Channel Hop: The franchise's colorful animated history started with Atkinson Film-Arts producing Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings and its follow up, The Care Bears Battle The Freeze Machine. In 1985 DiC Entertainment began animating the early tv episodes, but halfway through the series production changed to Nelvana. Then production slowed down until the franchise was canned after blatant mismanagement all but killed it. When the franchise returned, Nelvana resumed production at first with two specials, then the production was shifted over to SD Entertainment with Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot. This did not last, however, as Hasbro then meddled, fresh from prying the master license out of Play Along Toys' hands, and handing production over to MoonScoop, who went on to produce the equally short-lived Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot. MoonScoop then underwent a takeover, and returned as Splash! Entertainment, who then produced Care Bears & Cousins for Netflix. American Greetings then pulled the license back and Care Bears: Unlock the Magic was produced by Cloudco, AG's new in-house production arm.
The shows are this as well. Care Bears (1980s) started out on syndication before it's reruns ended up on Disney. Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot started out on CBS' Kewlopolis slot and then moved to Kabillion, and Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot started out on The Hub, but then got cancelled, but the reruns as well as it's spinoff sequel Care Bears & Cousins are on Netflix, and then Welcome to Care-A-Lot moved to Hulu in the US (and eventually dropped off Netflix elsewhere). Care Bears and Cousins remains on Netflix since Netflix provided part of the funding for the production of the show. Care Bears: Unlock the Magic is a total wreck- in the US, it went to Boomerang who clearly had no interest in the show. Elsewhere, the show went to a mishmash of country-specific networks.
The toys have an equally colorful history- they started out being produced by Kenner, lasting through Hasbro's purchase of the brand, but eventually got shelved when blatant mismanagement all but killed the brand. The brand was then sold to Play Along Toys, who managed to nurse it back to health. In late 2009 tho, Hasbro took the brand back, but again mismanaged it. American Greetings was definitely not pleased with how long Hasbro took to make toys, and revoked Hasbro's rights again, this time giving the rights to Just Play. In 2018, the rights were transitioned off to Basic Fun! Toys, a company founded by the same person as Play Along.
Cree Summer was not fond of her voice work for the first two movies (she played Young Kim and Christy, respectively). She was more focused on her music career at the time and only got the roles because her father was doing voices for Nelvana.
American Greetings/CloudCo never acknowledges the early 2000s CGI movies Care Bears: Journey to Joke-A-Lot and Care Bears: Big Wish Movie. The official Care BearsYouTube channel uploads clips from every incarnation and installment except those two movies. They're also never acknowledged on the official Care Bears social media. This gives off the impression that they are apathetic towards/ashamed of these movies.
Invisible Advertising: While the Care Bear Cousins were Put on a Bus in 1994, when the Care Bears franchise gained a revival during the 2000s, Play Along Toys attempted to bring back the Cousins between 2003-2005, unlike the titular bears. There was barely any advertisement for any of the Cousins with commercials focused on the Care Bear Cousins airing very sporadically between 2003-2005 on television. Stuffed animals of the Cousins were either sold or given away as prizes at carnivals and fairs, with some being sold exclusively at Hot Topic. After 2005, the Cousins wouldn't get a major role in the Care Bears franchise until the 2015 Netflix series Care Bears & Cousins which brought back Brave Heart Lion, Cosy Heart Penguin, Lotsa Heart Elephant, and Bright Heart Raccoon.
Compared to the 80s era, where the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins are regularly seen together. The 00's revival rarely showed the Care Bear Cousins interacting with Care Bears. The exception is in supplemental material, notably in books where some of the Cousins are seen together with the Bears (most notably the 2005 book "Giving Thanks" where Tenderheart invited the Cousins for a Thanksgiving Dinner with the other Bears).
No Export for You: Oddly enough, Japan only got the second movie (A New Generation) of the original movie trilogy and none of the animated series until the 2000's direct-to-video specials. Taking into account the Japanese (and mostly East Asian) taste for anything cute and cuddly, it's really odd that the franchise skipped those audiences for many years. However, the Care Bears once collaborated with Sanrio (with "The Little Twin Stars") and created Japanese exclusive merchandise, including two Bears especially made for the Japanese market.
Given that American Greetings actually have a child company running in Malaysia (Memory Lane), it's especially weird that Care Bears merchandise has been ridiculously hard to get in the country. AiCAL was introduced very late into the franchise' life, aired only once on Cartoon Network (same as Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Bitty Adventures), and the DVD release is a case of Bad Export for You in that the two episodes that made up the Down to Earth special was never released, and WtCAL was only available on Boomerang in Asia, which is not available in Malaysia (and since the shutdown of the South East Asian feed, not available anywhere in South East Asia). Also, AiCAL era merch were not available in the country, and the only WtCAL merch available in the country are toddler clothing- for some reason, the other merchandises are still stuck in the 1980s era designs.
Sort of. Billie Mae Richards, the voice of Tenderheart Bear in the first two films and the DiC TV series, and Jim Henshaw, the voice of Bright Heart Raccoon in the first two films, had their roles switched in the Nelvana TV series.
The Latin American Spanish versions does this to ridiculous levels, because not only they switched out voice actors, they also switched voice acting studios and even studios from different countries. Just to give an idea, here is the whole story: The movies (with the exception of the Nutcracker Suite special), the DiC TV series and Care Bears and Cousins were dubbed in Mexico (and each movie were dubbed with different voice actors, with the only exception of Tender Heart Bear's VA), the first half of the Nelvana TV series were dubbed in Chile and the second half (when Shreeky appears for first time) was dubbed in Venezuela and the most recent specials and TV series were dubbed in Argentina.
Since the TV specials, many characters went through this. See here for voice history.
Sequel Gap: After the Nelvana-produced Care Bears series ended in 1988, the franchise went 16 years without an Animated Adaptation until 2004's Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot. If their first animated series since 1988 is to be considered, then it's 19 years with Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot (2007) closing the gap.
She's a Man in Japan: In the French European dub of the DiC series, Lotsa Heart Elephant and Cheer Bear are male characters (and are both voiced by Roger Carel).
Uncredited Role: The Care Bears franchise was co-created by a children's illustrator named Elena Kucharik, who originally painted them to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. None of the animated series have included her name in the credits.
for voice history.