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rubyprismRecently Ayulsa and I watched some old Care Bears movies that I've got practically memorised from when I was a young kid. Once upon a time I apparently had no taste in song lyrics, but the ones I could understand are permanently burnt into my brain anyway. And aside from discovering a latticework of plot holes that never bothered me when I was three, I've noticed a sad but ubiquitous theme in the major movies.
It's never said that the Care Bears never use magic, even when they do blatantly magical things like manifest giant helium balloons from their tummies. They use caring, not magic. Magic is evil. If you ever find a secret glowing book that whispers to you to use magic, don't! It'll make bad things happen for no reason, because that's what magic does. And you must never use magic to get what you want: you must earn it legitimately through talents you happen to be born with, or else through caring. (Which is allowed to do magical-looking things, so long as you don't actually call it magic.) Jeez, it's really kind of fear-mongering, the way magic is treated. So much for the exciting and charming fantasies for kids.
In the second movie, a clumsy little girl is granted the special ability to run fast, swim well, hike really far, turn graceful cartwheels, and so forth, because she made a magical deal with a powerful evil entity (who, to the movie's credit, is granted as much personhood as anyone else). Although the plot obviously aims to show that she doesn't need magic to be worthwhile and that the things she can do naturally are just as impressive as the show-offy skills she was granted via magic, there's no particular plot reason why she has to be turned back to normal at the end of the show. But nonetheless it feels like she does have to be put back to normal-- because that's how these stories go; all unfair advantages are reset in the end and the status quo is restored. Except, of course, for any personal insights gained along the way, everything has to be put exactly back in place. The story makes you feel as though it would be unfair if Christie got to keep her powers. But why? There's nothing inherently unfair about her magically becoming a great athlete. It only has to be changed because magic isn't allowed to have its way. We're all supposed to prefer a world where magical changes don't happen.
For a kids' story that's meant to be uplifting and cheerful, it's really kind of depressing. The Care Bears' job is ostensibly to keep everyone caring, but in truth it's to maintain the status quo. Because there's never any good or neutral magic, or even any evil magic that can work good changes as a side effect. The world is, by default, at its maximum state of caring, and anything that happens to it can only ever make the caring meter drop. Big changes in the world only ever cause bad things, so they must all be reverted in the end, even the harmless ones. And forget dreaming of magic, because it'll just get you into trouble and cause regret. Well, that sucks.
It's never said that the Care Bears never use magic, even when they do blatantly magical things like manifest giant helium balloons from their tummies. They use caring, not magic. Magic is evil. If you ever find a secret glowing book that whispers to you to use magic, don't! It'll make bad things happen for no reason, because that's what magic does. And you must never use magic to get what you want: you must earn it legitimately through talents you happen to be born with, or else through caring. (Which is allowed to do magical-looking things, so long as you don't actually call it magic.) Jeez, it's really kind of fear-mongering, the way magic is treated. So much for the exciting and charming fantasies for kids.
In the second movie, a clumsy little girl is granted the special ability to run fast, swim well, hike really far, turn graceful cartwheels, and so forth, because she made a magical deal with a powerful evil entity (who, to the movie's credit, is granted as much personhood as anyone else). Although the plot obviously aims to show that she doesn't need magic to be worthwhile and that the things she can do naturally are just as impressive as the show-offy skills she was granted via magic, there's no particular plot reason why she has to be turned back to normal at the end of the show. But nonetheless it feels like she does have to be put back to normal-- because that's how these stories go; all unfair advantages are reset in the end and the status quo is restored. Except, of course, for any personal insights gained along the way, everything has to be put exactly back in place. The story makes you feel as though it would be unfair if Christie got to keep her powers. But why? There's nothing inherently unfair about her magically becoming a great athlete. It only has to be changed because magic isn't allowed to have its way. We're all supposed to prefer a world where magical changes don't happen.
For a kids' story that's meant to be uplifting and cheerful, it's really kind of depressing. The Care Bears' job is ostensibly to keep everyone caring, but in truth it's to maintain the status quo. Because there's never any good or neutral magic, or even any evil magic that can work good changes as a side effect. The world is, by default, at its maximum state of caring, and anything that happens to it can only ever make the caring meter drop. Big changes in the world only ever cause bad things, so they must all be reverted in the end, even the harmless ones. And forget dreaming of magic, because it'll just get you into trouble and cause regret. Well, that sucks.
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Date: 2011-01-07 10:52 am (UTC)I think it's not even necessarily that we're told that Christie, Dawn and John have to work hard if they want to be Camp Champs-- after all, they're already trying as hard as they can, and they just can't help it that they're not naturally athletic. Rather, it's like they're trying to reassure the viewers that they shouldn't be jealous of people who can do something better than they can, because after all, it's good enough to be just what you are. It's their way of saying, "You don't have to be recipient of a great windfall, such as natural talent or magic, in order to be worth something." But... the way they do it, it's like they're also saying, "If you do get a great windfall unexpectedly, it'll cost you."
You know, I never noticed this, but you have a point. It's like, the Care Bears are never trying to make the world better, even though it's pretty obvious it could use more caring. There's no positive change to be made in the world: it's already a caring utopia. Yet if it were, you'd think that in and of itself would be enough to maintain the status quo: in a world of perfect caring, why would people just stop?
Yeah... It's really kind of bizarre how the Caring Meter is at maximum when things are normal. I suppose it's less true in the redesign for the second movie, where the Caring Meter is a lot less readable (but also a lot less focused-on, as the point becomes to defeat Dark Heart and rescue one's friends, whereas the first movie focused more on tensely watching it drop.) Does this mean the meter was designed pessimistically without the idea that the world could ever be any better than it already is, or does this mean that the world is supposed to be more or less perfect, somehow, before things go wrong?
It's true that no one ever sees the Care Bears except when someone is desperately in need of caring, presumably because they're pretty busy. This explains away why the Care Bears don't just get to visit all the kids in the world all the time, and hence why the kids viewing the movie haven't been honoured with a visit-- it's not that they're not worth it, it's that they're doing a good enough job of caring already, and they should be proud and carry on. But it also seems to imply that the Care Bears only intervene when there's big trouble that threatens the median status quo, rather than ever being able to make things ultimately any better.