era of toy merchandising tie-ins." The Gale Group publication, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever, gave it one bone out of four in its 1992 edition, but revised it to two later on. In 2001, the Los Angeles-based Hastings Bad Cinema Society picked A New Generation as one of The 100 Worst Movies of the 20th Century. "Even suffering through a Barney video would be preferable to sitting through this," said compiler Michael Lancaster. The film itself had also been nominated for Worst Picture back at their 1986 awards.Common Sense Media gave it slightly negative reviews, as the group responses "Young preschoolers may be frightened by this movie, which offers very little in the way of learning.". The group also aged this movie 6+, as the subplot is too dark for the Care Bears. The film received some positive reviews, however. Writing for The Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Norma Dyess Michaud deemed it "a must-see for preschoolers, especially those who are in the throes of the current Care Bear mania". Richard Martin praised the script and climax, along with the performances of the orphan Cubs. "Their pastel, birthday-cake-and-whipped-cream world has never looked sweeter," he stated. The Philadelphia Daily News commented that it was "even better than the first one, which was good". Home media Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation was released on VHS and Betamax by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video on August 21, 1986, and debuted in 12th place on Billboard's Top Kid Video Sales chart on September 27 that same year. The film aired during 1987 on the Disney Channel, a premium television station, and was broadcast in later years on CBS, HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel. It returned on VHS as part of the Columbia TriStar Family Collection on August 13, 1996. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment premiered it on DVD on April 8, 2003, as the film is digitally remastered with the picture and color enhanced. The only special features in this edition were trailers for several of the company's family-oriented titles. This was the last animated feature to be released by Columbia Pictures until Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001. As of 2018, there are consequently no plans for this prequel to be reissued on DVD, even a Blu-ray release has yet to occur. However, a widescreen version of this film (unlike the DVD release, which only contains the full screen version), is available