(Note: The subject of this article has conflicting sources to its gender. For the purposes of consistency and readability, feminine pronouns will be used throughout as they are the most recent pronouns to be used in reference to Secret Bear.)
Secret Bear is a Care Bear who made her animated debut in The Care Bears Movie in 1985, and has since made numerous follow-up appearances in several forms of Care Bear media.
Secret Bear | |
---|---|
Species: |
Care Bear |
Home: |
|
Gender: |
Genderqueer (male 1985-1988, female 2012-current) |
Debut: |
The Care Bears Movie (1985) |
Fur color: |
Tangerine (Original series) |
Belly Badge: |
Red heart-shaped padlock |
Voice Actor |
Anni Evans (1985) |
Appearance
She originally had tangerine orange-colored fur, which was changed to magenta from her 2000s toy appearance onward, and her Belly badge is a red heart-shaped padlock.
Personality
Secret Bear is not what one might refer to as "talkative". Secret Bear only confides in her closest friends, and the only sound she gets across is in whispers. When she has to get her point across, she does so either by pantomime or charades, leaving everyone else to interpret her message the best that they can.
Original series
The Care Bears Movie
Secret Bear makes her animated debut in the very first Care Bears film. Starting from this film to Care Bears Family, she used masculine pronouns. Here, she and Friend Bear travel to Earth to help two children named Kim and Jason who feel like they don't need any friends. When a test of Grumpy Bear's new Rainbow Rescue Beam accidentally brings the kids to Care-a-Lot along with the bears, they welcome them with a song before attempting to send them back the same way. However, the device malfunctions yet again, sending Kim, Jason, Secret, and Friend Bear to the Forest of Feelings, where they meet their new friends, the Care Bear Cousins.
When the rest of the bears travel to the forest to look for them, the two groups are re-united and once again head to Earth to stop an evil force named The Spirit from removing all caring from the world. When The Spirit destroys the key that locks the book she lives in, Secret Bears comes the rescue and simply creates a new key with her Belly Badge, with the villain being locked away for good. The Care Bears Movie
Care Bears TV series
Secret Bear makes only a few background appearances in DiC's Care Bears animated series, mostly appearing in large crowd shots. She is one of the bears seen cheering on a boy named Carl's soccer team, Split Decision is part of a large group of Care Bears and Care Cousins in a discussion about a girl named Lisa who believes there is a monster in her closet, Split Decision, and is among the bears meeting to decide what to do about the villainous Strato Nefarious. The Night the Stars Went Out
Care Bears Movie II
The second Care Bears feature film tells the story of how the bears, including Secret Bear, first came to Care-a-Lot after escaping the evil Dark Heart. Some time later the villain makes a new attempt to capture his fuzzy prey with the help of a girl named Christy, whom he grants athletic talent in exchange for her assistance. When she calls for help, the bears come to the rescue, only to caught by Dark Heart who is waiting nearby. Secret Bear and Friend Bear witness the two working together, and alert the rest of the their friends, who mount a rescue operation along with two children named John and Dawn. After freeing all the captured bears, the group confronts Dark Heart and are able to make him care, transforming him into a real boy. Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation
Care Bears Family TV series
Secret Bear makes only a few appearances in Nelvana's Care Bears Family television series. When she learns of No Heart's plans to create a spell that will summon a "Cloud of Uncaring", she must alert the rest of the bears by playing charades, but has trouble getting her point across, leaving an exasperated Brave Heart Lion finally laments "Boy, if Friend Bear were here she'd be able to understand what Secret Bear's trying to tell us..." The Cloud of Uncaring
2010's series
Welcome to Care-a-Lot TV series
Secret Bear, along with Thanks-a-Lot Bear, makes their television debut when she noticed that Grumpy's "Care-a-Van" has been vandlized. In this series, she uses feminine pronouns in contrast to her previous roles in the 1980's series. She is later seen among a crowd of spectators during the annual Belly Badge Bout competition witnessing 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.
Trivia
- Her only spoken line in the original series (aside from inaudible whispering in others' ears) is a loud "Yeah!" at the end of The Care Bears Movie.
- Ironically, though she almost never speaks in the original series, Secret Bear has a talking plush in the American 1983-1986 Kenner toyline. However, in a possible nod to continuity, the voice box was removed from the UK release and sold among the regular non-talking dolls in the same line.
- She is one of the many Care Bears to have a conflicting gender, and was formerly male in past series.
- It is unknown what pronouns she used during Adventures in Care-A-Lot , as she is not referred to by a gender pronoun until the 2010s series.
- It is possible that she was coded as non-verbal autistic during her initial appearance, seeing as she had trouble communicating verbally, and rarely spoke to anyone that wasn't Friend Bear.
In other languages:
Danish: Hemmeligbjørn ("Secret Bear")
Dutch: Geheim Beer ("Secret Bear")
French: Grosecret ("Big Secret")
French (Canadian): Secretours
German: Geheimnis Bärchi ("Secret Bear")
Italian: Segretorso ("Secret Bear")
Japanese: シークレットベア
Norwegian: Hemmeligbamse ("Secret Bear")
Portuguese: Segredinhos ("Secrets")
Spanish: Secretosita ("Secret Bear")
Spanish (Argentina): Osita De Los Secretos ("Secret Bear")
Swedish: Hemmeligbjørn ("Secret Bear")