the bears drive off and an identical van drives up, with three people inside dressed exactly as the bears were.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Agent Trout of the federal DNWC and Officer Murphy (implied to be of the SFPD) argue throughout the film over how to deal with the Bears' antics, with Murphy being forgiving towards the trio and Trout set on having them sent to a reserve and then split up.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The movie begins with the Baby Bears meeting each other for the first time.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: Canada is portrayed by a poutine truck owner as a land friendly to bears, as well as the land of the free and home of the brave. (Grizzly being a Canadian-born domestic kid sitcom star doesn't come up.)
- Mythology Gag: The picture of the Bearstack shown during Agent Trout's presentation is a reproduction of the show's first promo image.
- No Infantile Amnesia: Downplayed as Grizz initially struggles to remember how he and his brothers escaped the train on the tracks where they first met.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The internet celebrity animals admit they aren't too different from the bears who struggle with being accepted for who they are.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Agent Trout, who doesn't just want to capture the bears, but wants to prove humans as the superior species.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": To get into the Internet Animal Fest, the password is 1234. Dramatic Cow says it's common for people to forget it.
- Perpetual Frowner: Enforced Trope; Angry Kitty mentions how she was born with a face that makes her unable to smile, which makes everyone think she is always in a bad mood.
- Police Are Useless: Officer Murphy is the most forgiving person of authority towards the bears, but he lacks any real backbone to inflict a suitable punishment. Agent Trout decides to do that, except his method is simply too extreme.
- Pounds Are Animal Prisons: The Animal Reserve Center is a bear concentration camp.
- Rage Breaking Point:
- The blackout caused by the Bears' video is this to the people of San Francisco, who finally ask that the bears should be held accountable.
- Not being allowed to enter Canada because they have no passports is this for Panda, who blows up at Grizz and decides to leave the group.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Officer Murphy is pretty relaxed with the Bears' antics; he simply suggested community service for them after they caused the blackout.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- After being rejected from entering Canada, Panda finally unloads his pent up frustration onto Grizzly, accusing him of causing the mess they're in now with his Zany Schemes. He ends it by saying they're not brothers, "just a bunch of dumb bears who told themselves a story to make themselves feel better".
- Agent Trout gives one to the bears after they break out of their cages and his Villainous Breakdown sets in.Trout: You think you belong? That you can fit in with the rest of society? You are nothing but some filthy, mindless beasts!
- Grizz gives one of his own to Trout after he, Panda, Ice Bear and the rest of the bears turn the tables on him, telling Trout he is doing everything's done because he is afraid of what's different.Grizz: These cages, this reserve, everything! You're doing all of this because you're afraid of what's different. Not because it's right. And we're not gonna stand for it.
- Retcon: The origin of the Bearstack is rewritten from "Baby Bears Can't Jump", where the Baby Bears first formed it in order to win a basketball game. Here, they used it shortly after meeting for the first time in order to escape an oncoming train.note
- Road Trip Plot: The second act is the Bears driving off to Canada. Grizzly even tells Panda to think of it as a road trip, rather than them fleeing from the law.
- Running Gag: Throughout the movie, Trout shuts Officer Murphy up by putting whatever the latter is eating in his mouth. In the climax, Officer Murphy does this to Trout with his doughnut to save all the bears.
- Shout-Out:
- The Bears have a run-in with the Mystery Machine while driving to Canada.
- Painting Elephant is an animal version of Bob Ross.
- Angry Kitty is an expy of Grumpy Cat.
- Grizz calling for parley, to Elizabeth Swann and Barbossa in Curse of the Black Pearl.
- Driving the hippie van to the border and being pursued by an overzealous cop to Up in Smoke.
- The Juice My Car Raccoons are animal versions of the West Coast Customs crew.
- Dramatic Cow is a parody of the Dramatic Chipmunk meme.
- Pizza Rat is inspired by a viral video of a rat stealing a pizza from the New York subway.
- When Grizz talks about the animal rave, a group of crabs dances to a song reminiscent of Crab Rave.
- The Bears pay tribute to various dated internet phenomena in their attempt at a viral video.
- The Baby Bears first meet on a train bridge as a train is coming through, an homage to the train scene from Stand by Me.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: An aversion with a Talking Animal. Grizzly mentions that he never learned Bear Language as the bears at the Animal Reserve Center do not speak English.
- Sticks to the Back: After freeing himself from the cages, Ice Bear puts the axe on his back with no visible way for it to stay there.
- The Stool Pigeon: Pizza Rat is the one responsible for ratting out the Bears at the barn. He did it in exchange for more followers to boot.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The show itself makes it seem that the bears can get away with their destructive actions due to them being an Unusually Uninteresting Sight. The movie, however, makes it very clear that the people of San Francisco do not easily forget, as Officer Murphy has two large binders full of complaints lodged against the bears from frustrated citizens.
- The bears are unable to move to Canada because they lack passports. On top of that, they don't have the means to sneak to other countries with Agent Trout hot on their tails.Grizzly: (desperate) Please, sir! You have to let us in! I mean, we're bears! We don't need passports, right?
Border guard: Mmm, maybe not in the States, but up here, you sure do. Sorrey!
- Token Good Teammate: Officer Murphy is this to Trout and his men.
- Too Important to Remember You: Despite the fact Nom Nom has interacted with Grizz several times in the TV series, he can’t seem to remember his name and only calls him "Greg".
- Visual Pun: Pizza Rat called the cops on the bears. He ratted them out.
- Who Is Driving?: Used twice in succession. First, as the van drives off, Agent Trout lies to the Bears' human friends that Officer Murphy will take them somewhere safe. But then, Murphy appears after getting coffee, prompting Trout to question who is driving the van. That someone is Charlie, who brought along his animal friends. As he talks to the Bears from the front seat, Panda asks if he should be looking at the road instead; Charlie reveals that he has one of his snake friends at the wheel.
