Adventures of the Gummi Bears

Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears is an American animated television series that aired in the United States in the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. The series was the first animated production by Walt Disney Animation Television, and loosely inspired by the gummi bear candies; Disney CEO Michael Eisner was struck with inspiration for the show when his son requested the candies one day. The series premiered on NBC on September 14, 1985, and aired there for four seasons. The series moved to ABC for one season from 1989 to 1990 as a part of Disney's Gummi Bears/Winnie the Pooh Hour, in which it would be paired with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and concluded on September 6, 1991 as part of The Disney Afternoon. Of the series' 67 shows, 30 were double-features, consisting of two 11-minute cartoons, thereby bringing the series total to 97 distinct episodes overall. The show is well-remembered for its theme music, written by Michael and Patty Silversher.

The series was later rebroadcast on the syndicated Disney Afternoon block, and rerun on the Disney Afternoon through the summer of 1991. In later years, it was shown in reruns on the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, with its most recent televised airing occurring on Toon Disney on December 28, 2001. Seasons 1 to 3 of the series were released on DVD on November 14, 2006.

This show is currently airing on:
 * Disney Junior: Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), Germany, Netherlands, and Flanaders
 * Disney Channel: Russia and Germany
 * Sky Movies Disney: United Kingdom

Premise
The series focuses on the escapades of the eponymous "Gummi Bears," anthropomorphic bears who are the last remnants of a once-great civilization of Gummis that fled the land centuries ago when humans, jealous of the advancements and magical skills of the Gummi Bears, forced the species into exile. Now regarded by most of humankind as fairytales, the show's main cast of Gummi Bears (six in number at the outset of the series, increased to seven during the third season) live in the vast subterranean warren of Gummi Glen in the medieval kingdom of Dunwyn.

The Gummis' modern adventures begin when they are discovered by a human boy named Cavin who happens to have a Gummi Medallion, found by his grandfather many years earlier. After he accidentally enters the colony's underground home of Gummi Glen, they capture and interrogate the boy as to how he gained the medallion. During the questioning, Cavin escapes after Tummi inadvertently gives him Gummiberry Juice to drink, but refuses to cause any harm and attempts to befriend the reclusive bears. Impressed by this civilized behavior, they make him swear to keep their confidence and make him a privileged friend of the colony. The medallion magically unlocks the colony's Great Book of Gummi, an essential reference guide to the forgotten knowledge of the Gummi Bears. Inspired by its writings, the colony resolves to rediscover their heritage and help Dunwyn defend against evil. Later, another human from Dunwyn accidentally learns that the Gummi Bears are real: the young daughter of the king, Princess Calla. She also promises to keep the Gummis' existence a secret. In subsequent seasons, the Gummis would befriend or be discovered by other friendly humans.

The main antagonist of both Dunwyn and the Gummis is Duke Sigmund Igthorn, a renegade noble with an army of ogres, from the neighboring province of Drekmore. Unfortunately, in stopping Igthorn's attempt to bombard his enemies with a grand catapult, the Gummi Bears alert him to their presence. Igthorn will stop at nothing to discover and exploit their secrets to become invincible and capture Dunwyn Castle. Chief among his primary goals is gaining a reliable supply of the Gummi Bears' vital strategic substance, Gummiberry Juice, a magic potion that endows Gummi bears with bouncing abilities, but gifts humans (or ogres) with momentary super-strength as well as other numerous uses, including serving as fuel for machines.

In addition to combating Igthorn's ambition, the Gummis regularly encounter other evil humans and magical beings ranging from wizards to gods, all the while attempting to hide their existence from the world at large. One of the show's main recurring storylines outside of the schemes of Igthorn is the mystery of the ancient Gummis, who are now scattered all across the world, but who have left advanced technology behind them.

Protagonists

 * Gummi Bears - A species of anthropomorphic bears who are mostly unknown to the world.
 * Cavin - An ally of the Gummi Bears and one of the few people who try keeping their existence a secret from other humans.
 * Calla - A tomboyish princess who despises her father's dream of her being the most 'perfect princess'.

Minor Protagonists

 * Princess Marie - (voiced by Kath Soucie): The daughter of King Jean-Claude. Originally a spoiled brat, she considered Calla a rival and picked a fight with her on every occasion. After both their lives are saved by the Gummi Bears, however, she mellows considerably and becomes one of Calla's best friends.
 * Sir Gawain - Cavin's grandfather who was a knight that believed in the Gummi Bears.
 * Sir Tuxford

Antagonists

 * Duke Igthorn was once a knight of Dunwyn. At some point prior to the series, he was banished from the kingdom for staging a military coup against King Gregor. Afterwards, Duke Igthorn moved to Drekmore, a dangerous land bordering Dunwyn. There he took command of the native Ogres and occupies a rundown castle called Castle Drekmore and began scheming to get revenge against Dunwyn. His first attempt was through a giant catapult, which was foiled by Cavin and the Gummi Bears. However, because of the Gummi Bears' intervention, Duke Igthorn came to know of the Gummi Bears and their juice. From there on, he would frequently attempt to gain access to the potion because of the vast strength it would give humans, which would presumably assist in his schemes. Despite occasional bumbling and a slight streak of cowardice, Igthorn is a valid threat to both Gummi Glen and the Kingdom of Dunwyn.


 * Toadie serves as Igthorn's right hand. He is both the smallest, yet the most intelligent of the Ogres, albeit by a small margin above the others. He is often bullied because of his size, though the other Ogres do respect his skills at reading and writing. He's voiced first by Bill Scott, then by Corey Burton, and in the Polish dub is voiced by Andrzej Arciszewski.


 * Lady Bane, a villainous sorceress and secondary antagonist in the series. She is served by feline like Troggs in Victorian era clothing. Unlike Castle Drekmore, which is dirty and in disrepair, Lady Bane's castle is clean and luxurious. She is quite vain, in one episode she not only laments her failure at being foiled by the Gummis, but also that she chipped one of her nails. She is an attractive woman with long black hair, which has gotten her the attention of Duke Igthorn. Although she did not care much for Igthorn, she did agree to a dinner date with him on the basis of forging an alliance to attack Gummi Glen. She also owns a Gummi Medallion, as does Zummi. She is voiced by Tress MacNeille.


 * Marquis de Bouillabaisse - A short, stout pirate who plots to overthrow King Jean-Claude and take over his kingdom (and eventually others). He has pet piranhas.


 * Flint Shrubwood - A headhunter ordered by Duke Igthorn. After job done Igthorn reject paying him for his job after he caught Cubbi. He takes over Drekmore and put Igthorn and Cubbi in Jail. They break free and Flint follow them until Igthorn pay him and Flint disappear. This character is a trivia to Clint Eastwood's appearance of the Dollar-Trilogy (1964-1966) and uses the striking quote "Make My Day".


 * Lord Willoughby - An arrogant, grumpy man who dislikes Sir Gawain's stories involving Gummi Bears.


 * Unwin - A knight squire in Training. He is a bully who constantly picks on Cavin and only cares about the Princess. However, he is shown to be a coward in the presence of ogres.

Gummiberry Juice
Main article: Gummiberry Juice Gummiberry Juice is a concoction formulated using gummiberries by the Gummi Glen Gummi Bears, with the recipe being held by women such as Grammi Gummi, and later on Sunni Gummi. The juice is produced by adding 6 handfuls of red berries, then 4 orange ones, three purple, 4 blue and 3 green and a yellow berry, among other undisclosed ingredients. The recipe ends with the 3-step-stir: first stir slow to the right, then slow to the left, then bang the pot to get out the bubbles. The juice when consumed has varied effects depending on the species or race that consumes the juice.

Gummi Bears gain the ability to bounce at unusual heights for a limited amount of time. Ogres and humans both gain super strength for a similar amount of time. Drinking too much Gummiberry Juice have an unforeseen side effects on the consumer, and it appears that the abilities gained from drinking the juice only can be used once per day. Also if the juice is produced inaccurately from the recipe the results are explosive outcomes though nothing fatal.

In the series, the Juice was used a major plot device with the main reoccurring villain Duke Igthorn trying get the juice or the recipe to create mass amounts to make a huge super strength army of Ogres. Another reoccurring theme was the Gummi Bears or their companions using the juice to fight off Duke Igthorn or the other villains.

Home video releases
On November 14, 2006, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1. The 3-disc set features seasons 1-3 and does not contain any bonus features.

Various countries outside of the US have released VHS copies of episodes from the series.

International Broadcast

 * Austria
 * ORF eins (since February 3, 2012)
 * Chile
 * Canal 13 (1992–1995, 1999–2001)
 * France
 * FR 3 (1986)
 * Germany
 * ARD (1988–1991)
 * Super RTL (January 2004–May 2004), March 2005–July 2005, January 2006–March 2006, July 2008–August 2008, since April 16, 2012)
 * Disney Channel (?-present; on the Playhouse Disney block: 2004-2011; on the Disney Junior block: 2011–present)
 * Disney Junior (since July 14, 2011)
 * Italy
 * Rai Uno (1986)
 * Japan
 * Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (1987)
 * WoWow (1994)
 * Latin America
 * Disney Channel (2000–2003)
 * Netherlands
 * NCRV (1986-1988)
 * Disney Junior (16 January 2012 – 22 November 2013)
 * Poland
 * TVP1 (1990, 23 June 1991 – 15 December 1991, 17 January 1993 – 13 June 1993, 6 February 1994-24 December 1994, 31 January 1999 – 13 June 1999, 19 September 1999-25 December 1999, 2 July 2000-7 January 2001, 11 April 2004 – 2 January 2005, 18 March 2007 – 15 June 2008)
 * Polsat (6 September 2008)
 * Russia
 * OITV - channel Ostankino (1992)
 * Scandinavia
 * Disney Channel (including Playhouse Disney and Disney Junior blocks) (1 March 2003 – 14 August 2005, 1–29 February 2012, 12 March 2012 – 5 October 2012, 5–30 November 2012, 23–26 December 2012, 2–24 February 2012, 23–26 December 2013, 8 June 2015-14 August 2015, )
 * Toon Disney (6 August 2005 – 29 May 2009)
 * Disney Junior (16 January 2012 – 22 November 2013)
 * Spain
 * Playhouse Disney (2002-2011)
 * Sweden
 * SVT (1994-1995)
 * United Kingdom
 * ITV (1986-1998)

Significance
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears was Disney's first major serialized animated television series (it was released back to back with another show, The Wuzzles, which lasted only 13 episodes), and is often credited by animators and animation historians as having helped jump start the television animation boom of the late 1980s and 1990s. Consequently, it also became the forerunner to Disney's famous Disney Afternoon timeslot, which gave way to other famous serialized Disney television series, such as Darkwing Duck, DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, Bonkers, TaleSpin and Gargoyles. Although many of these subsequently-created shows exceeded Gummi Bears in budget and length, it is often credited as the sort of prototype to all of the subsequent animation which followed it, with DuckTales really jumpstarting the trend.

Additionally, while not having the largest number of total episodes, Gummi Bears has the biggest number of seasons of any Disney animated series. Whereas other shows simply produced large numbers of episodes for each of their seasons (DuckTales, for instance, had 100 episodes over three years), Gummi Bears is unique in that it was actually annually renewed for new episodes over six consecutive years, a feat which few other children's animated series can boast even today.

The show was so successful in the United Kingdom that the episodes "A New Beginning" and "Faster than a Speeding Tummi" were released as theatrical featurettes there in 1986 and 1987. Other appearances of Gummi Bears in other media included one appearance of Gruffi Gummi starring in a D-TV music video of the Elvis Presley song "Teddy Bear" in 1986.

The show's popularity also led to a re-theming of Disneyland's Motor Boat Cruise, along with a small part of Disneyland that became known as "Disney Afternoon Avenue." The Motor Boat Cruise became the "Motor Boat Cruise to Gummi Glen" and plywood characters from the show made Gummiberry Juice along the waterway. The Gummi Bears, and on occasion human characters such as Duke Igthorn, Princess Calla, or King Gregor, have also been featured as meetable characters who greet guests in Disney theme parks. However, all of the characters from the show have not made any appearances for many years and are now retired.

A comic strip based on the TV show (featuring just the Gummi Bears themselves) was produced from 1986-1989. The Sunday strips would have a fun fact and activity along with the actual Sunday strip.