Care Bears Nutcracker Suite is an animated television film featuring the Care Bears characters. Produced by the Canadian animation studio Nelvana in 1988, it is loosely based on the 1892 Nutcracker ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (adapted in turn from E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King").[4] The film was directed by Joseph Sherman and Laura Shepherd, and produced by Nelvana's founders: Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith. In this special, a schoolteacher tells some children a version of the Nutcracker story which features the Care Bear Family. While helping a sad girl named Anna, the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins meet a wooden soldier and a group of malicious rats from a place called Toyland. Entering this place, Anna and the Family learn that an evil Vizier is planning to destroy it with the help of his rodent army, and has his sights on a powerful ring that has been long hidden from the denizens. Care Bears Nutcracker Suite premiered on video and television in December 1988 across North America, and was met with indifferent reception. The special premiered on DVD in France in 2004, and then in November 2006 by Lions Gate Home Entertainment under a new English title, Care Bears: The Nutcracker. This was Nelvana's last Care Bears production until Journey to Joke-a-lot in 2004.