Subtitles section Play video
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[coffee pouring]
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KENNETH: What's up, everyone.
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This is "Disney+ Deets," where we break down everything
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you need to know about your favorite Disney+
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movies and series.
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I'm Kenneth.
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MARCELLUS: And I'm Marcellus.
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And not to toot our own horns, but we're
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pretty much the biggest Disney+ fans out there.
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KENNETH: No, let's do it.
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Toot, toot!
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Beep, beep!
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That's right.
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MARCELLUS: Let's get into it.
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MARCELLUS: You know, Kenneth, I have a lot in common
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with the characters in the show we're talking about today.
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KENNETH: Oh yeah, like what?
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MARCELLUS: Well, I'm dashing and daring,
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courageous and caring, faithful and
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friendly with stories to share.
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KENNETH: Oh, I see what you did there.
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This episode must be about, all together now--
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BOTH: Gummi Bears, bouncing here and there and everywhere.
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High adventure that's beyond compare,
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they are the Gummi Bears!
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KENNETH: Oh, you don't know how excited I am.
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The Gummi Bears, we are going back in time into my childhood,
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sir.
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MARCELLUS: I love the "Adventures of the Gummi Bears."
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I just get so excited seeing them go on their adventures.
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And I wanted to be a Gummi Bear, actually.
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KENNETH: [laughter] Oh, listen, I was a Gummi Bear.
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You couldn't tell me.
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MARCELLUS: My name would be Celly Gummi Bear.
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KENNETH: [laughter] My name would be Kenny Gummi.
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MARCELLUS KIDD: Kenny Gummi?
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It may be hard to believe now, but "Adventures
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of the Gummi Bears" was Disney's very first animated TV series.
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Of course, we know Disney made a bunch of classic animated
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movies, but way back in 1984 -- where you thrived -- when
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the idea for this series first came about,
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Disney didn't even have a TV animation division.
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KENNETH: At that time, Michael Eisner, Disney's still-
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new CEO, found out his kids had tried a new candy
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at summer camp, gummy bears.
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He challenged rookie creator Jymn Magon
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to make a show about the colorful candy,
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and the rest is history.
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MARCELLUS: The team decided to focus
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on what made Disney's classic animated films so great.
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Princesses, castles, dragons, villains
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with nefarious mustaches.
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KENNETH: And speaking of iconic Disney characters,
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according to director and producer David Block,
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the Gummi Bears were loosely based on Snow
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White's pals, the Seven Dwarfs.
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There are definitely some similarities
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between the Bears and Sleepy, Dopey, Bashful, and the rest
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of Snow White's crew.
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MARCELLUS: "Adventures of the Gummi Bears"
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may have paid tribute to some classics,
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but there were plenty of total original touches too.
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For instance, the magic Quick Tunnels,
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that allow Gummi Bears to get around the forest twice as fast
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as walking or riding a horse.
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And Gummiberry Juice, which allows
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the Gummi Bears to bounce around like bouncy balls.
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KENNETH: So if you are human
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and you drink Gummiberry Juice, you become temporarily strong.
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So now that I drank my Gummiberry Juice,
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and not only was I bouncing around the house,
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but I was trying to lift up the sofa cushions.
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MARCELLUS: Yes.
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KENNETH: Trying to pretend like they were castle stones.
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MARCELLUS: I believe it.
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KENNETH: I wish I had some Gummiberry Juice right now.
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I'd use it to show off my moves, like I'm Black Panther.
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Well, I know you love roller coasters, Marcellus.
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And because I know you love roller coasters,
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you would have loved being in the Quick Tunnels.
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MARCELLUS: Oh, I would have adored it.
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I actually would have been in the Quick Tunnels
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the whole time.
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They'd be like, at some point, Marcellus, you got to come out
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of the Quick Tunnel. [laughter] I'm like,
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I just want to go again.
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KENNETH: Where is Cellus Gummi?
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In the Quick Tunnels.
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[laughter] Now, we work hard hosting this show,
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but not nearly as hard as the animators did while drawing
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the Gummi Bears' magical world.
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Typical cartoons at the time used
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about 12,000 drawings per episode,
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while this show used around 20,000.
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MARCELLUS: And a lot of that hard work
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was spent just on backgrounds.
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Director and producer David Block
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believed that 70% of the look of an animated show
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is about backgrounds.
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So the creative team spent extra time
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fleshing out the castles, forest, caves, and landscapes
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of the Gummi's world.
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KENNETH: Oh, it's beautiful.
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MARCELLUS: Yes, it is.
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KENNETH: Back in 1985 when Disney's "Adventures
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of the Gummi Bears" premiered, none
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of the major American studios had full animation
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teams in the United States.
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So the American team created all the storyboards,
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character designs, color samples, and such.
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Then they shipped everything off to Tokyo,
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where a team of Japanese animators,
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working under the guidance of a Disney director,
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finished the animation.
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MARCELLUS: 1985?
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So you must have been... what,
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in your 30s back then?
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KENNETH: Dunk on my age all you want.
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I know you're just jealous you didn't get
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to see the Gummi Bears as a Saturday morning cartoon
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when you were a kid.
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That show ranked number one in its time slot
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for five whole seasons.
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That kind of success deserves to be recorded
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in the Great Book of Gummi.
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Can we talk about this all-star cast?
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Disney got all the top voice actors of the day
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for this show. MARCELLUS: Yes.
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KENNETH: The legendary actress
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June Foray, who voiced the Gummiberry
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Juice maker, Grammi Gummi.
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MARCELLUS: And you can't forget about one
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of the most popular ventriloquists of the
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1950s, Paul Winchell, who voiced Zummi Gummi.
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KENNETH: Whoa, you cannot bring Paul Winchell and not
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mention that he was an inventor who literally built
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the first artificial hearts.
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MARCELLUS: Maybe that's why the show had so much heart.
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Get it?
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Heart.
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KENNETH: OK, Marcellus.
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MARCELLUS: Jim Cummings, Lorenzo Music, Bill Scott,
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Corey Burton, Noelle North, and Katie Leigh completed the cast.
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With so many cast members, it's hard to believe,
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but they recorded each episode as an ensemble.
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KENNETH: Amazing, because usually when
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it comes to animation, you have one actor recording just
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their scenes by themselves.
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But Disney wanted to make sure that that chemistry showed up
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in the cartoon, so that's why you had the entire cast
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recording at the same time.
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MARCELLUS: And apparently Jim Cummings brought drumsticks
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into the booth and played imaginary drums while he
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waited to record his line.
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That sounds like something you would do.
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KENNETH: I was about to say that sound like something
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you would do.
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[laughter] And last but not least, let's get back
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to perhaps the most iconic thing about this show, which has been
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stuck in my head through this whole episode, thanks to you
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Marcellus.
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MARCELLUS: And you're welcome.
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The ultra-catchy Gummi Bears theme was written by Patricia
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and Michael Silversher.
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They also wrote the theme song for "TaleSpin," and music
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for "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers" and "DuckTales."
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So basically, they're responsible for decades
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of Disney hits.
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KENNETH: I'm going to be singing this for a month now.
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MARCELLUS: Me too, and I'm going
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to enjoy every minute of it.
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KENNETH: That's it for our show.
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Be sure to like, subscribe, and check out
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Disney's "Adventures of the Gummi Bears,"
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now streaming on Disney+.
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MARCELLUS: Take care of yourselves and the planet,
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and we'll see you next time.
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Marcellus and Ken signing off.
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KENNETH: We just need some Gummiberry Juice.
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MARCELLUS: Oh yeah, big time.