By John Corrado

One of the movies that I really enjoyed watching at home this summer was We Bare Bears: The Movie, which serves as a feature-length finale to the Cartoon Network series created by Daniel Chong. After initially only being available digitally in Canada, the film is now receiving a physical release on DVD, which I’m really happy about.

The animated film finds adoptive bear bros Grizz (Eric Edelstein), Panda (Bobby Moynihan) and Ice Bear (Demetri Martin) accidentally causing a power outage in the Bay Area and being ordered to leave the city. This puts them on the run to Canada, as they are pursued by the mean wildlife control officer Agent Trout (Marc Evan Jackson).

What ensues is a road trip adventure, that has a sweet message about acceptance. The movie is as endearing as we have come to expect from the show, but it also functions as a powerful political allegory that really speaks to the current moment, touching on themes of immigration, discrimination, and the militarization of police. It actually sort of blew me away with how relevant it all feels, and the film is quite touching in addition to being adorable and entertaining. For more on the film itself, you can read my full review right here.

Original Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

Release Date: June 30th (Digital), September 8th (DVD)

Bonus Features (DVD):

The disc comes with a generous amount of bonus material that will be of particular interest to animation fans, showing us the evolution of the film. There’s over an hour of stuff here in total.

• Commentary: A commentary track with director Daniel Chong and other members of the creative team, that was recorded in isolation during quarantine. Accessible through the “play” button.

• Deleted Scenes (18 minutes, 31 seconds): Four deleted scenes, presented in storyboard form and featuring introductions by Chong. It’s interesting to see the evolution of different ideas for the film, though the equivalent moments in the finished film are much more powerful.

• Diner (5 minutes, 13 seconds)

• Animal Commune (4 minutes, 4 seconds)

• Memory (4 minutes, 5 seconds)

• Forest Fire (5 minutes, 10 seconds)

• Movie Pitches (29 minutes, 41 seconds): Different story artists share their original pitches and storyboards for five key sequences, again with introductions by Chong.

• Lauren’s Pitch (8 minutes, 7 seconds)

• Christina’s Pitch (5 minutes, 36 seconds)

• Sarah’s Pitch (6 minutes, 57 seconds)

• Quinne’s Pitch (5 minutes, 33 seconds)

• Louie’s Pitch (3 minutes, 28 seconds)

• Early Sketches (2 minutes, 14 seconds): A slideshow of original concept art, presented in chronological order by act.

• Animatics & Pencil Tests (29 minutes, 24 seconds): The animatics for eight different sequences from throughout the film, as well as a short slideshow of animated pencil sketches.

• Train Flashback (3 minutes, 4 seconds)

• Bears Go to the City (2 minutes, 8 seconds)

• Checkpoint (2 minutes, 46 seconds)

• Animal Commune (7 minutes, 12 seconds)

• Canadian Border (2 minutes, 37 seconds)

• Memory (2 minutes, 7 seconds)

• Back Together (3 minutes, 26 seconds)

• Forest Fire (4 minutes, 48 seconds)

• Pencil Tests (1 minutes, 11 seconds)

We Bare Bears: The Movie is a Warner Bros. Home Entertainment release. It’s 69 minutes and rated TV-Y7.

Street Date: September 8th, 2020