We Bare Bears: The Movie
netflixWith a witty charm and extremely likable characters, Daniel Chong's animated series We Bare Bears has captivated audiences becoming one of the more memorable outings for Cartoon Network in recent memory. Following three bears who live in San Francisco and go on episodic adventures, the show carries a calming charm and wholesomeness that is rarely seen anymore. Instead of big villains looking to end the world, most conflicts focused on casual modern world trials such as people talking at the movie theater or the rise in popularity of reusable bags. We Bare Bears created an identity of being small and relaxing which made the announcement that the show would be concluding with a feature-length film a bit confusing. Grizz (Eric Edelstein), Panda (Bobby Moynihan) and Ice Bear (Demetri Martin) continue to have their wacky adventures but the city around them has had enough. They call for something to be done to the bears for causing so much trouble and damage to their neighborhood, which draws the attention of Agent Trout (Marc Evan Jackson), who plans to capture the bears and forcibly move them to a bear sanctuary. The bears manage to briefly escape but are left with few options, eventually deciding to ditch San Francisco and make their way to Canada. This on the run plot might seem pretty unexpected for a We Bare Bears plot, and that shows in plenty of cases.
Luckily, one of those cases is not the comedy – which was easily the best part of the main series. We Bare Bears: The Movie has the audacious challenge of turning character dynamics and a comedic style designed for 10-minute episodic episodes into a full-blown 70-minute sequence, which easily could have gone wrong if the comedic writing wasn't as sharp as it is. Where many animated shows rely on fart jokes and loud screaming to portray comedy, We Bare Bears: The Movie continues the show's ability to succeed with legitimately smart and well-crafted comedy which actually managed to get audible laughs. From sight gags to some incredibly funny one-liners, We Bare Bears: The Movie is able to have subtle comedy that doesn't take away from the rest of the film while also causing the film to be a legitimately great time.
A lot of this also has to be recognized as the work of the voice actors, who give three of the best animated performances of the year so far. Eric Edelstein, Bobby Moynihan and Demetri Martin all have had years to craft their characters and build chemistry with each other, allowing them to give three extremely diverse performances that also are able to play off of each other. On paper, the brash and confident Grizz probably shouldn't work when placed next to the nervous and self-conscious Panda with the intensely charismatic Ice Bear speaking exclusively in one-liners, but each character plays their part perfectly leading to a perfect balance between all three. Having more than 10-minutes to play with, the film feels free to let dialogue scenes go a bit longer than they would in the show and all-around feels more playful than the show, which has to keep a stronger focus to meet the short runtime it is allowed to play with.
Where the comedy is the best the movie has to offer, its emotion is more mixed. There clearly is a message the film is trying to get across of embracing the difference in others, but it ends up trying to pass this off in a very vague matter that fails to carry much of an impact. Unlike works such as Zootopia, it feels like the movie wanted to include the message but never wanted to make too bold of a statement with it, which sadly made the film feel a bit hollow. This message is even further overshadowed by the emotions present within the characters as their brotherhood is pushed, which ends up reaching way deeper than any of the more important messages the film was trying to portray. The villain and conflict also stand out as being particularly forgettable. There are some memorable scenes here and there, but for the most part, it feels like the film is going through the motions that so many other films have gone through without adding much to make it feel that it is engaging past the comedy. There also are multiple plot arcs that get extremely weak resolutions that will undoubtedly bother some. The show could get away with weaker resolutions – as each episode only got 10-minutes of build and investment from the audience – but the crew clearly struggled with not just organizing a feature-length film but writing conclusions that would match the increased level of investment.
The question of if one should watch We Bare Bears: The Movie really comes down to if they liked the show or not. In many ways, We Bare Bears: The Movie is simply a longer episode of the show with many of the same positives. The comedy and voice acting is still incredible, the animation is of a similar style and quality and all of the favorite characters are here. It is only once you start judging the movie as a feature film that the issues really start to become bothersome. Overall, We Bare Bears: The Movie is, without a doubt, a fun time with some decent emotion here and there and where it might not be super impactful, at only 70-minutes it is hard to say that it isn't worth the time. Give the show a few episodes and if you find yourself having a good time then give the movie a go!
