Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear embark on an adventure to Canada after an agent from the Department of National Wildlife Control tries to put an end to their hi-jinx.
“We Bare Bears: The Movie” follows three bears – Grizzly (Eric Edelstein), Panda (Bobby Moynihan), and Ice (Demetri Martin) who want to become internet famous. But by trying to do so, they continuously wreak havoc in their town, which leads the humans to turn against them. The bears decide to move to Canada, but the villainous Agent Trout (Marc Evan Jackson) is determined to catch them before they can leave the country.
I have never seen the Cartoon Network show “We Bare Bears” before, so I didn’t know what to expect when it came to their movie. There are a few good gags in the film, but it’s not really a film I found to be funny. Instead, the film was a weird mix of internet culture and wokeness. As someone who has three kids in their family whose best friends are their iPads where they watch YouTube videos and play Roblox all day, this movie is right up their alley.
The voice acting and animation were solid. Nothing really blew me away, but I thought the bears were cute and liked the animation style of the movie. Marc Evan Jackson was a welcome addition as the antagonist and brings some of the same energy he had as the demon, Shawn, from “The Good Place.”
I did enjoy the relationship between the three bear brothers. Ice Bear was my favorite of the three, he’s a bear of few words, but he can run fast and kick butt. Panda loves his phone and, out of the three, is the one who most wants to go viral. But it’s Grizzly who is the main character of the film. He had the most depth as he had to live up to the “big brother” role for his brothers in the face of his mistakes. You can tell that even though the three bears are not biologically brothers, they are brothers through their bond.
The first half of the film is full of pop culture and internet references, but the theme of immigration is apparent in the second half of the movie. There’s a not-so-subtle analogy where the three bears are being separated and put in cages that reflect our current political climate. Though the parallel was obvious, I applaud the writers for touching upon such a tough subject. My little sister, who I watched the film with, does not know about the border situation where children her age are being put in cages simply because they are seeking refuge, but her watching the film exposes her to the situation and serves as a bridge to start a discussion on the issue with her. The three bears face prejudice and are harped upon simply because they look different.
While I am not the target audience for this film, I was impressed with how it tackled race, prejudice, immigration, and refuge. And while some of the internet references were outdated, YouTube-obsessed kids will get a big kick from the viral animals who make an appearance in the film. Overall, “We Bare Bears: The Movie” is a great movie to show your kids if you want to give them a family-friendly way to expose them to real-world issues we are facing today.
Available on DVD September 8th from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
