We Bare Bears

We Bare Bears follows three anthropomorphic adoptive brother bears: Grizzly (Eric Edelstein), Panda (Bobby Moynihan), and Ice Bear (Demetri Martin). The Bears attempt to integrate with human society, such as by purchasing food, making human companions, or trying to become famous on the Internet, although these attempts see the Bears struggle to do so due to the civilized nature of humans and their own animal instincts.[6] However, in the end, they figure out that they have each other for support.[7]

The Bears often form a "bear stack", which they use to get around the city, and has become perhaps the most recognizable image from the show.[6] Occasionally, the Bears share adventures with their friends, such as child prodigy Chloe Park (Charlyne Yi), bigfoot Charlie (Jason Lee), the bears' rival and internet sensation koala Nom Nom (Patton Oswalt), park ranger Tabes (Cameron Esposito), and produce saleswoman Lucy (Ellie Kemper). Some flashback episodes chronicle the adventures of the Bears as cubs trying to find a home.

(From top to bottom) Grizzly, Panda and Ice Bear (pictured left) forming their "bear stack".[6]

The show was created by cartoonist Daniel Chong, who had previously worked as a story artist for Pixar and Illumination Entertainment. The show is based on his webcomic The Three Bare Bears, which features the same characters.[8] This webcomic was uploaded online from 2010 to 2011,[9] running for ten strips. Chong has said he first drew the bears, including drawing them in a stack, in an attempt to make his girlfriend's niece laugh.[10] Chong also said that, after a different pilot he was working on did not get picked up, he wanted to pitch something else, "and this was just the closest thing near me!" Chong said that doing the comic helped a lot with the show, especially in providing the dynamic between the three main characters, though the characters have also evolved a lot from the comic.[11]

Billed as a comedy, the show is a production of Cartoon Network Studios, which developed the program with Chong as part of their shorts development program. It was announced during the network's 2014 upfront.[7] According to Chong, much of the pilot was done with traditional watercolors, then digitally altered, to give "a naturalistic feel", but traditional work was not possible for a full show so he and the art director found a digital way to produce a "painterly feel", using references such as Peanuts, children's book illustrators like Tomi Ungerer and E. H. Shepard, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.[11][12]

Nom Nom and Charlie were initially voiced by Ken Jeong and Tom Arnold, respectively, before getting recast sometime before airing. Episodes, other than specials and shorts, were 11 minutes long.

We Bare Bears promotional event at Victoria Square, Birmingham

The pilot episode made its world premiere at the KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival at the EYE Film Institute Netherlands in 2014.[13] The short won the KLIK! Young Amsterdam Audience Award.[14]

We Bare Bears premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States and Canada on July 27, 2015.[1][15] A total of 140 episodes, 15 shorts have been made, as well as a film.

Penguin Random House announced in 2014 that it would publish books based on various programs for Cartoon Network, including We Bare Bears. The books were produced out of the company's Cartoon Network Books imprint, a division of the Penguin Young Readers Group, and is based on a partnership with the network that started in 2013.[36] Books based on We Bare Bears are:

• Bears: Awesome at Everything by Christa Roberts (2017)[37]
• We Bare Bears: We Go Everywhere Handbook by Molly Reisner (2017)[38]
• We Bare Bears Mad Libs by Hannah S. Campbell (2017)[39]

On May 30, 2019, Cartoon Network announced that We Bare Bears: The Movie would be released in mid-2020.[4] On May 21, 2020, the film was announced to be released digitally on June 30, 2020, and on Cartoon Network on September 7, 2020; it served as a conclusion to the narrative of the series.[2] The movie was directed by series creator Daniel Chong and features the main and supporting voice actors reprising their respective roles from the TV series. The plot follows the three bear brothers Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear having to flee a wildlife control agent by leaving the Bay Area and seeking refuge to Canada. Along the way, the Bears endure hardships while staying true to their promise of being "bros for life".

Covering the film for SF Weekly, Grace Li summarized the film as "sweet and fun" and a perfect summation for four seasons of adventures. Though expressing regret over the series' unresolved story lines, she complimented its zany sense of humor and its ultimate message, which to her was that "you can always choose your family".[40] Shamus Kelley of Den of Geek gave the film a five out-of five star rating and praised it as an excellent film; one that feels relevant without losing the fun that made the show a fan favorite. Commending the relationship of its main characters, whose fight against intolerance he said infuses every moment of the film with more power and relevance than any other story the show has done before.[41] Rollin Bishop of ComicBook.com awarded the film a four out of five-star rating. Though describing it as poorly paced, he praised its decision to include the heavy themes, which were exacerbated by current events.[42]

A prequel spinoff series titled We Baby Bears was announced on May 30, 2019, which was slated to premiere on Cartoon Network in spring 2021 but was delayed to January 2022.[43][44] The show focuses on the three bears when they were cubs. The series is rendered in an anime-esque style and featured the bears going on various adventures in their magic box. Manny Hernandez, who served as supervising director on the previous series, serves as the showrunner while Daniel Chong is involved as an executive producer.[45] A trailer was released on November 25, 2021.[46] The series stars Connor Andrade as Grizz, Amari McCoy as Panda and Max Mitchell as Ice Bear, and premiered on January 1, 2022.[5] Demetri Martin, the voice of adult Ice Bear on the parent series provides the narration for the spinoff.

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• Official website
• We Bare Bears at IMDb
• We Bare Bears at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Original webcomic