About

We Bare Bears is an animated television series created by American cartoonist Daniel Chong based on his webcomic series “The Three Bare Bears” that premiered on Cartoon Network in late July 2015. The show follows the lives of three bear siblings as they awkwardly attempt to assimilate themselves into human society in the San Francisco Bay Area.

History

The Three Bare Bears

On September 7th, 2010, artist and animator Daniel Chong released the first comic in The Three Bare Bears series on Blogspot.^[1] The webcomic was originally a parody of the fairy tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," but became its own original story in later strips.

Daniel Chong is also credited to have worked on the animated movies Inside Out, Cars 2, The Lorax, and Bolt prior to the creation of the show. Daniel Chong is also an alumni of the California Institute of Arts.

Brad Breeck is a composer for the show who is also notable for his music in Gravity Falls, another animated show that has garnered a massive online following.

We Bare Bears

On June 27th, 2015, the animated version of the webcomic We Bare Bears premiered on Cartoon Network with two 11-minute episodes titled "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 opening theme for the show, titled "We'll Be There", was performed by the singer-songwriter Estelle Swaray, known for portraying the character Garnet from the Cartoon Network show Steven Universe.

Reception

The premiere of "We Bare Bears" received over 2 million viewers in the United States. As of August 2015, the show holds a score of 8.9/10 on IMDB^[4] and a 4/5 on Common Sense Media.^[5] The show is known for its tech savvy nature and timely tongue-in-cheek references to contemporary pop culture such as anime and memes.

Online Relevance

The We Bare Bears Crew has an official Tumblr where they post concept art, soundtracks, and other behind the scenes works.^[7] The creator Daniel Chong also has his own personal tumblr where he posts about the show.^[8] Brad Breeck owns his own personal SoundCloud account where he posts his compositions. The account currently has roughly 4,000 followers.^[9]

Fandom

On May 10th, 2014, Redditor Olfbir launched the subreddit /r/webarebears^[2] for discussions about the series. On Tumblr, hundreds of fan artworks can be found under the search terms “We Bare Bears.” In addition, the show’s fanbase shares a significant overlap with the fans of Steven Universe, another popular Cartoon Network animated children’s TV show. There are currently 3,515 results on the DeviantArt's search bar for We Bare Bears.^[6]

Related Memes

#Bearstack

On June 17, 2015, the Cartoon Network Vine channel released a short promotional video titled "#bearstack," featuring a looped animation of the three bears stacked on top of each other. The video subsequently inspired fans to create other animations of characters stacked on top of one another.

Chloe Park

Chloe Park, voiced by Charlene Yi, is a child prodigy that was admitted into college at a young age who first appeared on the 4th episode titled "Chloe." Chloe is a smart, adorable, and socially awkward girl who is uncomfortable talking and interacting with humans, but feels comfortable around the bears. Since being introduced to the show, the character has gained a significant following on Tumblr.

Search Interest

External References