Opening of the first Care Bears movie. The Care Bears are a set of characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears. The movie had a considerable amount of star power attached to it: Carole King wrote and sung the opening theme, while John Sebastian and NRBQ contributed to the song score. Mickey Rooney and Georgia Engel starred as voices, along with the Canadian talents of Billie Mae Richards, Marla Lukofsky, Luba Goy and a young Cree Summer, among others. It also marked the first ever appearance of the Care Bear Cousins in the media franchise (as stated in its opening credits), and introduced a few new Bears to the original line-up of ten.