I come in peace

This happy bear is admiring butterflies with a magnifying glass.

Look how he chooses to wear overalls and chase butterflies instead of getting on with the business of romping through the forest and scaring campers.

Or perhaps it is not a choice as much as a calling. Some of us are meant to write great magazine articles, some of us are meant to clean toilets. Some bears are meant to scare the pants off tourists and others must exist solely to marvel at butterflies and eat, or at least endorse, grape-flavoured string candy.

As a side-observation, I find it interesting that the bears on these packages - except for the toga-clad Roman bear on the mozzarella cheese strings, but he's obviously in costume - wear overalls. I can only assume that the brown bear represents the working class, in the candy world. You know: the Candy World.

An obvious feminist statement

This Chipmunk is the radical sister of the one on the previous page.

Where Beach Chippie 1 is content to look cute in her suit, making sand castles and waiting for studly, athletic squirrels to pass by, our feminist Beach Chippy 2 is proud to wear her glasses at the beach. She's not going to pretend she doesn't wear glasses just so it doesn't spoil the line of her bathing suit. She has lots of reading to do!

She knows that her cross to bear will be carrying not just females like Beach Chippie 1, but all of Candy World to its next great societal achievements.

As a juxtaposition to her studiousness, the peach slices represent her soft, feminine side, a side that can not deny herself pleasure as a reward for her dedication to the cause.

"Dad, what did Mom used to say, before she left us, quit her job as a lawyer and ran off with that bear in the overalls?"

"Son, she said, and I agree, that a squirrel's finest achievement is through the pursuit of all-American sports, like basketball and baseball. I never got that three-pointer at the crucial college final and I tend to hit fouls in baseball. That's why she left us. Well, that and my addiction to gummie worms."

"Do you think she'll ever come to one of my games? I miss her!"

"You just hit it out of the park today, son, and your Mom will know, wherever she is and whatever she's doing. And once you start those hockey lessons, you'll be a triple-threat even your mom can't ignore."

Oh, dear.

Do the overalls indicate a simple nature, a worker, brother to the brown bear? (But the raccoon is a little bear too and the raccoon isn't wearing overalls. Ah, the raccoon must be the scientist cousin of the average brown bear.) Or does the skunk's watermelon consumption combined with its overalls mean it is a farmer, less simplistic and more traditional.

Let's not think about the implications of a black character in overalls eating watermelon. I merely acknowledge it.

Only those with the most powerful of dental coverage can survive in the topsy-turvy, mind-altering, joyfully progressive Candy World!

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But wait, there's more!! Can't...hardly...stand it....must...buy....display case....open museum....buy more...candy...