I Am A Gummy Bear (widely known as The Gummy Bear Song) is the official debut song performed by Gummibär that was released along with the album "I Am Your Gummy Bear" under the label of Gummybear International, as well as having multiple singles, being remixed and translated into many different languages since then.
The song was largely composed and written by Christian Schneider, with the 30-second CGI animated short being initially released in 2006 featuring German as the first ever produced language. Soon after, the longer version was released in 2007.
Music video variations[]
Short version[]
GUMMIBÄR
The official short version uploaded to YouTube by berlin0708.
The short 30 second version features Gummibär in a white and blue gradial void with a star-like symbol on the ground dancing and performing the song. One of his notable dance moves involve him spinning on one finger, another where he drums his big belly, and also shaking his rear end at the screen.
In the final scene, Gummibär wakes up surrounded by other inanimate gummy bears, implying that it was presumably a dream.
Earlier version[]
A shot of one of the additional scenes featured in said version.
The earlier version has present all the previous scenes from the short version including additional ones of Gummibär dancing in the same scenario. Unlike the final longer version, the scenes have different orders and the song was altered in the rest of the video.
Long version[]
The long version (2m30s) features all the previous scenes from the short version plus a few more, including Gummibär bouncing his car in Hollywood, skateboarding across the town, playing the tuba in a park, dancing in the city, standing inside of the Statue of Liberty and performing at a stadium to an audience of other gummy bears.
Other versions[]
The HD version of the song features fully redone scenes in widescreen resolution, keeping the same concept of the original video. It would be officially uploaded to YouTube as a celebration of the 10th anniversary from the original video uploaded by "icanrockyourworld".
The K-Pop version would feature majority of the original scenes from the HD version with Gummibär dancing in different backgrounds. Most if not all of the animation in the additional scenes are re-used from the music video for the song "I'm Blue".
The rest of the other versions, such as Halloween, Christmas, and Roblox animations are mostly re-used from the HD version with slight modifications; the background and objects are different depending on the subject.
Video[]
Gallery[]
Lyrics[]
For the full lyrics, see I Am A Gummy Bear/Lyrics.
Production[]
Development[]
The inspiration for the song struck Christian Schneider while he was enjoying a beer at a restaurant in Germany, where he encountered a muse, his bartender. In a whimsical moment, she referred to him as her Gummy Bear. Taken aback, Christian initially responded with disbelief, uttering, "No...what?" However, in the very next moment, he playfully retorted, "I'm Your Gummy Bear." This simple interaction sparked a brilliant idea in Christian's mind, and he promptly recorded a tune on his old Sony Walkman.[1]
Christian began working on the concept of the Gummibär character, along with the lyrics and sound recordings of the song. His son Maci Schneider, who often goes by the alias Tonekind, was also involved in the project as the producer and vocalist of the song, as well as Leon Mancilla doing the backing vocals of the children singing.[2]
Animation[]
Wil Film ApS was the company comissioned to produce the original 30-second short, with Pete Dodd in charge of directing, designing and animating the short. An individual known online as "Pitcher" did the rigging, shading, rendering and compositing, while Kim Frederiksen only did the modeling. The video was animated in Denmark with Softimage XSI as the software used.
Reinhard Raith, one of the producers behind Crazy Frog, comissioned Christian to produce the full-length version with 4K Animation GmbH, an animation company which was based in Berlin. Bernd Mittelhockamp would be responsible for directing the extended scenes.[3]
Reception[]
A golden record presented to Christian for the sale of 10,000 copies of the album "I Am Your Gummy Bear".
After the video debuted on the internet, it quickly went viral worldwide. Gaining hundreds of thousands of views as the popularity of the song and the character increased and spread by word of mouth. Also reached #28 on the Billboard dance digital charts.
Other versions[]
b.Water Studios, an animation company who was formerly involved with the production of the music video "Lollipop", was in charge of animating the HD version of the song.
The animations would be re-used for further versions by bitOrigo, the primary animation studio at the time.
Trivia[]
- While the English version of the song was officially released in October 2007, a handful of reuploads of the song exist dating back to mid 2006. Mostly being the original 30-second German and Hungarian versions of the music video.
- The Gummy Bear Song is very well-known, and as so, has many dubs for other regions. Most, if not all of the dubs were released in the album The Gummy Bear Song Around The World.
- The song was used in three major movies: Spree, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and Yes Day. It was also used in a segment of the trailer for Goosebumps 2.
- The infamous "Look for the gummy bear album in stores on November 13th, with lots of music, videos, and extras." at the start of the video was re-recorded for videos uploaded after November 13th. The only change being him saying the same line but without the date.
- After the long version of the song was released in 2007, it was officialy uploaded to the YouTube channel icanrockyourworld, it was later reuploaded to The Official Gummibär Channel in 2008.
- In the music video, Gummibär travels to various real life locations. Including Hollywood, Paris, and the Liberty Island.
- The album version includes a Hungarian verse originating from the Itt Van A Gumimaci. This is replaced with the usual "Bai ding ba doli party" verse in the music video edit.
- In the official YouTube upload of the music video, Gummibär's voice is not heard when he wakes up at the end, however it can be heard in a handful of other language variants.
- The English version was the first language to surpass one billion views on the official upload, the second being the Spanish version "Osito Gominola".
- Throughout the scene with the close-up of Gummibär in a rocket, Gummibär's eyes start to go absolutely haywire.
- This detail has been also applied for the HD version of the video.
- The materials for Gummibär's model vary inconsistently in each scene, sometimes Gummibär appears with a desaturated skin while in others he appears with a more detailed one.