Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Dying Cultures, Government Coups, and the Teenage Girl Caught in the Middle

11:35 PM · Oct 7, 2020 "this is me playng dont starve"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the decade that brought us making cartoons to sell toys, now we have a cartoon that sells us candy... kinda...

11:38 PM · Oct 7, 2020 "gummi bears seems like an ad but in reality it's a show about why you SHOULDNT eat them"

Bit of a disclaimer before we get into this one: I'm a white guy, so take the stuff I say here regarding Gummi culture and potential metaphors and themes of that with a grain of salt.

The less important disclaimer: I only watched two seasons of this one. I did watch the entirety of the Wuzzles, and this was around the time I started my 13 episodes or half rule. If I missed something in later seasons, let me know.

First thing I notice about this show is the voice cast for the Gummi Bears, particularly the older ones. Amongst the cast is Paul Winchell, June Foray, Bill Scott, and of course... Lorenzo Music.

11:41 PM · Oct 7, 2020 "CARLTON YOUR DOORMAN??????????????????"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But yes, even disregarding Garfield-isms, Paul Winchell is going to show up a lot throughout the 90s. As for June Foray and Bill Scott...

8:36 PM · Oct 23, 2020 "me watching gruffi and grammi now: wow cool rocky and bullwinkle"

Gruffi and Grammi have a pretty fun bickering dynamic, being the two oldest and most headstrong Gummis, and I really enjoyed watching it for its own sake too. I think those two handled that subtle 80's attitude in saccharine shows I discussed prior better than The Wuzzles did.

12:28 AM · Oct 8, 2020 "ok so gummi bears is a lot less negative than the wuzzles so far, which really.... isn't saying much. june foray and bill scotts characters bicker a lot that really makes me happy :-) grammi gummi is probably a favorite"
12:28 AM · Oct 8, 2020 "i hesitate to say gummi bears is an isekai. it all takes place in the same universe, but it does have archaeological finds so i guess it's kinda like professor layton"

But although Grammi was my favorite originally, it very quickly became Sunni. 

8:45 PM · Oct 23, 2020 "sunni is dying her hair and playing with swords, as medieval young women are oft to do"

While Grammi is the strict maternal figure, and Gruffi is the traditionalist tough guy, Sunni is a teenage Gummi who has some trouble relating to... just about everyone else in the show, due to her age, gender, and being a Gummi.

Sunni could have had themes. 

One episode that really stuck with me was "Guess Who's Gumming to Dinner?" I surprisingly didn't say anything about this episode in my tweets, but it stuck after a year and a half probably more than any other episode.

The episode has the Gummi Bears preparing for a big Gummi holiday, and Sunni decides it's a good idea to invite Calla, the local human princess. Worth nothing that Sunni and Calla are best friends due to being the only two teenage girls in the whole show. Because Calla is a princess, Sunni thinks it's a good idea to make this holiday palatable for Calla, making it prim and proper, like how a princess would celebrate a holiday. Which, naturally, pisses off all the other Gummis and Calla explains to Sunni that she wants to experience Sunni's culture the way Sunni does.

Sunni and Gruffi butt heads surpringly often as well. Sunni being the new generation that doesn't fully understand the culture she is a part of, and Gruffi being very entrenched in Gummi culture and wanting to do everything The Gummi Way, even if that way is outdated. 

Something to point out here is that the Gummis believe themselves to be the last of their kind. There are some who show up here and there, but these six had no reason to believe there were any others left at the start of the series, and they kept themselves hidden from the humans, as humans had hurt their ancestors in the past and currently cohabit with them. These six also see themselves as the only ones left to perserve their culture and way of living. 

It feels like a bit of a metaphor for colonialism. 

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this, but this is ultimately what I took away from the show.

3:33 PM · Oct 23, 2020 "ok i'm back on gummi bears which is interesting in terms of what it has to say socially.... i think it's kind of cool that the old adult character is learning magic. i dont see that ever..."

Zummi's another character I really like in terms of how he interacts with his culture. He spends the series teaching himself magic used by his ancestors, which frankly, he isn't the best at. Perhaps due to his stutter or otherwise, but he's still seen as the leader of the Gummis and sort of a keeper of Gummi relics.

I would probably say the characters, particularly Zummi, Gruffi, Sunni, and Grammi, are the show's strength, but ultimately they could have been deeper. These four have a lot to work through, and I wish the show went more into that. I don't think it necessarily needed to be dark or edgy, I just wish it went into the themes colonialism a little more. Instead we get the good humans (the monarchy), and the bad humans (the villains who want to destroy the monarchy). It's. Weird.

I don't really have much to say about Cubbi. He's a little boy. He wants to be a hero. He almost dies.

2:26 PM · Oct 29, 2020 "today's ep of gummi bears: a child gets threatened with the death penalty and walter cronkite is here"

There are a few episodes I want to discuss on their own: "What You See is Me," "You Snooze You Lose," and "Due Unto Ogres."

"What You See is Me" is an episode about Tummi meeting a girl named Trina who helps him ward off the villain, Duke Igthorn (probably called that because it sounds like Ick). Of note is that Trina is also blind.

9:10 PM · Oct 23, 2020 "tummi learns a lesson about not being ableist."
9:10 PM · Oct 23, 2020 "WAIT DOES TRINA NEVER COME BACK?"

I guess this is typical fare for a very special episode, but dang Trina was fun. They could have made something of Tummi.

"You Snooze You Lose" is a pretty typical episode, where Calla and the Gummi Bears save Calla's castle from Igthorn, but it has two notable things in it.

11:05 PM · Oct 23, 2020 "omg snow white"

 

A little on the nose there Disney. Don't worry it gets worse... As for the other thing.

11:05 PM · Oct 23, 2020 "the ogres took off their masks to talk to each other, giving this 1986 cartoon a meaning 34 years later"

I'm just. Gonna keep that one like that.

Finally, there's "Do Unto Ogres," in which Igthorn opts for a new lackey instead of his faithful Toadwart...

2:49 PM · Oct 29, 2020 "TOADIE'S BEEN CHEATED ON??? TOADIE CUCK???"

 Yeah that's all I have to say there. It's a nice Sunni episode actually, but that was the funniest moment in the whole series for me.

Overall, despite having some really interesting themes to jump off of and some really fun characters, Gummi Bears was ultimately... very boring. You'll note there are some other Gummis I didn't mention, some plot devices I didn't bring up, and even some main characters I didn't mention. There just wasn't anything to say about them. And there's not all that much to say about Gummi Bears that isn't speculative.

It could have been great, but ultimately, it's passable.

Overall Rating for Adventures of the Gummi Bears: C Tier