We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020)

A feature-length farewell to three bears who stack themselves into a single column and trundle through the San Francisco Bay Area in search of poutine. This is the setup, and it is charming. The film concerns itself, however, with weightier matters. Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear are hounded from their home by a wildlife agent named Trout, separated from one another, caged, and scheduled for deportation to China and the Arctic respectively. The creators have been candid that the family separation is drawn from the immigration enforcement policies of the period, and that the bears themselves function as a stand-in for the minority experience in America, an allegory the series creator built from his own time as an Asian American in Orange County and the Bay Area. The result is a children's road comedy that ends with a rousing denunciation of human supremacy.

One can admire the ambition while noting the tonal seams. The film wants to be a lark about food trucks and viral videos, and it also wants to say something about who gets to belong. It mostly manages both, which is no small feat for eighty minutes of animation. The climax arrives with a forest fire, lifted from the 2018 California wildfires though deployed strictly as peril, and a speech about not building walls around people who look different. The moral is delivered plainly and without apology, aimed squarely at the young audience and their parents.

As a piece of cultural instruction, it is earnest and well-meaning. The representation behind the camera is genuine, and the allegory is coherent. The film never quite forgets it is entertainment, which keeps the sermon short. It is a gentle, decent, somewhat overstuffed send-off, and it believes firmly in the importance of being understood. We have seen worse lessons, delivered with far less charm.