About
We Bare Bears is a Cartoon Network original series created by Daniel Chong and first premiered on Cartoon Network on July 27, 2015. The series is based on Chong’s short-lived webcomic, “The Three Bare Bears”. Before its’ television debut, the eponymous pilot episode premiered at the KLIK! Festival on November 6, 2014. It is the first Cartoon Network show to be based on a webcomic.
History
Daniel Chong is a former Pixar and Illumination Entertainment employee who is the creator and executive producer of this series.
The Three Bare Bears
Chong created the webcomic, “The Three Bare Bears”, and posted the first page on Blogspot on September 7, 2010.[1] The webcomic was originally a parody of the fairy tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” where there were three different species of bears instead. But later pages moved away from the parody and became it’s own original story. Much of the personalities of the bears were left intact in the series but much of the content was toned down for children’s television because the webcomic contained violence, swearing, and alcohol use. Out of all the bears, Panda has the most radical difference because he becomes more a nervous wreck and a romantic in the series.
We Bare Bears
“We Bare Bears” premiered on Cartoon Network on July 27, 2015 with two 11-minute episodes, “Our Stuff” and “Viral Video”. The series is much more lighthearted and family-friendly than the webcomic where the art style was cleaned up and the bears given a cuddly and rounder look. The designs of the bears now look straight out of “Adventure Time”, another Cartoon Network show.
Opening Theme – “We’ll Be There” by Estelle
The opening theme for the show, titled “We’ll Be There”, was performed by singer Estelle, who is well-known for portraying the character Garnet from the hit Cartoon Network show Steven Universe.
Reception
The premiere of “We Bare Bears” was well-received with a little over 2 million viewers in the United States. Before the premiere, reception on the Internet welcomed the show with open arms. The premise of the show was found to be endearing by many and a fanbase developed shortly after it was announced.
Fandom
On the Internet, the show is very popular on the website tumblr where hundreds of fan art and images can be found by searching “We Bare Bears”. The subreddit /r/webarebears was created by the user Olfbir on May 10, 2014.[2]
Relations to Steven Universe
Much of the show’s popularity comes from Steven Universe fans who were excited for new Cartoon Network shows after the success of that series. As noted above, the opening theme of the show is sung by Estelle, who plays the character Garnet. Chloe Park, a young girl who is a child prodigy that got admitted into college at a young age is voice by Charlene Yi, who also plays the character Ruby. And, the parallels of three main adult characters and a young child were found to be uncanny. The three bears are compared to the Crystal Gems and Chloe is compared to Steven. What’s funnier is the characters are genderswapped.
Related Memes
#bearstack
On June 17, 2015, the Cartoon Network channel on Vine released a short promo titled “#bearstack” which was used to promote the show. Shortly afterwards, the promo went viral and many variations of the stack were made with other characters.
Chloe Park
Chloe Park, voiced by Charlene Yi, is a young girl who is a child prodigy that was admitted into college at a young age. She first debuted on the 4th episode, titled “Chloe”. Chloe is a smart, adorable, and socially awkward girl who is uncomfortable talking and interacting with humans, but she enjoys spending time with animals and as a result gets along with the bears and feels more comfortable around them. Before her debut, she was popular on Tumblr but soon after her episode premiered, the reception was very well-received with the episode having the most views so far. Her “adorkable” personality and appearance was found to be very endearing by Internet users and she became widely popular.
Search Interest
External References
[1]Blogspot – Goldy & The Three Bare Bears
[2]Reddit – /r/webarebears
[3]Wikipedia – We Bare Bears