Adventures of the Gummi Bears

 

And all because Michael Eisners son had a craving for gummi bears.

Well, continued the Disney afternoon shows with the Adventure of Gummi Bears. The story of the six last gummi bears living in Gummi Glen, as they protect the land of Danwyn from the ogre forces of Duke Igthorn as they hide from humans and try to contact the ancient gummies that left 500 years ago. Mostly an episodic show where the gummies either has to stop Ightorns plan or something magically happened that need to be fixed or finding a gummi machine or something magical from the ancient gummies causes problems. There is the grumpy gummi that builds everything, grammy gummi that is designated cook as well as the one making the gummi berry juice that allows the gummibears to bounce around while humans get super strength, the magician gummi that has a short memory, Tummi the fat one (what else is there to describe him really?), and the two children. Later they added the artist gummi with the talking bird, Artie Deco (I get the pun at least). I can't recall the other names since I was only familiar with the Swedish version... and the Danish version

Yes, my parents had recorded two episodes on VHS and those where in Danish, the Gummadoon episode with the ancient city that appears every 100th year and then the griffin and prankster-fairy half-episodes. I don't think I ever understood them until I just watched them now (maybe I watched them on TV afterwards, but I can't recall that). Then we taped a couple of episodes from the Swedish Disney Afternoon. The first one where they meet Cavin that give them the gummi medallion in order to open the gummi book, the Ursalia (Ursa being latin for bear, stargazing has a bit of advantage sometimes) episode with the barbarian bears, the golden armour episode which Toady used, the sir Tuxford episode. I can't recall any other episodes and it's rather interesting that it's all over the seasons. I recall watching the spider episode with the spinnster, but watching it now I have a completely different memory of the sequence of events in the episode. Maybe just the hint of a spider made me think that it was a two-parter and too be continue.

Looking through the series again... I enjoyed it for its fantasy elements. And sometimes the animation was rather good as well as great music, but I don't think some of the dialog sits so great with me. A bit too goody like and morals ending every episode. At least the first season. A bit of contrived setups and sometimes I just don't like the characters (especially the children gummies) when they get entitled. But it at least got a decent ending in the King Igthorn two-parter, although I would say that a secret weapon that is a termite feels rather underwhelming. Of course, I have a big problem with Igthorn's voice, I don't like that smarmy sound he makes and the Swedish dub at least made him sound angry with some omph behind it.