Animation / Boonie Bears

The main characters of the show^note From left to right: Bramble, Warren, Logger Vick, Briar

The grass is green, the sky is blue
The brook is babbling, friend, and so are you
We'll seize the day, for endless play
Picnic and party, that's our woodland way
Danger lurks, but we'll be fine
I've got your back, I'm lucky you've got mine
Honeycomb, and apple tree
They'll be plenty here for you, and you, and you, and me!

—The official English lyrics to "A Bear's Life", the series' theme song.

Boonie Bears (熊出没, Xióng Chūmò, "Roaming Bears") is a Chinese All-CGI Cartoon produced by Fantawild Animation and starring two bears, Briar and Bramble, who continuously try to stop Logger Vick from cutting down trees in their forest. Vick constantly tries to carry out his job as a woodcutter, only to be hilariously outwitted by the bears.

This animated show, beginning in 2012, has become the most popular cartoon in China since Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. It has been dubbed in several other languages, including English and spawned tons of merchandise.

There are currently nine films and two TV movies at this moment:

• Homeward Journey (2013, TV) — Vick goes on a tree-chopping spree to earn up money for a train ticket home, and the bears must help their animal friends to save their forest from Vick. (Trailer)
• To the Rescue (2014) — The bears and Vick find a mysterious baby girl in their home and do the unthinkable: Team up together for once to raise the baby! (Trailer)
• Robo-Rumble (2014, TV) — When Vick is laid off for Spring Festival season, he seeks another job to earn money for his holiday celebration, a park ranger. The bears accuse Vick of pretending to be a ranger when a giant chopping robot comes in to threaten the forest, forcing the bears to team up with Vick. (Trailer)
• A Mystical Winter (2015) — A mysterious polar-bear-like creature appears in the forest one winter. The bears and Vick must save the creature and the mountain from the hunters, as well as discover the secret history of each other. (Trailer)
• III (2016)^note The Big Top Secret in the English dub - Briar is lost from his woodland home and ends up with a struggling traveling circus. After helping them, Briar doesn't feel like going back home with Bramble. However, there is a dark side to the circus lifestyle... (Trailer)
• Entangled Worlds (2017)^note Fantastica: A Boonie Bears Adventure in the 2019 English dub — When the Tech Boss infiltrates the Boonie Bears universe, Briar, Bramble, Vick, and Robot Buddy Coco come across the Lost World of Fantastica, where the Tech Boss is searching for the Golden Antlers. (Trailer)
• The Big Shrink (2018) - After an argument with his estranged father, Vick attempts to use a Shrink Ray, in which a long-time friend gifted to him, on Bramble and Briar to get rid of them, only to be shrunk along with them too! They go on an adventure to find a way to bring themselves back to their normal size, and fix Vick's relationship with his father. (Trailer 1, 2)
• Blast into the Past (2019) — Briar, Bramble, and Vick are back in time to the fantastic version of the Stone Age, where they encounter Brewha the wolf pup, who wants to be a strong warrior, and a tribe of cavepeople. (Teaser, Trailer)
• The Wild Life (2021) — Briar, Bramble, and Vick go to Wild Land, where they are given gene-altering bracelets that can turn humans into any animal and compete in a tournament. However, the animorphed humans start turning uncontrollably aggressive and into freakish Mix-and-Match Critters. (Teaser, Trailer)
• Back to Earth (2022) — Made to celebrate the series' tenth anniversary, the film has Briar, Bramble, and Vick team up to fight evil aliens after Bramble gets new powers from an odd cubical object that fell from the sky. (Trailer)
• Guardian Code (2023) — Briar and Bramble are taken to a robot research institute where they learn some unexpected news about their mother, who they had lost in a forest fire many years before. (Trailer)
• Time Twist (2024) — Vick has an adventure through time and space to save his friends when he is given a chance to be a logger again.

A Spin-Off Babies show, Boonie Cubs, has also been produced and aired since 2017. To see tropes related to it, please refer to its separate page. Another spinoff was released starting in 2023, Adventurer Carly.

The English dub can be watched on the official channel here.

Now has a character sheet.

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Boonie Bears contains examples of:

• 555: In the English version of Season 2 episode 1, Logger Vick calls the number 555-8111 to make money off having the forest destroyed and its land used for a new company that's going to be built.
• Acrophobic Bird: One shows up in Season 9 episode 36, mesmerized by a pair of bird celebrities but unable to fly himself. The avian eventually gets over it with help from his bird idols.
• Agitated Item Stomping: In the first episode of Season 4, Logger Vick gets frustrated after being unable to cut down a cherry blossom tree with his chainsaw, and he angrily stomps the chainsaw to the point that its blade becomes deformed.
• Alliterative Title: Boonie Bears.
• Bowdlerize: In Season 4 episode 1, Logger Vick lets the animals play a game of passing a drink from a wine jar around, but Bramble says drinking is not good and Logger Vick assures them it's filled with juice instead. The English version removes any reference to it being a wine jar, leaving it at just "it's filled with juice".
• Catapult Nightmare: In Season 3 episode 30, Tiki has a nightmare where some force steals his crown, and he wakes up jolting upright.
• Cats Are Mean: Zig Zagged. Babian helps his owner, Logger Vick, to achieve his plans. However, he sometimes helps Briar and Bramble.
• Combining Mecha: Not in the show itself, but the company Lingdong produced a toy based on the series that consists of Briar, Bramble, and Logger Vick's truck, which can all be assembled into a large mecha-looking thing.
• Company Cameo:
  • Logger Vick's Swiss army flag in The Adventurers 2 has series company Fantawild Animation's logo, a square with multiple colors and a T in white, on the actual flag.
  • In The Adventurers 2 episode 35, wondering what would happen if he found the monster said to be nearby the forest, Logger Vick imagines he is being interviewed by multiple news reporters, one holding a microphone with Fantawild's logo on it.
• Creative Closing Credits: The end credits of Seasons 4-7 show multiple animations of the characters, some of them directly interacting with the credits text (such as Logger Vick running into it, for example).
• Disney Death: In The Adventurers 2 episode 36, the flight-fearing bird falls and his bird idols break the news to the bears that he's... all right and flying, but in a way that initially makes it look like he's dying.
• "Double, Double" Title: "Honey, Honey", the fourth episode of Season 2.
• Dream Intro: Season 3 episode 30 begins with Tiki having a nightmare where his crown starts to float off his head. As he tries and fails to pull it back down, a giant hand appears and heads straight for him, presumably after the crown, before he wakes up.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Typically, a character says the name of the episode during the episode's title card, a feature associated enough with the series that it got carried over into the spin-off Boonie Cubs. However, this wasn't established until Season 3, and before then the title cards had no sound at all.
• Eat the Bomb: In episode 3, after his attempt to hurt the bears with apples laced with spicy sauce doesn't work, Logger Vick gives them more apples, this time laced with bombs. Some of the bombs explode inside Bramble's stomach before Briar realizes what's going on and triggers one of the bombs before eating the apple it's in, leaving both bears with ashes all over them.
• Episode Title Card: The episode titles are displayed on a simple black screen. Starting in Season 3, a character says the name of the episode.
• Establishing Character Moment: In the first episode, Logger Vick first appears driving into the forest in a truck and talking about how the forest will "look like a parking lot" by the time he's done with it, telegraphing to the viewers that he's an employed logger who intends to cut down some trees.
• Exploding Calendar: One briefly appears in Season 3 episode 34 when the bears help Logger Vick to exercise and gain more muscle over the span of several days.
• Exposed Animal Bellybutton: Tiki the monkey has one.
• Family Title: The series is called Los Hermanos Boonie ("The Boonie Brothers") in Spanish.
• Flying Carpet: In the Season 2 intro, the bears are seen flying on a carpet as Logger Vick is chasing them. Vick blows fire onto the carpet to destroy it.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: In Season 7 episode 9, Logger Vick is picked to receive a large cash award and uses it to deck out his house with fancy decorations and buy a golden car. However, his credit loan becomes too large and the stuff he purchased is repossessed at the end of the episode, leaving him as poor as he was originally.
• Freeze Sneeze: In Season 5 episode 39, it's so cold outside that Logger Vick sneezes a few times as he settles down in his chair and turns on his television.
• Game Show Appearance: In Season 5 episode 35, Logger Vick is scheduled to make an appearance on a quiz show and gets help from the bears to memorize as much trivia as possible to maximize his chances of winning the cash prizes.
• Green Aesop: The show's about two bears who stop a logger from cutting down their forest. There's definitely an environmental-based moral there.
• Hit Flash: Used whenever a character gets hit very hardly.
• Human Snowball: In Season 5 episode 47, Logger Vick trips and falls over the edge of the ground as he is running away from a monster, and he rolls into a large snowball that hits a rock and disintegrates near his tent.
• Hurt Foot Hop: In episode 8, Logger Vick kicks rocks as he walks along a path, but one he hits is too large to be sent flying by his kick and he ends up hopping in pain and holding his hurt foot.
• I Will Show You X!: In Season 7 episode 9, Vick gets frustrated at the bears for taking his chainsaw, and when one of them apologizes, Vick starts to chase them, telling them "I'll show you sorry!"
• Iconic Sequel Character: Tiki and Babu are advertised to be major supporting characters alongside the woodland animals, so it can be weird watching the first season and realizing they're not there. They debuted in the second season, Boonie Bears or Bust.
• Love Triangle: Briar and Bramble both vie for the affections of a red bear named Natasha. Natasha sees them as just friends.
• Magical Flutist: In Season 2 episode 10, Tiki and later Logger Vick come across a flute that has a switch on it with two settings, a sun setting and a moon setting, and use it to their advantage, with the latter attempting to stop the bears with it. When played on the moon setting, the flute causes anyone in hearing range besides the person playing it to fall asleep; when played on the sun setting, it causes them to become feral and attack others.
• New Season, New Name: All seasons beyond the first one are given unique names.
  • Season 2 is Boonie Bears or Bust.
  • Season 3 is Forest Frenzy.
  • Season 4 is Spring Into Action.
  • Season 5 is Snow Daze.
  • Season 6 is Sunsational Summer.
  • Season 7 is Autumn Awesomeness.
  • Season 8 is The Adventurers.
  • Season 9 is The Adventurers 2.
  • Season 10 is Monster Plan.
• Ode to Food: The second end credits theme has a bear singing about how much they like honey and prefer it over all other foods.
• The Owl-Knowing One: Averted with Hoo Hoo. Instead of being a wise owl like usual, he's lazy and will often try to sleep while flying.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The bears often wear disguises so that Logger Vick won't be able to recognize them, and they tend to work despite the fact that those are very obviously just bears in snazzy or flimsy outfits.
• Portmanteau: The sixth season is titled Sunsational Summer, using a portmanteau of the words "sun" and "sensational".
• Primal Chest-Pound: In Season 4 episode 4, Briar and Bramble let out some roars before they chase after Logger Vick, with Briar in particular beating his chest like a gorilla with one of his roars.
• Pun-Based Title: The titles of Seasons 4, 5, and 6, all but one of the four seasons-themed seasons.
  • Season 4 is titled Spring Into Action, using the word "spring" to mean both the season known as spring and to jump or leap into action.
  • Season 5 is titled Snow Daze, a pun on the term "snow days".
  • Season 6 is titled Sunsational Summer, using a portmanteau of the words "sensational" and "sun".
• Quarter Hour Short: The standard episode length is somewhere around 10 to 13 minutes long.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In Season 2 episode 10, those who are within hearing range of the magic flute when it's played on the sun setting become violently aggressive, with their eyes turning red to indicate this.
• Screwball Squirrel: Warren, a goofy squirrel who sometimes assists Briar and Bramble's efforts to stop Vick.
• Seasonal Baggage: Boonie Bears took the fourth-to-seventh TV seasons literally and has each season take place in one of the four seasons. Spring into Action, Snow Daze, Sunsational Summer, and Autumn Awesomeness.
• Second-Person Attack: In the first episode, "A New Neighbor", the camera very briefly shows Briar from Logger Vick's point of view as the former is about to punch the latter.
• Shout-Out: In the English version in particular, as it adds a number of pop-culture references where the Chinese version didn't have any.
  • In episode 2, one of the bears refers to Vick as a "scrawny little wannabe Elmer Fudd" after he captures their bird friend.
  • At the beginning of episode 3, Vick can be heard singing "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music. This one is present in the original Chinese script as well.
  • In episode 8, Logger Vick shows disdain at not being able to find the bears, saying it's like chasing after "teenage mutant ninja bears".
  • In Season 2 episode 2, Briar sings "We Are the Champions" after he wins a sports game against Bramble.
• Sick Episode: In Season 4 Episode 4, Logger Vick panics after having come into contact with Hoo Hoo the owl, remembering that the television was playing a news report earlier explaining that there's an outbreak of bird flu going around. Logger Vick does indeed get sick, but as usual he's forced to keep working by Boss Li. Thankfully, he learns at the end of the episode that the illness he has isn't bird flu, but a common cold.
• Single-Task Robot: In Season 7 episode 12, Logger Vick purchases a vacuum robot to clean his room. The robot becomes an annoyance when he realizes it will attempt to clean any gunk it finds on anyone's clothes or skin. Later, the bears find Logger Vick has left the robot out in the open and it cleans up their trash, only to do the same "clean up gunk on the nearest persons" routine on the bears.
• Slapstick: The series utilizes a lot of slapstick humor, Logger Vick usually being the target.
• The Song Remains the Same: At least one English dub keeps the theme song in Chinese.
• Synchronized Swarming: In Season 2 episode 12, Bramble attempts to grab some honey straight from the beehive and angers the bees inside it. The bees fight him by forming into the shape of a sword and attacking him, with Bramble fighting back by using the bamboo stick he had on hand as a sword of his own.
• Take That!: In the first episode's English dub, when Logger Vick sees Bramble for the first time, he shelters in his car and tells the bear that he's got a Justin Bieber CD and he isn't afraid to use it to defend himself. It's implicated he probably intends to subject the bear to his music to annoy him.
• V-Sign: Tiki briefly gives one to the "camera" in Season 2 episode 12 after his part of the plan to stop Logger Vick and save Bramble, which involves using a large net in the road to block his truck, works.
• Water Wake Up: In Season 4 episode 4, the bears splash a bucket of water onto Logger Vick to wake him up, only for Vick to complain about the water being too cold.
• Wire Dilemma: In Season 3 Episode 10, Bramble gets a bomb glued to his hand and Briar must disarm it before it explodes. There are three wires on the bomb, one red, one yellow, and one blue; Briar cuts the red one, causing the countdown to plummet from two minutes and fifteen seconds to ten seconds, but then he cuts the yellow one and actually stops the bomb.
• Working Through the Cold: In Season 4 episode 4, Logger Vick is forced to continue to chop down trees by Boss Li, who completely disregards the fact that he's sick and needs rest.

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The films contain examples of:

General

• Animation Bump: The animation, besides the TV movies, is way better rendered than in the TV series, complete with lush Scenery Porn.
• Award-Bait Song: Several. "Never Any Distance" from A Mystical Winter, "Dream Chaser" from The Big Top Secret, and "To Be Free and Unafraid" from Entangled Worlds / Fantastica. Typical uplifting Power Ballads meant to win that Oscar, though "Dream Chaser" is more upbeat.
• Big Damn Movie: Definitely. With the films having more plot than just "bears protect forest from logger" hijinks, they carry more dramatic moments while still having the show's silliness. They also tend to have more fantastic premises as explained in Denser and Wackier below.
• Denser and Wackier: While To the Rescue, III / The Big Top Secret, and the TV films are mundane as the series themselves, the other films are most fantastic, edging to giant magical polar bears to Alternate Tooniverses and a Lost World of strange creatures to a Shrink Ray to Time Travel to Animorphism and genetic engineering.
• Gratuitous English:
  • The Entangled Worlds version of "Free and Afraid" has "To be free and unfraid" repeatedly sung in English.
  • In the original Chinese version of Blast to the Past, Vick says "Music" in English when the Good-Times Montage starts.
• Science Fantasy: Ultimately the genre the fantastic films end up in. Entangled World has the Tech Boss having developed sci-fi technology to access fantasy Alternate Tooniverses and Blast Into the Past has fantastic Pretty Butterflies Time Traveling the heroes to the equally fantastic past.

To The Rescue

• Parents for a Day: Logger Vick finds a toddler girl in his house and raises her. The bears also take part.
• Toilet Humor: While attempting The Diaper Change, Vick ends up with a dirty diaper in his face, on the interior side.

A Mystical Winter

• Animals Not to Scale: The mystical giant antlered polar bear.

III / The Big Top Secret

• Circus Episode: Briar joins a circus and befriends the animals there, a la Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Entangled Worlds / Fantastica

• Alternate Tooniverse: The film suggests that the Boonie Bears universe is one, since the Big Bad is an intelligent boss who sends a Terrible Trio of humans to raid MacGuffins from animated universes.
• The Cameo: The beginning has THE MONKEY KING! And his staff getting stolen. (He gets it back at the end though.)
• Disney Death/Heroic Sacrifice: Coco, badly damaged, lets herself detach her hand clasping the shell^note which is used to command the Golden Antlers to come to life and falls to her destruction. However, when Fantastica is restored, Coco comes back good and new.
• Education Mama/Fantasy-Forbidding Parent: It is revealed that the Tech Boss as a child, wasn't allowed access to entertainment and fun and his parents enforced education on him (a Take That! to the Asian tiger mom phenomenon), such as forcing to spend night hours on homework and hiring private tutors. This led to him as an adult to raid Animated Tooniverses just to live the childhood he wanted. At the climax, the Golden Deer go through him and reverse his sad backstory, thus changing him to rethink what he has done.
• Lost World: The bears, Logger Vick, and Coco come across such one, Fantastica, which was hinted of on a cave painting. It carries many fantastical creatures with a human guardian.
• The Marvelous Deer: The Golden Deer, whose prized Antlers serve as the Cosmic Keystone for Fantastica. The Deer can also change characters' backgrounds for mystical reasons.
• Medium Blending: The real world is depicted in live-action, compared to the All CGI Alternate Tooniverses.
• Robot Buddy: Coco is this to her owner and later Logger Vick and the bears.
• Shout-Out: A Stormtrooper mask and what looks like assorted Star Wars ships can be seen in the Tech Boss's hideout, alongside Iron Man-esque gloves.

The Big Shrink

• Shrink Ray: Vick shrinks the bears with one he received from a friend, but gets shrunken along with them.

Blast into the Past

• Action Girl: The cavepeople tribe leader is a nearly Nubile Savage female who can kick lots of butt, being able to deliver Metronomic Man Mashing and throw Vick and then Bramble up to Twinkle in the Sky, and can handle (most of) the Brutish Bulls and Savage Wolves.
• All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: The cavepeople act in a stereotypical manner, being strong fighters who are also dumb, such as being freaked out over a caterpillar (and hitting each other thus) and going into chaos over Vick's phone running out of battery, with the exception of their Action Girl leader. They're capable of speaking Chinese though.
• Anachronism Stew: The visitors find in the cave paintings bicycles and Arabic numbers 999 and as the result, dismiss the paintings as forged. It turns out this was invoked by Vick, who Time Traveled to the Stone Age and introduced modern conveniences to the cavepeople.
• Chekhov's Gunman: That Butt-Monkey caveman who keeps unsuccessfully trying to woo the leader? He is able to block a meteor with his fist, smashing it into pieces with little damage on his hand, successfully winning her heart.
• Chekhov's Volcano: A volcano is shown as the background in the beginning. It erupts around the climax, hurling tension-raising meteors at the heroes. It apparently caused the Ice Age.
• Death by Origin Story: Brewha's Big Brother Mentor was killed by falling rocks when he saved her from those.
• Disney Death: Brewha seemingly makes a Heroic Sacrifice when she rams the alpha wolf off the cliff and falls off along with him. After plenty of mourning from Briar and even the wolves, the dust clears and it turns off she survived by hanging onto a branch.
• Disney Villain Death: On the other hand, the alpha wolf is killed by being pushed off the cliff by Brewha and falling to his death off-screen.
• Dub Name Change: Brewha's Chinese name is Fei Fei.
• Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: Those teeny tiny panda cubs, smaller than Briar's foot, have a humongous giant panda father who is way bigger than Brair.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The alpha wolf has a pink scratch scar over his face, meant to show he is evil.
• Hollywood Prehistory: The film is set in the fantastic interpretation of the Stone Age, with usual prehistoric mammals like woolly mammoths, sabertooth cats, and cavepeople co-existing fantastic elements such as speedy giant jeweled turtles, a giant colorful bird, and a magical bamboo forest.
• In Medias Res: The film starts out panning over the Stone Age and then shows Briar, Bramble, and Vick trapped in a log and accidentally intimidating a warthog calf, bringing over her brutish big family. Then it shifts back to 1 hour ago for them to tell how they were sent back in time.
• Mammoths Mean Ice Age: The film, after showing the warthog calf first, then pans to the woolly mammoths letting you know the story's gonna take place in the era of the Ice Age, the Stone Age.
• Our Time Travel Is Different: Instantaneous Time Travel variant. Time Travel occurs with Briar, Bramble, and Vick when Bramble touches a magical Pretty Butterfly, which opens up a wormhole and lets out more butterflies that zap the trio back into time.
• Pintsized Powerhouse:
  • The little warthog calf. Despite being only a small calf, she can charge up to and throw up many large animals (except for Bramble) into the sky.
  • When Brewha Takes a Level in Badass. She is able to ram up several bigger wolves despite being a small pup.
• Plot Armor: Briar, Bramble, and Vick are somehow able to survive falling off a cliff and from great heights, but not the cavepeople tribe, Brewha (both implied), and the alpha wolf. along The former three being the main characters may be the reason, as well as the First Law of Tragicomedies.
• Pretty Butterflies: The magical glowing blue butterflies of time and space, which Time Travels the bears and Vick to the Stone Age when touched.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The warthog calf who tries to prove herself strong, Brehwa the little blue wolf pup, and of course those Sidekick Creature Nuisance panda cubs.
• Savage Wolves: The wolves, with the exception of Brehwa, are red-eyed sadistic creatures who want to prey on the cavepeople tribe.
• Sidekick Creature Nuisance: Those teeny tiny panda cubs who keep messing with Briar and never get away from him. They even team up to drag onto his legs and move him around!
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Brehwa starts out with this characterization: a smart-talking wolf pup who serves as the Straight Man to Briar. Then Character Development starts.
• Speedy Snail: The giant turtles with jeweled shells. They're able to run as fast a cheetah!
• Time Travel: Thanks to the magical Pretty Butterflies, Briar, Bramble, and Vick are sent back to the Stone Age.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Savage Wolves don't resist hunting a human child down for a snack. The alpha wolf doesn't mind pushing Brewha to her death, though slowly.

The Wild Life

• Animorphism: The main shtick of the plot. The technological wonderland of Wild Land provides bracelets which modifies the genes of the wearer to transform them to any animal they want to be, albeit bipedal and still sentient.
• Gone Horribly Right: Leon designed Phoenix to keep visitors happy. And by creating the signal that enables the technology to help humans feel comfortable in their animalistic skin, it accomplished that much. The problem is, Phoenix sees fit that humans are much happier while stuck as these bestial creatures because their lack thereof sapience helps them forget the things that make them unhappy.
• Liar Revealed: Victor doesn't take it well when he learns that Leon was using him to allegedly steal information from the company. He later learns his anger was misplaced when it's revealed Leon intended to sabotage the company so others would avoid the same fate as those previously affected by the bracelet.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The bracelet's wearer can transform into a mixture of animals if necessary, such as a lion with goat horns and giant wings. When the bracelet Goes Horribly Wrong, it transforms the wearer into uncontrollable, monstrous animal hybrids.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Victor learns from Leon's diary that Leon's young daughter has been dead for quite a while.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The bracelet's side effect when it Goes Horribly Wrong is turning its wearer completely ferocious without any shed of human sentience left.

Back to Earth

• Alien Episode: It features a cat alien being dragged along on an adventure with the bears after Bramble discovers the cubical object that gives him powers.

TV movies

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