We Bare Bears: The Movie sticks the stack

Few television shows have resonated with the kids and I as much as We Bare Bears have. It’s one of those quirky shows that we stumbled on to while digging through Netflix. I knew that it was from Cartoon Network and their shows immediately have an inherent trust in their writing, wit and quality. Four short seasons later it’s one of the few shows that will stop us in our tracks and turn on the couch magnet so that we can’t escape. We Bare Bears: The Movie is an original film from Cartoon Network that serves and a series finale as great at Breaking Bad.

The movie serves as an almost perfect ending to the show. The movie starts out with the baby bears, specifically Grizz walking down some train tracks where he meets Panda. Ice Bear enters the mix and the charm that makes up the episodes where the young bears star is immediately there. There is the charm of great friends, the sweetness of children and the hardwired characteristics that are in the adult bears that viewers love.

The fact that We Bare Bears could have two versions of the same characters, albeit in different episodes has always been fascinating. The whole ‘Muppet Baby’ thing in every other show has always irritated me. However, We Bare Bears never had that issue of being too saccharinely sweet. Whenever the baby bears are shown it doesn’t actually baby them too much. The craft of the story is still there and threads of how the characters will act in the future remain also. Most importantly it’s more about play when the baby bears drive the story. This is the story that harkens back to kids playing that shows them what their imaginations can do; and illustrates to those kids (and adults) who are slightly older how funny the mundane elements of life can be.

The heartfelt elements of the baby bears, mixed with the older teen to adult characteristics of Grizz, Ice Bear and Panda are back in We Bare Bears: The Movie. After disturbing a swath of the city in their quest to do something the bears find themselves unwelcome. Bears belong in nature and have caused too much chaos for too long becomes the rallying cry for Agent Trout. Intent on running the bears out of town the three stackable friends find themselves on a road trip.

Fans of the show will appreciate and love the countless cameos from characters who have been in some of the episodes from the past four seasons. To the same token, some will leave wanting more of certain characters, like Charlie, Nom Nom, Ranger Tabes or Chloe. For those people there will never be enough of those characters and I get it. Personally, I wanted more Charlie, but ended up being very happy with the movie.

We Bare Bears: The Movie is available now on various streaming platforms.