- “Birthday Bear wants everyone to love their birthday! Besides birthday cake, he also loves giving cards and presents and playing party games! His belly badge suits him well - it's a birthday cupcake with a candle!”
- ―Birthday Bear's bio
Birthday Bear is one of the ten original Care Bears who first appeared on American Greetings cards in late 1982. Since then, he has made a number of appearances in various forms of Care Bear-related media, but mostly including the original 1980's series.
Profile[]
Appearance[]
Birthday Bear has golden yellow fur and his Belly badge depicts a pink cupcake with a single candle.
Personality[]
Birthday Bear loves birthdays, and he loves to party. This much is very clear. And since someone's always having a birthday party somewhere, that means it's never a bad time to break out the cake, streamers, and whistles. If it's your birthday, even if you're alone, you can bet Birthday Bear's gonna be your best friend for the next 24 hours or so, and he'll even bring the favors. He's like an instant celebration - just add you.
Appearances[]
The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings[]
Birthday Bear makes his animated debut in the very first Care Bears 1983 television special. After a boy named Kevin runs away from home, he ends up in the gloomy Land Without Feelings ruled by Professor Coldheart, who turns him into a Green Creature Slave. It's up to Birthday and the rest of the crew to defeat the mad professor and return the boy to normal.
The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine[]
In the follow-up to the original TV special, Birthday is among the bears who must once again stop Coldheart and his new sidekick Frostbite from tricking a boy named Paul into helping him complete his "Careless Ray Contraption" that will freeze everyone's feelings.
The Care Bears Movie[]
When Grumpy Bear's new invention, the Rainbow Rescue Beam, accidentally teleports two children named Kim and Jason to Care-a-Lot, Birthday Bear is among the hosts who welcome them in true Care Bear fashion with a song.
Later, when the children and two other bears go missing following yet another transporting mishap, Birthday joins the crew of The Cloud Clipper to search for them in the Forest of Feelings.
After meeting some new friends in the form of the Care Bear Cousins, they are able to find their missing comrades and unite together against the evil Spirit, who is poised to plunge the world into un-caring.
Care Bears (DIC series)[]
Birthday Bear makes infrequent appearances in DIC's Care Bears series.
- His first appearance is, appropriately enough, in the episode The Birthday where he is celebrating his own birthday, however, he postpones the celebration to help a troubled boy named Matthew who is jealous over the arrival of his new baby sister.
- In Camp, he and a group of several other bears make another trip to Earth to join two boys named Sanford and Murphy on a camping trip, and help them come together despite their clashing personalities.
- In Forest of Misfortune, while having a picnic in the Forest of Feelings with the other Bears (which he insists should be a birthday party instead), Professor Coldheart attempts to cover the entire forest in ice using his new freeze ray while keeping the bears busy following fake clues from a fortune-telling machine.
- In The Night the Stars Went Out, when the bears later have an encounter with a new villain, Strato Nefarious, who is stealing the stars from the sky, Birthday Bear is among the team that attacks his cloud ship with a Care Bear Stare, putting an end to his cosmic pilfering.
- In The Cloud Worm, He and a few other Bears later have to help fend off a foe of different sort when a large Cloud Worm begins to eat up Care-a-Lot, with both he and the rest of the crew trying to convince it to go somewhere else.
Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation[]
The second Care Bears feature film tells the story of how the Care Bear family, including Birthday, first arrived in Care-a-Lot after escaping the clutches of the evil Dark Heart. When the villain returns some time later, he captures most of the bears, including Birthday and imprisons them in his secret lair.
The Care Bears Family[]
Birthday Bear is a minor character in The Care Bears Family.
- He is the main character in the episode Birthday Bear's Blues, where it once again revolves around his own birthday, only this time the other bears seem to have forgotten about it. After finding out a lonely rich boy named Charles is equally sad about no one coming to his party, Birthday attempts to cheer him up. No Heart seizes this opportunity to send out a fake message to the rest of the bears in Care-a-Lot to attend Charles' party and lures them inside the boy's hedge maze, which he corrupts using a magic spell to include unbreakable thorns. With most of his teammates trapped in the maze, Birthday and Charles have to come up with a plan to save them all.
The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland[]
Birthday Bear makes a cameo appearance in the third movie.
2010's Series[]
Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot/Care Bears & Cousins[]
Birthday Bear is a minor character in Welcome to Care-a-Lot, mainly appearing in background shots.
- In Shunshine, he is celebrating Thanks-a-Lot Bear's Birthday, only for Funshine Bear to ruin it when he lets his ego get the better of him.
- In Cub Bouts, he is seen among a crowd of spectators during the annual Belly Badge Bout competition, where he witnesses what appears to be Wonderheart Bear's new powers, but it turns out the cub was just secretly using some of Tenderheart's Care 'N Share Charms to grant her own wishes.
In Care Bears & Cousins, Birthday Bear makes several cameo appearances.
Care Bears: Unlock the Magic[]
In Unlock the Magic, Birthday first appeared in a March 2020 Instagram post, and later made appearances in merchandise such as the books The Bears Are Back in Town - The Ultimate Guidebook and Care Out Loud!.
He joined the Basic Fun! toyrange in March 2021 with a 16-inch plush sented with the smell of vanilla cupcakes, alongside a Beanie Plush and a Singing Plush that plays the song "Surprise Birthday Party". He is voiced by a child actor on this plush.
He made his UTM animation debut in Series 2 of the Care Bears: Unlock the Music online series in the song "Surprise Birthday Party", a remake of the song of the same name.
His Unlock the Magic television series debut was in the second half-hour special "The Quest for the Rainbow Stone", where she portrays a trumpeter alongside Secret Bear. He goes unvoiced in the special.
Originally, his toy tag on his 16-inch plush labelled the character as a female, despite not having eyelashes, although most online descriptions were eventually changed to refer to him as "he" instead of "she."[1] [2]
Descriptions[]
2002-2006: Birthday Bear wants everyone to have a happy birthday. He's a fun-loving bear who is completely at home at a party. He also loves giving presents and playing party games. The picture on his tummy shows his job well - it's a birthday cupcake with a candle.
20th Anniversary: Birthday Bear's goal is to make sure that everyone enjoys a happy birthday. As a fun-loving, live-it-up kind of Bear, he embodies the spirit of celebration. He's also a big fan of opening presents and eating large quantities of party food. The birthday cake is an appropriate symbol for Birthday Bear. It symbolizes celebration - and that’s what birthdays are all about.
2020-present: Birthday Bear wants everyone to love their birthday! Besides birthday cake, she also loves giving cards and presents and playing party games! Her belly badge suits her well - it's a birthday cupcake with a candle!
The Bears Are Back in Town - The Ultimate Guidebook: Birthday Bear will always find a reason to treat each day like one big celebration. After all, everyday is someone's birthday, so every day should be a bash! This party animal needs no excuse to whip out the bright streamers and birthday cake - whether it's a seventh, tenth, twelve-and-three-quarters, or an un-birthday - he'll be there. Birthday Bear's friends know that if they want their birthday to be perfect, this special bear has got it covered.
HeadStart UTM products: Birthday Bear wants everyone to have a happy birthday. He's a fun-loving bear who enjoys giving presents and playing party games. His belly badge is a birthday cupcake that symbolizes celebration - and that's what birthdays are all about!
Gallery[]
click here to view the gallery.
Trivia[]
- When Play-Along relaunched the brand in 2002, Birthday was replaced by Share as part of the inital "Core 10".
References[]
In other languages[]
Croatian: Darko (from the word dar, "present"/"gift")
Danish: Fødselsdagsbjørn ("Birthday Bear")
Dutch: Feestbeertje ("Party Bear")
French: Grosgâteau ("Big Cake")
French (Canadian): Fêtalours ("Party Bear")
German: Geburtstagsbärchi ("Birthday Bear")
Italian (Toy packaging): Festorso ("Party Bear")
Italian (Cartoon): Compleannorso ("Birthday Bear")
Japanese: バースデーベア
Mandarin (Taiwan): 生日熊/Shēngrì xióng ("Birthday Bear")
Norwegian: Bursdagsbamse ("Birthday Bear")
Portuguese: Feliz Aniversario ("Happy Birthday")
Spanish: Cumpleañosito ("Birthday Bear")
Spanish (Argentina): Osito de los Cumpleaños ("Birthday Bear")
Spanish (Spain): Cumpleañoso ("Birthday Bear")
Swedish: Kalasnalle ("Party Bear")