The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland

The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRaymond Jafelice
Written byPeter Sauder
Screenplay bySusan Snooks
John de Klein
Produced byMichael Hirsh
Patrick Loubert
Clive A. Smith
Starring
Edited byEvan Landis
Music byPatricia Cullen
Production
company
Distributed byCineplex Odeon Films
Release date
  • August 7, 1987 (1987-08-07)
Running time
78 minutes
Countries
  • Canada
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[1][nb 1]
Box office$6 million[3]

The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland[nb 2] is a 1987 animated musical fantasy film and the third theatrically released film in the Care Bears franchise. It was released in the United States and Canada on August 7, 1987, by Cineplex Odeon Films, and is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. The fourth feature film made at Toronto's studio Nelvana Limited, it was directed by staff member Raymond Jafelice and produced by the firm's founders (Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith). It starred the voices of Keith Knight, Bob Dermer, Jim Henshaw, Tracey Moore and Elizabeth Hanna. In the film, the Care Bears must rescue the Princess of Wonderland from the Evil Wizard and his assistants, Dim and Dumb. After the White Rabbit shows them her photo, the Bears and Cousins search around the Earth for her before enlisting an unlikely replacement, an ordinary girl named Alice, to save her true look-alike. Venturing into Wonderland, the group encounters a host of strange characters, among them a rapping Cheshire Cat and the Jabberwocky.

Adventure in Wonderland was co-produced and self-financed by Nelvana Limited, after a consortium of American companies helped them with the first two films. Animation was handled by Nelvana Limited and Taiwan's Wang Film Productions. The film featured a musical score by Patricia Cullen along with songs by pop musicians John Sebastian and Natalie Cole. Upon its North American release, the film opened weakly to mixed reviews, and ended up with a $2.6 million gross; worldwide, it barely made back its $5 million cost. In the years since it opened, the film has received a VHS and DVD release in various countries outside North America, where distributors refuse to release it due to various complications involving the negative response of its first sequel,[6] leaving this movie abandoned in the US ever since.

  1. ^ Hayden, Gene (August 7, 1989). "Babar's triumphs". Maclean's: 48. Founded in 1972, [sic] the [Nelvana Limited] company earned an international reputation in 1984, after American director George Lucas—best known for the Star Wars movie series—hired the studio to create two animated TV spin-off series, Ewoks and Droids. A year later, Ohio's American Greetings Corp. and Kenner Parker Toys Inc. commissioned Nelvana Limited to produce the animated Care Bears Movie. Earning $34 million in 1985, it became at the time the world's most profitable non-Disney animated movie. Buoyed by that success, Nelvana Limited made two sequels. But the last of the trilogy, the 1987 Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland, which Nelvana Limited co-produced for just under $5 million, only broke even. Conceded Hirsh: 'It was just one [sequel] too many.'
  2. ^ Staff (February 3, 1987). "Ofra Harnoy headlines Holy Blossom benefit". Toronto Star. p. H.1. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2010. Cineplex Odeon distributes third Care Bears movie: Canada's Cineplex Odeon will distribute the third Care Bears animated movie, The Care Bears Adventure In Wonderland, that is currently being filmed by Nelvana in Toronto. Cineplex Odeon has rights for the U.S. and Canada for theatres and video cassette. ¶ The first two Care Bears movies grossed about $40 million. The third movie is budgeted for between $5 million and $7 million.
  3. ^ Lerch, Renate (February 9, 1988). "Nelvana finds reel success in animated films". The Financial Post. p. 17. The first [Care Bears] movie, released in 1985, grossed $25 million at the box office. Its $3.5-million budget was financed by American Greetings in partnership with Kenner-Parker Toys Inc. of Beverly, Massachusetts The Americans also funded the sequel, which brought in $12 million. Nelvana financed the third movie itself and it has so far grossed $6 million.
  4. ^ Gritten, David, ed. (2007). "The Care Bears' Adventure in Wonderland!". Halliwell's Film Guide 2008. Hammersmith, London: HarperCollins. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-00-726080-5.
  5. ^ Jafelice, Raymond (director) (1987). The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (Animated film). Cineplex Odeon Films (distributor, North America) / Nelvana Limited.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference dvd-verdict was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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