We Bare Bears: The Movie Christian Movie Review (2020)

Guidance: Talk Together

This is a light animated adventure with comic peril, mild language, and a steady focus on friendship and brotherly loyalty. Christian families may want to talk through the movie’s social-media vanity, public nuisance humor, and its ideas about belonging and identity.

Why This Guidance Level

This movie sits in the mild end of family viewing, with cartoon peril, a few tense chase moments, and light rude language. The bigger discernment issue is not the surface content but the way it jokes about internet fame, public approval, and self-rebranding, which can shape how children think about identity and worth. The film also gives a good opening for talking about responsibility, belonging, and why Christian hope in Christ is steadier than popularity.

Faith & Worldview Perspective

The film is built around friendship, brotherhood, and the desire to belong, and it treats the bears’ care for one another as a real strength. Its main tension is that it also frames worth through public image, followers, and being accepted by the crowd, so parents may want to help children compare that with the deeper identity believers have in Christ.

Truths Reflected

• Family loyalty and teamwork matter.
• Our actions affect other people.

Tensions to Discuss

• Self-worth is tied to popularity and online approval rather than to being known and loved by God.
• Belonging is treated as something earned through image management instead of received through grace and truth.

Content & Discernment Markers

Occult & Spiritual Content

• Occult material does not stand out here. The movie stays in a comic, everyday world without spiritual instruction or supernatural practice.

Sexuality & Relationships

• Relationship content is very light. One joke about the panda asking someone out and not taking a hint stays in the realm of awkward social comedy rather than romance.

Identity Themes

• Ice Bear says, “Ice Bear not bad bear, just misunderstood,” capturing the film’s concern with being seen rightly. The bears also try to rebrand themselves online and chase approval, which gives parents a chance to discuss identity, humility, and where true worth comes from. You may want to talk about why being known by God matters more than being liked by a crowd.

Violence & Intensity

• The opening rescue on the train tracks is the most intense stretch, with the bears trapped, shouting “A train! What’s that doing here?!” and “We’re not gonna make it!” The movie also uses chases, crashes, and slapstick danger throughout, but it stays cartoonish rather than harsh.

Language & Humour

• Language stays mild and mostly comic, with phrases like “what the heck,” “call the po-po,” and “call the cops.” The rude tone is more teasing than coarse, but parents may still want to note the emergency shouting and occasional dismissive banter.

Other Content Notes

• A crowd confronts the bears with complaints like “You ruined our wedding” and “You ruined my pizza,” showing how their antics have affected others. The movie uses this public shaming to push the brothers toward responsibility and repair.
• The film satirizes influencer culture with lines like “Is this what being an influencer feels like?” and “the most viral of the viral,” making social approval and online image a major comic theme.

Notable Moments

• Train-track rescue: The opening sequence puts the bears in immediate cartoon danger as a train bears down on them and they scramble to escape. It is tense, but the scene stays in slapstick adventure territory.

  “A train! What’s that doing here?!”

• Public complaint scene: A crowd lines up to air grievances about the bears’ past behavior, turning their antics into a public reckoning. The scene is funny, but it also shows the consequences of being a nuisance.

  “We’re angry at you!”

• Influencer joke: Grizz treats online attention like a prize and talks about becoming a cool guy with viral success. This is a useful moment for discussing why popularity can become a false measure of value.

  “Is this what being an influencer feels like?”

Discussion Prompts

• Identity and approval: What do the bears think makes them important, and what does the movie suggest about being liked by others?
  • Biblical guidance: Scripture teaches that our worth comes from being made in God’s image and loved by Him, not from followers or public approval.
  • Scripture: Genesis 1:27, Galatians 1:10, 1 Samuel 16:7
• Brotherly loyalty: How do the brothers care for one another when things get hard, and what does that show about family love?
  • Biblical guidance: The movie’s loyalty theme fits well with the Bible’s call to love one another, bear with one another, and put others first.
  • Scripture: John 13:34-35, Philippians 2:3-4, Colossians 3:13
• Responsibility for actions: Why are the people upset with the bears, and what does that teach about consequences and repentance?
  • Biblical guidance: The film gives a good opening to talk about owning mistakes, making things right, and turning from careless behavior.
  • Scripture: Proverbs 28:13, Luke 19:8, Romans 14:12