Saturday, May 1, 2010

AiCaL - Power Team update

Slowly but surely the latest permutation of the Care Bears is starting to show itself.  While AGPbrands.com has had a short description of the upcoming "Care Power Team" series on the site for at least a year, not much has been seen.  Various notepads and similar items have been seen in Target's dollar section, though that was a few months ago, and Share Bear Shines, originally slated for a Fall 2009 release, came out this past March -- in Australia.  However, Kidtoon Films, ever a friend to AGP and Hasbro, showed the first actual look at the CPT series, Care Bears to the Rescue Movie, this past month (and though a trailer was promised, one never materialized on their website).  Unfortunately for me, the only day it was showing, I had other obligations and couldn't make it (and the only theater that had showings every weekend was actually showing episodes from the 80's series).  I have, however, managed to see Share Bear Shines, and while I'm saving the write-up for when it actually comes out in the states (this Fall, we hope), there are a couple of things I'd like to complain about.  The first is a little (teeny tiny) bit spoilery, so if you want to save yourself completely, skip the next paragraph, please.
Okay, so the plot, as synopsized by AGP themselves, is that Princess Starglo is putting out the stars because no one believes in her anymore.  Now, that makes it sound like she's doing it out of spite, but in the movie, she explicitly states that she and all the stars are powered by belief and wishes made on stars, thus she's turning off the stars (and all of Glitter City) because there simply isn't enough power for all of them.  My problem, though, is with the inconsistency of the writing.  Half the time, Starglo's behavior is still treated as if she's doing this out spite, not, you know, prolonging what little life she and the stars have left, even by the princess herself.  (And frankly, if she's "the mother of all stars," shouldn't she be Queen Starglo?  Just saying.)  I mean, if it was one or the other, I wouldn't mind, but you can't mention "He's fading, just like me," and then just claim the whole thing was a selfish whim, y'know?  If there had at least been a little acknowledgement at the end or something, since a lot of it was just Share Bear apparently not getting it, then maybe I'd feel better about it.  And while I'm still in the spoilery paragraph, it majorly bugged me that Starglo kept telling Share that she was the only one who believed in her and still wished on stars, when, HELLO, Wish Bear still exists in this movie!
Tying into that point is my second, less spoilery, quibble: why does a movie dealing so heavily with stars and wishes NOT star Wish?  I mean, come on!  And it's not like she's just not there, because she is clearly visible in the background.  Maybe if AiCaL hadn't pegged her as an expert on stars and twinklets, this wouldn't rankle me so much, but really, honestly, why, AGP?  Or, if it really was so very, very important that Share be the star, why couldn't Wish have had a bigger part at least?  She and Share could have both gone to Glitter City together, or something.

Well, anyway, I'll go into both of those points in more detail come the Fall (hopefully).  In the meantime, you can check out a couple of clips from the movie on SD Entertainment's page.  The first is a song sung by Share in the movie set to clips from the song and other random movie clips. The song sounds different, though I'm not sure whether that's because the clip has her unpitched voice (does her voice get pitched up?  I wouldn't be surprised) or if it's sung by someone else entirely (probably the same chick who sings the AiCaL theme).  The second is a brief teaser trailer for the movie, still proclaiming its release in 2009.  And now, before we part, two quick images:
Share's mental image of Princess Starglo.

The real deal.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I to wondered why this movie didn’t star ‘Wish Bear’ instead; or at least co-star her along with ‘Share Bear’ like you suggested. After all the movie is all about Wishes and Stars and that is her specialty. Then again ‘Wish Bear’ already has movie were she is the star besides I like ‘Share Bear’ so I’m happy with the way the movie turned it. = D