| This article is about the song. For the album of the same name, see I Am Your Gummy Bear (Album). |
| Overview |
I Am A Gummy Bear (better known as The Gummy Bear Song) is a novelty dance song performed by Gummibär, in reference to a type of bear-shaped candy originated from Germany named gummy bear. It was written by the Serbian-born composer Christian Schneider along with his son Maci Schneider, the latter also being involved in the production of the music with René Rennefeld. The song is commonly associated with the character, as it is the artist's most well known song, and is also the first released product of the brand, prior to it being expanded due to its popularity.
Initially serving as a simple novelty song, a CGI-animated music video was produced and released in a 30-second short format on the YouTube platform in July 14, 2006, with German being one of the first languages of the song to be produced, followed by Hungarian coming in second, and French coming in third. A year later in April 24, 2007, a 2-minute long version that re-used the original 30-second short scenes mixed with original animations was released, being the most widely known video variant. Subsequently, several versions following the song were released, including language adaptations, remixed variants, etc.
Since the song's official debut, it has gained attention from younger and older audiences and prominently influenced popular culture, being referenced in various types of media and reaching the top of the charts. As a viral phenomenon on the Internet, it was also featured in multiple studio albums starring the character, famously known for being the spotlight of the album I Am Your Gummy Bear released in 2007, and produce a number of merchandising and ringtones through other companies.
Music video variations[]
Short version[]
The short 30-second version of the music video features only the scenes of Gummibär in a white and blue gradient void with a star-like symbol on the ground dancing and performing the song. The first scene starts with Gummy appearing at the left side of the screen, then he grabs the microphone, and starts singing, and then sings to the opposite side of the screen, before eventually disappearing quickly.
Then Gummy appears jumping from a far distance, getting closer to the camera and knocks over a microphone in the process. In later scenes, Gummy appears dancing like a robot and keeps jumping to the screen. Subsequently, he grabs his belly while pointing upward with his other hand, resembling that of Michael Jackson's poses. Gummy zooms in on the screen, saying "Oh yeah!", and then a scene is shown of Gummy shaking his rear-end.
In the last scenes, Gummy appears tap dancing then zooms to the screen swinging his hand like a weapon. He then starts spinning with only one finger on his hand. Gummy jumps back to the screen and then moves to the side, and then a sequence where he is accidentally hit by the microphone is shown, causing Gummy to wake up startled surrounded by other inanimate gummy bears, but then calms down, implying that it was presumably a dream.
Early version[]
A shot of one of the additional scenes featured in said version.
The early version of the music video prior to the final long version that was officially released reuses all the previous scenes from the short version but adding new scenes of Gummibär dancing in the same scenario. Unlike the final long version, the short version scenes have different orders and the song was trimmed down to 1 minute rather than the final 2 minutes.
Long version[]
The 2-minute long version reuses all the previous scenes from the short version but adding completely new ones of Gummibär dancing throughout different locations. This is the most well-known version of the music video.
One of the first extended scenes starts with Gummy driving and bouncing his car on a hill road in Hollywood, while the screen zooms in and switches to different angles. A brief scene shows Gummy opening a newspaper that reads in its title "FUNNY NEWS" before transitioning to the Hollywood scenes. Then Gummy is shown wearing a cowboy hat in a desert changing spots from left to right quickly as he zooms in on the screen.
The Hollywood scenes are reused again, except at the end Gummy drives off the screen driving his car, and then shows a transition of different pages of the newspaper, to then display a scene of Gummy dancing at a stadium to an audience of other gummy bears where he dances and rolls towards the screen. In later scenes, Gummy appears skateboarding on a ramp in a vandalized street, and then he shows up playing a tuba in a park, where upon releasing his hands from the mouthpiece, the tuba falls and hits his head, causing him to fall.
Gummy is later seen skateboarding again across the city, to then show a scene of him riding a mechanical bull in the desert. Another scene shows Gummy with the cowboy hat jumping in Hollywood as he goes to the right side of the screen, and then he is seen bouncing with a bouncy ball. In the last scenes, a giant, reddish brown sphere with a star-like symbol in the front is shown along with Gummy inside of a rocket. Then it displays shot of the Eiffel Tower next to Gummy driving a blimp, when Gummy approaches the screen, there is a transition to the Statue of Liberty, where Gummy is seen inside it while the camera zooms in.
Gummy proceeds to jump and spin across the city, until when the camera zooms in, Gummy starts going down as if it were a staircase, until he falls down himself. The scenes of Gummy at the stadium are reused here but more extended, as Gummy starts to perform a gesture as if he was playing an electric guitar. Afterwards, the scene of Gummy bouncing with a space hopper is briefly reused.
A shot of a city with screens displaying Gummy's performance is shown, then once again transitions from the newspaper to a brief scene of Gummy dancing at the stadium, to then finally closing the newspaper.
Other versions[]
HD version[]
The HD Remake of the song features a completely redone version of the long music video in a high-quality and widescreen resolution, keeping the same concept and essence of the original video. The remake was done as part of a celebration of the 10th anniversary from the original video that was uploaded on YouTube by icanrockyourworld, and would allow more languages to be released throughout the running event of The Gummy Bear Song Around The World.
K-Pop[]
The K-Pop version includes majority of the animation from the HD Remake with Gummibär dancing and performing the song in different vibrant color backgrounds. Most if not all of the animation in the extended scenes are reused from the music video for the song I'm Blue, which was released prior to this version.
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.
Lyrics[]
This version of I Am A Gummy Bear is only heard in the full length 3-minute version of the song, which was included in the I Am Your Gummy Bear album. The differences in this version is the lyrics being more extended than the music video, especially for featuring an unique verse in the middle of the song.
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Bai ding ba doli party
- Bamm bing ba doli party
- Breding ba doli party
- Party pop
- Bai ding ba doli party
- Bamm bing ba doli party
- Breding ba doli party
- Party pop
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Three times you can bite me
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Three times you can bite me
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Én vagyok a gumimaci, gyere már gyere velem
- Gyere táncolj már kérlek get get party pop
- Én vagyok a gumicummi, cicci meg a kodile a mambó csoda
- Pápé gyere már és táncolj party pop
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Oh, oh, oh, oh, badubi dabi didi
- Bab bi du bi dam, Gummibär
- Oh, oh, oh, oh, bi du bi dam dam
- Bi du bi Gummibär party pop
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Three times you can bite me
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Three times you can bite me
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Party pop
- Party pop
- Party pop
- Party pop
This version of I Am A Gummy Bear is only heard in the 2-minute version of the song, which was used for the long music video uploaded on YouTube. Unlike the album version, the lyrics to the unique verse were cut to fit the length of the video.
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Bai ding ba doli party
- Bamm bing ba doli party
- Breding ba doli party
- Party pop
- Bai ding ba doli party
- Bamm bing ba doli party
- Breding ba doli party
- Party pop
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Three times you can bite me
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Three times you can bite me
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
- Bai ding ba doli party
- Bamm bing ba doli party
- Breding ba doli party
- Party pop
- Bai ding ba doli party
- Bamm bing ba doli party
- Breding ba doli party
- Party pop
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Party pop
- Party pop
This version of I Am A Gummy Bear is only heard in the 30-second short video of the song. The lyrics are trimmed to fit the length of the video.
- Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear
- I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear
- Oh I'm a movin' groovin' jammin' singin' gummy bear
- Oh yeah
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Ba ba bidubidubi yum yum
- Three times you can bite me
- Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy bear
Production[]
Development[]
The inspiration for the song struck Christian Schneider while he was enjoying a beer at a restaurant in Germany, where he met a female 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.[4]
In 2005, Christian would start working on the concept of the song, including the Gummibär character, the lyrics and sound recordings.[3] Pete Dodd was commissioned to create the character's design and direct the 30-second short animation.[5] Pete Dodd made various concept artwork of Gummibär in different colors, such as red, blue, yellow, etc. Maci Schneider, his son, would provide his voice for the singing vocals of Gummibär and work on the production of the music. Leon Mancilla would do the backing vocals of the children singing.
Animation[]
Wil Film ApS was the original animation company commissioned to produce the 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.[6] Pete Dodd also recorded himself in his living room as reference for some of the scenes, including the "butt shaking" scene.[7]
The final video of the 30-second short would be initially uploaded in different language versions to the website mein-gummibaer.de.
A frame from a scene prior to having the background art composited in.
Reinhard Raith, one of the producers behind Crazy Frog, along with Christian, would later commission 4K Animation GmbH to produce the 2-minute version of the video, an animation company which was based in Berlin, Germany. Bernd Mittelhockamp would be responsible for directing the extended scenes[8], and Raphael Eggert in charge of animating some scenes, modeling and rigging the tuba.[9] Stefanie Schmiedel created the color sketches and supervised the team that worked on the 2D backgrounds.[10]
An early version prior to the 2-minute version would be produced, with Ibrahim Basha animating some of the scenes.[11] This version features the same background as the short version, which allegedly was meant to be a submission. Later, the 2-minute version that would become the final version known to all would be produced. The additional scenes would be animated on a background similar to the short version scenes before being composited later with a 2D painted background.
An alternative edit of the 2-minute version, with a loopscene of Gummibär bumping into his microphone.
An alternative version of this long version features a different ending showing a looped scene of Gummibär bumping into his microphone, while ending with transition of a circle, which would be an early edit of the video that was included in earlier official releases. The loop of this scene was cut in the later version to show the scene of Gummibär waking up. The first known instances of the 2-minute version is a YouTube video by berlin0708 that was uploaded in French a couple of months before the definitive upload by icanrockyourworld.
Other versions[]
The HD Remake with its proper original colors.
The HD remake of the song was animated by the company B-Water Studios, which were previously involved with the animation production of the music video Lollipop.[12] They would be commissioned to create a completely remade animation based on the original long version of the song, as part of the YouTube video by icanrockyourworld turning 10 years old in 2017. This version would start production in 2016 and would use the software Autodesk Maya.[13] The final product originally had a more greenish shade in the skin of Gummibär's 3D model[14], but would later appear with a slightly more desaturated tone in the video that was uploaded by The Official Gummibär Channel due to a filter being added. The introduction transition of a theater featuring Gummibär's friends was animated by Game-Ever .
The animations of almost every model would be later re-used for futher versions of the music video, including the K-Pop, Halloween, Christmas and Roblox versions, which would be produced by a different animation studio named Game-Ever excluding the Roblox version.
Reception and legacy[]
A golden record presented to Christian for the sale of 10,000 copies of the album "I Am Your Gummy Bear".
The 30-second version of the music video along with the song was in large part recieved with positive feedback across younger and older audiences due to how catchy and fun the song is, gaining hundreds of thousands of views as the popularity of the song and the character increased and were spread by word of mouth. The YouTube video that would later be uploaded by icanrockyourworld would be the most well known version of the video and would attract much more popularity. However, not all of the song's reception has been positively endorsed. Other people has considered the song as pretty much annoying with lyrics of absurd and childish humor, which has come to make certain viewers uncomfortable, to such an extent that some consider it to be inappropriate.
Otherwise, the song reached close positions in the music charts. The song would later be included on Gummibär's first international album I Am Your Gummy Bear, whose title would also be based on the song and was promoted during the language videos uploaded by icanrockyourworld.
In popular culture[]
As a result of its popularity, the song got the opportunity to be featured in other media, being included in three films: Spree, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and Yes Day. It was also used in a segment of the trailer for the film Goosebumps 2. The song became part in the video game Just Dance Kids 2, which would use a different cover of the music.
References in later media[]
As a result of its significant cultural impact, several references were made in further media throughout the Gummibär series. Below is a list of some of the most well known references.
The Yummy Gummy Search for Santa[]
In The Yummy Gummy Search for Santa film, the song was partially featured when Gummibär was introducing himself to the elves after arriving to North Pole in order to find Santa Claus, who has been reported as missing during Christmas Eve. In this sequence of scenes, Gummy calls to Kala to play the song on his radio, then he later performs some of his dance moves as seen in the original music video, such as leaping up to the microphone, dancing like a robot, and shaking his rear-end to the screen. The young elves eventually join to his performance as well, until Mr. Elve gets instantly annoyed and takes the radio that Kala was holding.
In later scenes, they release Gummibär's car from the plane to try to motivate the elves to fill the barn with toys, as they are worried due to Santa Claus being reported as missing on Christmas. The car is notably based on the vehicle featured in the extended scenes from the 2-minute version.
Gummibär & Friends[]
In the Gummibär & Friends series, the song appears in the last seconds from most of the episodes, where Gummibär and his friends usually began to dance along shortly before the episode closes. In the beginning of the episode "Surprise Egg", Gummibär proceeds to sing the lyrics of the song as he is sleeping.
An interpretation of the music video was uploaded to YouTube by Gummy Bear Show Mania, which re-uses various episodes from the series overlaid with the full length 3-minute version of the song.
Gummy Bear Party[]
In the Roblox video game experience Gummy Bear Party, a remixed version of the song is featured in the main lobby of the game, which features a slightly modified melody. Even so, some portions of the original melody can be still heard throughout the music. The original song is also re-used for the I'm A Gummy Bear mini-game and is included as a vinyl record that can be played through the DJ stands that are around the main map.
The song was also featured in the first trailer of the game, utilizing the 30-second short version of the song.
Trivia[]
General[]
- The infamous "Look for the Gummy Bear Album in stores on November 13th" at the start of the video was re-recorded for the videos uploaded after November 13th. The only change being Gummibär saying the same line but without the date.
- The 3-minute full length album version of the song includes a Hungarian verse in the middle of the song that originates from its Hungarian language Itt Van A Gumimaci. This was replaced with the usual "Bai ding ba doli party" verse in the music video edit.
- The English video was the first language of the song to surpass one billion views on the official upload, followed by the Spanish video Osito Gominola, then Som Livre's Brazilian Portuguese dubbing of Eu Sou O Gummy Bear, and Je m'appelle Funny Bear.
- There are a couple of versions of the music video with the length of 3:09-3:14 including the album version of the song featured in some CDs and DVDs, in which some of the previous scenes are re-used to complement the 3-minute length. Each one being different, the edit made specifically for the Greek CD release is the best known, which was also used for the video with the Norwegian language. There is also an edit made for the Polish CDs and DVDs.
- Most of the text written in the newspaper for the HD remake was directly taken from the English article of the gummy bear candy food from Wikipedia.
- The inside of Gummibär's mouth often appears as red in the extended scenes from the 2-minute version, while in the original scenes from the 30-second version that were re-used for the final music video appears as green. However, this has been slightly removed in the HD remake of the music video, and the red tongue now barely appears in some of the extended scenes.
- The audience of gummy bears at the background that appears in the scenes where Gummibär performs at a concert originally appear as re-used frames of Gummibär from the 30-second short music video but colored. This was later changed in the HD remake, now featuring a fully modeled audience that uses the main Gummibär 3D model as the base.
- The scene where Gummibär performs a hand rapping gesture was slightly changed in the HD remake, as Gummibär does not later spin his hand like a gun as in hand rapping and instead keeps reaching his hands towards the screen left to right.
- It is rumored that the animation files of both the original 30-second short and 2-minute scenes were lost in a computer crash, according to Gummy Memes in a video premiere chat on YouTube.
Errors[]
- Throughout the scene with the close-up of Gummibär in a rocket, his eyes start to go absolutely haywire. Interestingly, this detail has been also implemented for the HD remake of the music video.
A comparison between Gummibär's more greenish skin tone (left) and desaturated one (right).
- The materials for Gummibär's model vary inconsistently in each scene, sometimes Gummibär appears with a desaturated skin tone while in others he appears with a more greenish one. The reflection in his eyes also appears to not be visible in some scenes.
- The clipping on Gummibär's body is inconsistent. In one of the 30-second short scenes, Gummibär's mouth appears to be clipping with his chest, while in the extended scenes his eyeballs are constantly seen clipping his inner mouth, making the illusion that he has upper white teeth.
- Because of the extended scenes for the 2-minute music video being later composited in with a 2D painted background, the original rendered animations of Gummibär occasionally shows clipping at the edges.
- In the HD remake of the 2-minute music video, some unfinished parts of some of the 2D painted backgrounds can be seen.
- In the official YouTube upload of the music video, Gummibär's voice is not heard when he wakes up at the end, as well as it was applied in the Czech and Slovak versions. However, it can be heard in a handful of other language variants.
- In the extended scenes where Gummibär is in the park, his tongue appears white instead of the recurring red color.
Videos[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ "GUMMIBÄR" YouTube (July 14, 2006).
- ↑ "gummybear" YouTube (April 24, 2007).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Gummy Bear International v. Kocakus and Rudy's Family PDF" Scribd. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
- ↑ https://youtu.be/0R-nbemdfS0?si=vHZbmXhdgdzd6aFK&t=1352
- ↑ "GUMMY BEAR" Pete Dodd Director of Animation.
- ↑ Pitcher's comment about the production behind the original 30-second short
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peter-dodd-b783027_gummybear-international-toonz-unveil-gummib%C3%A4r-activity-7295808760239800320-wjHu?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAE2ZsIAB_Z6uXH6w8AAW2RpcneRpFbfQnpI
- ↑ https://youtu.be/Z7PszW0fIeA?feature=shared&t=1052
- ↑ "Jellybear" Raphael Eggert. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
- ↑ https://stefanieschmiedel.wixsite.com/portfolio/resume
- ↑ "ibu_reel.flv" YouTube (July 11, 2010). Retrieved December 2, 2024.
- ↑ "GUMMY BEAR" B-Water Studios (March 11, 2021). Retrieved January 15, 2025.
- ↑ "Rig Car, Gummy Bear" Nit Visual. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
- ↑ https://vimeo.com/203447463