Sebastian Star Bear: The First Mission

Stars: N/A. Why the Houston International Film Festival chose to honor this quasi-Care Bear movie with an award for the Best Theatrical Animated Feature Film for 1992 is anybody's guess (apparently Disney's Aladdin was not in contention). Produced in The Netherlands with animators from seven different countries, the shopworn story has an evil theatrical producer named Draco hitting upon a scheme to create a show featuring 100 dancing bears. When Draco and his henchmen cart off little bear Griselda's mom; however, the tyke lifts her head to the sky and calls for Sebastian Star Bear the ursine superhero. Along with Sniffy the hound and Souci the computer bear, Sebastian and Griselda track the bear-nappers all the way to China in their efforts to rescue Griselda's mother. The animation, while not spectacular, is decent, and the characters are relatively pleasant. But Sebastian Star Bear plays too much like standard Saturday morning cartoon imports to justify any excitement, let alone awards. [Note: this originally appeared on the Disney Channel in December 1991.] Audience: Young kids only.