announced the characters' reinvention and re-introduction to parents and young viewers. Release Upon release, Journey to Joke-a-lot was the fourth film to feature the Care Bears, and their first one in over 15 years. It was also the first computer-animated installment in the franchise, and its first feature to go direct-to-video. Backed by an advertising campaign worth more than US$2 million, the film was released in North America by Artisan's successor, Lions Gate, on October 5, 2004; overseas rights were handled by Universal Studios soon after. In the U.S., the film's release coincided with the second annual National Care Week; it debuted at eighth place on Billboard's VHS sales chart in late October 2004, and sold more than 500,000 copies by April 2005. In January 2005, Journey to Joke-a-lot was a nominee in the "Animated DVD Premiere Movie" category at the fifth annual DVD Exclusive Awards. The film aired on U.S. cable television's Disney Channel in December 2004 and May 2005. In the midst of Joke-a-lot's success, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released another computer-animated film with the Care Bears, Big Wish Movie, on October 18, 2005. The DVD contains seven deleted scenes: "Laugh If You Want To!", "Caring Is Serious Business", "Which Way to Funshine?", "I Wonder", "Packs-A-Magic!", "Unpacks-A-Magic!" and "The Great Escape!". In his introduction to those scenes, director Mike Fallows says to the audience, "Congratulations on finding your way this far." All of the scenes have partially completed animation except the last one, "The Great Escape!", which has finished animation. Reception A writer for the Video Business magazine said of Journey to Joke-a-lot: "While [it] ain't no Shrek—the gold standard—the movie is still amusing enough to charm the target demographic of ages 2–5 and should do well with parents looking for harmless kiddie fare." Bruce Kluger of Parenting commented likewise: "The computer animation might not be as quaint as the pen-and-ink of the 1980s version, but the new songs and brisk pace make this one a keeper for a new generation." In July 2005, Rob Lowing of Sydney, Australia's The Sun-Herald gave it three stars out of five, and wrote: "Adults will find this computer-generated cartoon as sickly sweet as fairy floss but tiny tots will love the colourful blobs—oops, we mean the Care Bears. [...] Support characters that look like toys, four bright songs and lots of giggling will score with the under-fives." Saskatchewan's The Star Phoenix