The new Care Bears show “Welcome to Care-a-Lot” has been airing on The Hub since the begining of the month. Though the show does not seem to have attracted an adult audience like the Hub’s other show My Little Pony has, it’s nice to see that they’re still making an effort to include completely obscure references that would be completely lost on the target demographic. In last week’s episode “Show of Shyness” the human of the week Phoebe is performing in a concert with the “shady” Beastly on drums. Harmony encourages him by saying “Beastly, I gotta have more cowbell!”. This would be reference to the iconic Saturday night live skit in which Christopher Walken encourages Blue Öyster Cult to include “More cowbell” in “Don’t Fear The Reaper”. Check out a short clip of the scene:

The full episode is currently on the Hub’s web site, though it won’t remain online for long as it will likely be replaced with the latest episode later this week. The quote in question occurs in the 20th minute of the episode.

After hyping up this new show for weeks the premiere came and went without any comment. Why, you might wonder? Well as a Canadian I do not have access to the Hub, but fear not as the “first” episode of Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot is now available for viewing online at the hub’s web site, for a limited time, to people who live in the US. I found the show decent, with some nice animation, some nice characters and a few good jokes, but ultimately probably too juvenile to find a home with adult fans.

One thing to note is that this was in fact not the first episode. This is episode 5 “Compassion — NOT!”. Why start with episode 5? I can’t pretend to understand the thought process of network executives. Perhaps this was a stronger episode they thought would hook more fans? All I know is that it not being the first episode was a bit annoying. From one of the preview clips we knew that “Care Kids” were transported to Care-a-Lot via a “Care and Share Charm”. This information would have been helpful to tell audiences in this episode, instead a girl named Penny is brought in by a rainbow and seems very unsurprised to be transported to this magical world of talking Bears who she’s meeting for the first time. Her acceptance of this incredible situation is something I can only compare to the unsurprised reaction of various characters from Megaman Upon a Star when Megaman enters the real world from the video game world. Another annoying situations is that Wonderheart Bear clearly has a belly badge, although a plot point of the first episode will obviously be her getting one.

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With the June 2nd premiere of Care Bears: Welcome to Care-A-Lot only a week away we have found an early review of the pilot episode “Compassion—-NOT!” by The Rock Father.

Fans have been wondering if favourite villain charcters like Beastly, Shreeky and No Heart from the 80s Nelvana cartoon would be making an appearance and it can now be confirmed that a villain named Beastly will indeed be in the show. Based on his appearance it doesn’t seem like much more than the name will be similar to the old character, but we will know more in a week’s time.

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