Care Bears (partially lost uncut English versions of episodes of DiC animated TV series; 1985)
The show's main title card.
Status: Partially Lost
Care Bears was a 1985 animated TV series, produced by DiC Entertainment. It was based on the franchise of the same name created by the greeting card brand American Greetings. It began on September 14th, 1985 and ended on November 23rd of the same year and consisted of 22 episodes.
The 22 episodes were originally made to be 11 minutes long, but for syndication and DVD, they've been trimmed down to 10 minutes for an unknown reason. For some international markets (such as France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands), the 11-minute versions are used, but almost all DVD releases around the world now use the edited versions.
Status
The only English versions of the uncut episodes to have been released to DVD in the USA are "Lucky Charm" (found on the 2003 DVD of Bedtime Stories) and "Soap Box Derby" (found on the 2003 DVD of The Last Laugh). All other English DVD releases of those two stories use the syndicated cuts.
However, the DVD releases of the complete DiC series in France and Germany do include the 11-minute versions (albeit sped-up to PAL format), but don't feature the English audio. Similarly, the Netherlands initially broadcast the uncut versions for the Dutch dub on VARA during the 1980s, but DVD releases of the Dutch dub used the 10-minute edits.
At the time, it was unknown if the English versions of the missing scenes were released in any other format. The earliest USA TV recordings that have been found (be it on local stations or the Disney Channel) were all of the 10-minute syndicated edits.
However, on January 10, 2023, user supreamdragonball uploaded a compilation of mid-1980s UK recordings of 14 Care Bears episodes from the DiC series, thus confirming that the uncut versions in English have aired in the UK. As of now, 8 of the episodes have yet to be fully recovered in English, but given the recently found information, it's likely that the 1986 UK VHS releases (and, by extension, the US Kideo Video releases that the UK releases are based on) that feature said episodes are also of the 11-minute versions.
Episode List
| # | Episode Title | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birthday | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears And Their Friends by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 2 | Camp | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears And Their Friends by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 3 | Braces | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears to the Rescue by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 4 | Split Decision | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears to the Rescue by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 5 | Lucky Charm | Found | |
| 6 | Soap Box Derby | Found | |
| 7 | The Last Laugh | Found | |
| 8 | The Show Must Go On | Found | |
| 9 | The Forest of Misfortune | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears to the Rescue by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 10 | The Magic Mirror | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears: Magical Stories About Caring by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 11 | Daydreams | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears: Magical Stories About Caring by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 12 | Runaway | Lost | Possibly included on the 1986 UK VHS release of Care Bears: Magical Stories About Caring by The Video Collection and Kideo Video. |
| 13 | Mayor for a Day | Found | |
| 14 | The Night the Stars Went Out | Found | |
| 15 | The Magic Shop | Found | |
| 16 | Concrete Rain | Found | |
| 17 | Dry Spell | Found | |
| 18 | Drab City | Found | |
| 19 | Wedding Bells | Found | |
| 20 | The Old Man and the Lighthouse | Found | |
| 21 | The Cloud Worm | Found | |
| 22 | The Girl Who Called Wolf | Found |