Original subtitles

[piano playing]

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

[Happy music playing]

[whimsical orchestral music playing]

[♪]

[Peter Holmes] Hello.

[shimmering musical flourish]

That was weird.

Happens more than you think.

So, am I early or what?

No, Peter. You're right on time.

Yeah.

You know...

I haven't seen you around since you were about... that tall.

And you were always bringing that teddy bear around with you.

What was his name?

Yeah, Marty. God, I-- I haven't thought about him in years.

I-- I loved that bear.

You know, you two were quite the pair.

Yeah. Thanks.

Enjoy the show!

Wow.

Got the whole theater to myself. This is great.

[male voice] What am I, chopped liver?

Great, now I'm hearing voices.

-[male voice] No, you're not. -Whoa!

A talking teddy bear?

In a powder blue tuxedo?

[narrating bear] Well, of course. I have to dress nice.

This is my big break, you know.

-I'm in this picture. -No way.

Oh, congratulations, talking teddy bear.

-I really can't wait to see you. -Shh! It's starting.

Sorry.

[film rolling]

[narrating bear] It was a dark and stormy night.

-[thunder booming] -Wait, that's not it. Oh!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away--

Oh, no, then, now, that's not right, either.

Once upon a time-- No? That's not right either?

Okay, here it is. [clears throat]

Teddy bears! Everyone loves them.

They bring comfort and joy to millions of people all over the world.

There is a place where you can go

and you can make your own teddy bear.

And it's not so much that you make it.

You build it.

That's right. Build-A-Bear.

So, where did Build-A-Bear come from?

And how has Build-A-Bear managed to stay relevant

when so many toy stores have fallen by the wayside?

Get ready to find out,

because this is the story of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Growing up, it was always a big treat for me to go to Build-A-Bear.

As a kid walking into there, you think it's, like, the coolest place on Earth.

Then still, as an adult, I still think it's one of the coolest places on Earth.

Kinda like stuffed animal Disneyland. [chuckles] It's so fun!

Well, they didn't have Build-A-Bear when I was a kid,

but the fact that you can create your own bears is next level.

There were a lot of decisions to be made.

It wasn't just, like, "I like that,"

it was this really cool thing for the kids that they had never had before.

None of us had ever seen this before.

So here is my first impression of Build-A-Bear.

I'm sorry, you might not love this, but I'm telling you anyway.

"Wow! This is genius. They have taken the labor out of

putting the animal together, and we're doing it for you."

I mean, your profit margin just went... [whooshes]

-Brilliant! -[Jeff Timmons] I mean, you've seen different concepts

for kids that are created for kids.

Experiences for kids come and go,

but Build-A-Bear's a way of life for a lot of us.

[Dubrow] For a parent, I mean, amazing,

because it wasn't just walking into a store

and buying something. You got, like, an experience with it.

[Timmons] I think there's something very special and unique

about the process of creating their own bear.

They have a hand in it, they can customize it with the--

with the-- with the shoes, to the hats, to the clothes.

Just the hearts! Having a little heart

on the inside of the bears is so cute.

It's your creation, because you're building it and not somebody else.

Watching your child be creative, and the thought process,

and, you know, all the neurons firing

and everything, is really incredible.

But to watch them create something with love is... it's heartwarming.

[Shipman] You can do whatever your imagination wants.

You can choose a crazy bear, or keep it simple.

Also, the environment in Build-A-Bear is always just so happy.

Everyone seems to be having an awesome time.

As a kid, you're constantly told, "Oh, behave,"

like, "Calm down." Like, mute yourself.

But in a Build-A-Bear shop, you're able to do whatever your heart wants to do.

[narrating bear] So, what is Build-A-Bear?

Everyone knows what a Build-A-Bear is.

I mean, growing up, everyone's passed by it in the mall, or seen it.

There's not one person who hasn't at least heard of Build-A-Bear.

I had never heard of Build-A-Bear, to be honest.

And then my son's wife said,

"Yes, I've known about Build-A-Bear all my life."

I'm like, "How could she know about Build-A-Bears and I don't know about it?"

But I do now.

Better late than never.

Do you wanna hold my bear?

Would you like one? [laughing]

-Do you know about Build-A-Bears? -[crew member] Oh, yeah.

Huh. Well.

So, the whole world knows about Build-A-Bear but me?

[♪]

[narrating bear] Now, if you're watching this movie,

it is safe to assume you've heard of Build-A-Bear before.

Or at least you have now.

But not so long ago,

there was no such thing as Build-A-Bear Workshop.

It all came from this teddy bear-sized woman, Maxine Clark.

[♪]

Hi, I'm Maxine Clark.

I'm Maxine Clark, and I am best known

as the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

My title, though, when I was at Build-A-Bear,

was Chief Executive Bear, but sometimes it was Momma Bear.

Sometimes Chief Executive Bear, sometimes CEB.

Maxine, she is a force.

I don't even know the words to describe Maxine,

because she, I think, defies definition.

Uh, Maxine is a dynamo.

Back in that day, you know, there wasn't the Internet,

and so I had to go to the library to look her up

to see who she really was, and I'm thinking,

"Oh, my. She's the President of Payless ShoeSource."

-♪ Another openin' ♪ -♪ Another store ♪

♪ At Payless ShoeSource We're building more ♪

Well, I had a great career with the May Department Stores. Over 20 years.

They asked me to be the president of Payless ShoeSource,

which was kind of the dream job. I love the shoe business

because shoes are something that I could always buy and not have to alter.

So, I met her, and, of course, I-- In my mind, I had made her six feet tall.

She came around the corner, and, of course, she's four foot ten, and I'm looking down at her.

[Krueger] I think she was really set on accomplishing things in life.

To be able to start Build-A-Bear and make it into the, you know,

iconic brand that it is today

just kinda speaks to how she just goes after things.

She is a trailblazer, she is a glass ceiling-breaker.

As a woman, I admire her and look up to her so much

because I know how much she's accomplished,

and I think that she's just so inspiring.

And her footprints are all over St. Louis,

and, really, they're all over the world

because there are millions upon millions of teddy bears

out in this world that wouldn't be there without her.

I love documentaries,

so I'm always sort of fascinated to see how things came about.

Me too, AC Slater. Me too.

[Lopez] And I know Build-A-Bear was, like, a phenomenon,

so I'm-- I'm curious to hear the backstory.

[narrating bear] The year was 1997.

[tape crackling]

So during the height of the Beanie Baby craze,

Maxine had picked my brother and me up from school,

and we went to the toy store after school.

We went looking for Beanie Babies,

if you remember, when those were very popular.

-Yeah, I remember. -It's estimated that

close to ten million people collect Beanie Babies.

For many of us Beanie Kids, we just love them 'cause they're so cute and cuddly.

I wasn't really into Beanie Babies.

Maybe I had ten, and I think other kids had a thousand.

For others, collecting Beanies is an obsession.

Ha! Like you Beanie Moms out there.

We walked in the store, and they had a big sign that said,

"We have Beanie Babies," but they didn't.

I was looking for Rover the Red Dog,

and the toy store didn't have that Beanie Baby in stock.

Because during the day, parents trolled the stores

and they took all the fun out of it, the fun of discovery.

And so we walked into the store, and they didn't have what they said on the sign,

and Katie just looked at one of 'em that was on display that was kind of ragged,

-and she said, "You know..." -"Maxine, these are so easy, we could make them."

Well, she meant go home and make a bear in our craft room.

But Maxine said that light bulb moment of,

"You know, we can make these," was actually...

-[ding] -...that was the moment of inspiration

for Build-A-Bear Workshop.

We went back to the house. She and Jack, her brother,

went downstairs, get out all the stuff.

And she came up, and I was on the computer, Netscaping.

It was quite slow, as you recall.

Could I find a business that I could buy

that I could turn into this idea?

That when she said, "We could make these,"

I thought of a store where we could make these.

When she came upstairs, she said, "What are you doing?"

And I said, "I'm looking to see if I--"

She went, "Well, that's not what I meant."

I said, "I know that's not what you meant, but I think

it's a really good idea. I'm gonna start looking at it."

And I did do some research, and I did find a couple of factories

that were available for sale, or I thought they would be.

But they thought I was crazy.

They had a price on it that was way too high.

I told Katie, and I wasn't able to buy the one

that I thought we could really make into this,

and she said, "Well, why don't we do it?"

Now, I'm not sure she remembers it exactly that way, but that's what I heard.

[chuckles] Okay.

What I saw is Maxine had an idea,

and then found the right people and brought it to life.

It just seemed almost seamless to me.

I went right to work on that project.

That was probably February of 1997,

and by October of 1997,

we had opened up our first store at the St. Louis Galleria.

♪ Build a bear At the Build-A-Bear Workshop ♪

♪ Where there's a bear For everyone ♪

Welcome to the Build-A-Bear Workshop!

-Have you ever been into a store where you can make best friends? -[child] Uh huh.

♪ We're gonna have some fun ♪

No matter what, at any cost, we--

You know, we were gonna succeed in, you know,

convincing people this was the concept to believe in.

Have you met Maxine?

She's very convincing, and, you know,

once you meet her and you fall in love with her,

you're not gonna-- you're not gonna let anything fail.

[♪]

Welcome to Build-A-Bear!

It-- it's unbelievable feeling to be standing here with you

and talking to you about-- about the story of Build-A-Bear,

because when we started, there were lots of people that didn't think it would make it.

But not children. [chuckles]

All the kids that I asked knew that it was gonna be successful.

[narrating bear] Kids aren't the only ones who love teddy bears.

Some grown-ups do too.

Meet the McCarthy twins!

I am Maribeth McCarthy.

Hi, I'm Ellen McCarthy.

[both] And we're identical twins!

And this is Colby.

[both chuckle]

-Colby is... -Our life companion.

-Basically. -Life companion, yes.

He has been with us for so many years.

He's essentially an extension of us, really.

Especially of our personality, yeah.

Because I voice Colby, which I think freaks some people out.

People are like, "Oh, are you hungry?"

"No!" "Why not?" "'Cause I'm stuffed!"

-[chuckles] So... -Somehow it never gets old.

And he was talking from the second he was in that nice little cardboard box

-that they give you to take-- -I love that box.

It's like a little house! I'm like, "Yeah, let's go home."

And it was just-- You know that scene in Willy Wonkathat I can't sing

because of copyright? But you walk in and it's just--

-[beep] -[electronic voice] I'm sorry, the song "Pure Imagination"

fromWilly Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is not currently available.

You look at everything, and it's literally pure imagination.

That was like us during Minnesota.

We went to the Minnesota one in the Mall of America.

-Oh, my goodness. -And we were just like...

-"Oh, my God." -"This is magical. What is this?"

-Once you know us, you're-- -[Ellen] Once you know us, you're...

-[both] Very used to it. -Yeah.

But if you're just meeting us, you're like, "Oh! There's a bear!"

Mm-hmm. And it's, "Hogs! What time's your bus comin'?"

And he travels on planes with me a lot.

I always have that brief, like, 12 seconds of panic attack

when you have to put him through the belt in the airport.

-I hate that part. -And I'm there just like,

"Do the wand, do the wand! Get me through!"

[laughs] But you can't yell, "My kid's in there,"

because they'll be like, "What?" So... [laughs]

[both] How many times have we been to Build-A-Bear?

-We have lost count. -Yes. We've gone enough that they know us by name.

Whenever we're dressed in our princess outfits, we go and we take pictures

-for them and everything, and-- -The conventions are a lot of fun

because we get to dress in kind of, like, how we're dressed.

[♪]

The joy of him is that he finds joy in everything.

-Mm-hmm. -And so I wrote this first one,

which is Colby and the First Day Ever.

And it's about how he and I meet and become a family.

[in Colby's voice] "Some people ask about where you come from.

Like, are you from a big place, or a small place?

I do not know where I came from.

All I remember is being asleep, and then I woke up."

And then it's just about how we met and became a family,

and he just opened his eyes and there I was.

My hair is amazing in this book.

Went through 17 colored pencils. It was great.

[narrating bear] It's so weird. Before they started this company,

I have no memory of anything. I can't figure it out.

You tell me if I'm, you know, fidgeting or whatever.

You have just-- You'll... look.

[crew member]

[Krueger] Well, Build-A-Bear had a reputation

in St. Louis of being, you know, the hot company.

And so I was actually diagnosed with cancer, and, um, was--

Got through all the treatments and everything, and needed to find a job.

So, I had a friend that was working with Build-A-Bear,

and she took my résumé to Maxine.

Maxine said, "I think you might be a good fit here."

I said, "Okay, I just have to be honest with you.

I just finished cancer treatment, like, a year ago, and odds are that,

you know, I'll be able to give you at least a couple of good years."

And she's like, "Okay, um, thanks for telling me that.

Um, I think you'd be good for the role. If you want the job, it's yours."

No tests, no assessments, and I got the offer, like, the next day.

[Klocke] It was-- it was difficult in the very beginning,

because a lot of people, um, no, you know, disrespect.

A lot of men didn't believe we could do it,

and so, you know, they didn't understand

how you could have an interactive retail concept. What was that?

In fact, we couldn't even lease our own space.

We subleased from Maxine's husband

because the landlord wouldn't rent to us.

I mean, banks wouldn't lend to us

because we were female-led and weren't proven yet,

even though Maxine had a great repertoire of business knowledge, you know?

Maybe you could call us trailblazers. I don't know.

I mean, we just did what we needed to do.

We-- we basically were on path to reinvent retail.

If you think about what Build-A-Bear is,

it's a very specific product.

You know, how many bears do you need a year, right?

So, in a very real sense,

they need a place where there's lots of traffic.

It's not like the supermarket, where you go every single week to restock the fridge.

This is something you do on special occasions, right?

And you need a place where a lot of people go

a lot of the time to have the kind of exposure to make that business model work.

[narrating bear] In the mid '90s, that place was the mall!

The mall was the center of commerce. It was the center of retail.

That's where you went.

I love the smell of commerce in the morning!

You know, you couldn't buy stuff offline

and have it hand-delivered to your house.

You know, you literally had to go and drive to the mall

and pick up, you know, whatever item you want.

Shopping malls were the hub for young kids.

-We're going shopping. -I'd like to welcome you to our mall.

All the action's on the other side of the mall.

[grand orchestral music playing]

♪ At the mall, havin' fun ♪

[announcer] It's Mall Madness! It's the mall with it all!

Yeah, you know, shopping malls have changed so much,

but I remember when my kids were little, and...

you needed things to do, right?

Or-- You went to the mall.

In my small town, we really didn't have much to do other than go to the mall,

so the mall was, like, a big treat and a big outing.

And in our mall,

the only "fun store" that they had was a Build-A-Bear.

Auntie Anne's was here. There was a fountain over here.

We brought a lot of pennies with us, we made a lot of wishes,

we got pretzels, and we went to Build-A-Bear.

[Clark] Here we are at the St. Louis Galleria,

the home of the first Build-A-Bear Workshop store back in 1997.

It's a great mall, and we picked it because it was a great mall.

But also because this location,

right here in the center court of St. Louis,

is really hard to come by at any good mall,

but let alone the best one in St. Louis.

And the other great thing about this particular space

is that this is where Santa Claus comes,

the Easter Bunny, all kinds of Girl Scout events,

so everybody gathers at this central location

right in front of the Build-A-Bear store.

You can't ask for anything better than that.

[upbeat pop music playing]

[♪]

[narrating bear] Wait, I think I skipped ahead. Can we--

-Let's go back to the part about teddy bears. -[rewinding]

[announcer] Teddy bears have a unique and special place in our lives.

They're warm, friendly, and caring,

and they're there for you, always.

Hi, my name is Lucy Minassian.

I am a licensed clinical social worker

with over 20 years of experience,

uh, working with children and families.

Teddy bears come up in my line of work all the time.

Teddy bears help kids feel safe

because it's a sense of security and a grounding force for them.

If they're angry or upset, they grab the fuzzy animal and they hold it.

It reminds them of safety and security.

Children use stuffed animals as a form of expression.

They talk to it, they-- they care for it.

It becomes like an extension of the child.

And what children often tell me is if they're going through a tough time,

they grab that one teddy bear, that one thing that they have a connection with.

Especially-- And, you know, families that are maybe not functioning as well,

the bear becomes a secret keeper.

It becomes the one thing that's stable and safe,

despite whatever's happening in their life.

And that teddy bear is never gonna disappoint them.

Because how can it? It's an extension of their imagination and their love.

I think kids love teddy bears so much because our imagination

when we're younger is just so much more vivid.

When you're a kid, you're like, "Oh, this is like a real bear."

I wonder why the stuffed animal, the bear...

-[bear growls] -...why it became a bear.

Why not a puppy?

A bear's, like, a big, scary thing.

[narrating bear] Bears can be pretty intimidating.

If I saw a real bear in the woods, I would run.

[laughs] I would run as fast as I can.

[narrating bear] So how did we get from this...

[bear snarling]

-[woman screaming] -...to this? Aww!

We invited some friends to tell us the story of the teddy bear.

But they wanted to build a bear first.

[employee] What brings us in today, guys?

[Maron Roosevelt] To build a bear, I guess!

[employee] Well, you've come to the right place!

[Kermit Roosevelt III] All right, we can make it here?

-Of course. -What do we do?

-Is that one we decided on? -[Maron] Yes.

-[Kermit] I think so. -[employee] Awesome.

Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting,

but it was definitely not how, like-- like, took a tube and fuzz.

High-power, pressurized fuzz into the hole in the bear.

[employee] Go for it, my friend.

-[machine whirring] -Whee! Oh, that is...

[whirring continues]

[employee] Pretty cool, huh?

-Yeah. -Did not expect that.

Do a ritual?

[employee] Rub it in your hands, make it nice and warm.

You're gonna shake that heart up high

-and say, "Wake up, heart!" -Wake up, heart!

I did not expect that!

[employee] Yeah, go ahead and put that right inside.

Wow! [laughs]

[Kermit]

[Maron] Ah! So, maybe we could call him...

[drumroll]

...I mean, this is the classic teddy bear,

so maybe kind of, like, a classic name, like...

[drumroll continues]

-Teddy. [laughs] -[trumpet solo playing]

That's not very creative, but whatever.

[narrating bear] Oh, I think this is the part

where they tell us the history of teddy bears.

Can't you just go on Ancestry.com?

-Ha-ha, very funny. -[Peter chuckles]

Don't you mean "bear-y" funny? I'll show myself out.

Shh!

Sorry. [scoffs]

Everyone's a critic, right? [chuckles]

[narrating bear] It stinks!

[militaristic music playing]

[narrating bear] Who is this guy? I thought I was telling the story.

-Hi. I'm Kermit Roosevelt III. -[narrating bear] Who?

And I'm the great-great-grandson of Teddy Roosevelt.

[narrating bear] Oh. Okay.

So, it's 1902,

and Theodore Roosevelt is in Mississippi,

and he's hunting black bear.

So, obviously when the President of the United States comes to your state,

you want to show him a good time.

So they've set up a hunting party for him.

They've got a guide for him who's a very famous hunter,

a formerly enslaved person named Holt Collier,

who's killed over 1,000 bears, apparently.

And they send this party out into the swamps of Mississippi.

Holt Collier's there to make sure that

Theodore Roosevelt gets a bear, and also to keep him safe,

because you don't want the President of the United States to be killed by a bear.

So, there they are.

They're traipsing through the woods and the swamps,

and it's just not going very well,

particularly for Theodore Roosevelt.

TR is just having no luck.

Holt Collier was tracking a bear with his dogs,

and followed it into this very dense stand of swamp trees,

and realized this would be too dangerous for the President.

So he says, "Mr. President, you wait.

I'm gonna go in with the dogs, I'm gonna flush the bear out."

So Holt Collier and the dogs go in.

He finds the bear.

It attacks his dogs. There's a fight.

He ends up clubbing it unconscious with his rifle.

And then he basically drags the bear out and ties it to a tree,

so he blows the bugle to summon Theodore Roosevelt,

and the hunting party gathers around, and everyone is saying, "Shoot the bear."

And Theodore Roosevelt had nothing against shooting animals,

but he did have a sense of fair play and sportsmanship,

and he wasn't about to shoot a bear that someone else had tied to a tree for him.

So, he said, "No, I'm not gonna do it."

And there were, of course, reporters on this hunting trip,

and this really captivated them.

So there's a political cartoonist named Clifford Berryman

who, in 1902, draws a cartoon.

He titles it "Drawing The Line In Mississippi."

It's got Theodore Roosevelt standing there with the bear in the background

being held by a guide, and Theodore Roosevelt is refusing to shoot it.

Word gets around, and there's a convenience store owner in Brooklyn,

a guy named Morris,

who sells candy and novelty and toys,

but his wife has also been making some stuffed bears,

and he's got a couple lying around the store,

and he thinks "Hey, I'll put these in my window,

take advantage of the news. I'm gonna call them Teddy's bears."

And he thought he should actually get approval from the President to do this

since he was using TR's name,

although TR, interestingly, hated being called Teddy.

Morris writes him a letter, sends him one of the bears,

which TR gives to his son, Kermit--

that's my great-great-grandfather--

and says, "Would it be okay

if I marketed these as Teddy's bears?"

Theodore Roosevelt writes back and says, "Sure, you can do it.

I don't think it's gonna go anywhere."

You know, "Good luck with that."

And of course, it takes off.

You know, the rest is history.

There had been stuffed bears before,

and children would play with the stuffed bears, but they were fearsome.

And the teddy bear is the first sort of childlike,

almost baby-like representation of a bear.

This is where Winnie the Pooh comes from.

This is where Paddington Bear comes from.

There's sort of a bear mania that sweeps the nation.

And then... you have your bear.

[employee] Enjoy yourselves!

-Thank you. -[employee] Have some fun!

-[Maron] We will! -All right, clothing.

I'm named after Teddy Roosevelt? Oh, please! He's named after me.

-Uh, we have always loved teddy bears. -Yeah.

And so they've just always been a part of our lives.

-I think with you, it was Hook. -When Hookcame out

and I was ten and I fell absolutely in love with it,

and he had a teddy bear.

A happy thought...

I got it. I got it! I found it!

And it was Taddy, and I've looked for that bear so much.

Teddy bears just have this thing--

Like, Taddy and Hook,

that connected Peter to his childhood.

That teddy bear reminded him of who he was,

and it brought him back to be Peter Pan. It's--

Teddy bears bring you back to your childhood.

-Yeah. -And they bring you back to when you could believe in anything,

-and you could be anything. -It's like, "Hey, you know, these are all the good things,"

and this is kind of symbolic of that.

-Yeah. -This-- this is the love. It's wrapped up in a bear.

My philosophy is that Elvis Presley

actually made the teddy bear into a love object

when he sang "I Wanna Be Your Teddy Bear."

So I think that in all this time,

at least since the '50s when he sang that wonderful song,

the teddy bear's become a sign of love and compassion.

And I don't think that's ever gonna go away.

[crowd cheering]

[Elvis bear] Thank you. Thank you "bear-y" much.

[♪]

Who labels a box "Very Important Historical Documents"?

I one time went to Disneyland and I saw how Walt Disney

saved everything, so I did the same.

Touché, madam.

Oh, this box has so many memories.

Oh, wow, here's our Racecar Bear.

This was our Ski Bear, which was really, really cute.

Here was a fairy princess dress, of course.

You have to have a fairy princess dress.

This is one of our first dresses that we had.

We had a tennis outfit, which is really cute. This didn't sell so well.

Most little kids that made a bear didn't play tennis.

That was not one of our better sellers-- Wow.

This is a precious picture.

Maybe we should do something with this.

Like, there's the original drawing of Build-A-Bear,

and then here is the photograph of the store after it opened

and how exact the design was,

and how we were able to really bring it to life.

This is a bunch of really good stuff in here!

The Bear Promise.

"My bear is special. I brought it to life.

I chose it, I named it, now I'm taking it home.

Best friends are forever, and I promise right now

to make my bear my number one pal."

We had every child say that to us,

that they were gonna take care of their bear.

The people that helped us with this were amazingly talented.

They did all kinds of displays for all kinds of theme parks.

The stuffing machine that we used, well, they wanted to invent a new one,

but it was really hard to do that in nine months.

This is a much more modified stuffing station.

The original one that we bought was a machine that stuffed upholstery.

That's what was available.

So this is a very important part of the process here,

because this is where you can stuff it as much as you want, and the pedal is there for that.

The wishes that you put in your bear,

the engagement with our store associates.

This is a really personal, one-on-one experience.

The heart's the most important.

Yeah, the heart!

My very close friend Sarah Russell was an artist,

and I brought over my tote of bears.

And she was taking 'em out and she was hugging them,

and she said, "Maxine, these bears need a heart."

And I said, "What do you mean?" And she took out a pencil

and she sketched this little heart.

And I said, "That is a fantastic idea,"

and I sent it over to our factory.

They made thousands of hearts and shipped them to us,

and by the time we opened our store, we had the hearts,

and we had them in a heart-shaped box.

But it was one of our associates, Jeff Marx,

who was a teacher and worked part-time for Build-A-Bear,

that really put the heart in Build-A-Bear Workshop.

My name's Jeff Marx.

Um, I started with Build-A-Bear in 1997.

Guests would go over to the heart bucket,

pull a heart out of the heart bin,

and then they would put it inside the bear.

And I was on the stuffing machine one day, and I remember thinking,

"This seems to be such a critical moment."

I remember thinking, "There's more we could do with this."

A couple of days later,

a little bitty boy came in the workshop.

And he was about four years old, I would guess.

And he was a little bit intimidated by this flat teddy bear.

He wouldn't touch the bear. He didn't wanna hand it to me. Mom held it.

And I thought, "What can I do to get him to connect with this bear more?"

And that's when the idea came in my mind of,

"Maybe if I have him warm up the heart that's gonna go in there, and kiss it,

maybe he'll be comfortable with that,

and then that'll connect him to the teddy bear."

And then I said, "Let's put your hands together around the heart

and make a wish for your teddy bear," and he made a wish on the heart.

And then as soon as I asked him to put it inside the teddy bear,

I could see that his face lit up and he connected with this bear.

And that's when I knew this is something I needed to do again.

So I started doing it with the very next customer,

and that just became something I did with every customer.

He just went with it. To kiss the heart, to put it on your elbow,

to put it on your knee, to put it on your brain for extra smarts.

Take your heart and rub it on your head so your bear is smart like you!

Or on your muscles, so your bear is strong like you.

To me, the Heart Ceremony is just something that is

a piece of the puzzle of how we connect with each other,

how we connect with the stuffed animals and our own creativity.

So for me, it isn't the heart ceremony that makes me think "Wow."

It's what Build-A-Bear Workshop represents,

and the creativity that happens at that moment

when a guest is stuffing their bear.

That piece of creativity is what excites me still to this day

about what Build-A-Bear Workshop does.

Most people don't realize that you don't have to have every idea.

You know, if you create a canvas on a business

that people want to participate in,

they'll give you it back 100 times over.

And you let them share their experiences and their ideas

and be on committees to help you make the business better,

you're gonna find that that works,

and I can't think of a business that that wouldn't work in.

You don't wanna overwhelm the guest,

and you don't want them to feel super awkward.

You want them to remember it,

but, um, keep it simple

and just right for them.

There's so many different ways to complete a heart ceremony.

When you're stuffing your next furry friend,

spend an extra second or two thinking about how

this one will be just a bit more special,

and you'll be "paw-fect" every time.

There's a place called Build-A-Bear.

Time out. What's it called?

[crew member]

Ah, Build-A-Bear.

Um, I went to learn about bears at Build-A-Bear.

It was amazing.

[sighs contently] Have you been?

I asked if I could buy... this machine

so I can make bears... from my house.

She said no.

You know, one thing that we did, um...

Uh, this might have been crazy.

We had our own music.

And I had a friend who was a music writer,

and he wrote songs.

["Build-A-Bear Theme" playing]

♪ Build-A-Bear... ♪

You know, we could order music and have music play--

Muzak played in our store, but it wouldn't have been kid music.

There wasn't anything that was really good.

So he wrote teddy bear songs for us, and they were adorable.

["Teddy Bear Heart" playing]

♪ He's got a teddy bear ♪

♪ He's got a teddy bear heart ♪

["Cheerleader Bear" playing]

♪ She's a cheerleader bear Yeah ♪

♪ She's a cheerleader bear ♪

["Teddy Bear Parade" playing]

♪ What a wonderful day ♪

♪ For the teddy bear parade Oh ♪

[♪]

So, how many stores open up and have their own album?

And we sold the albums as well. It's really, really cute.

But it gave it that special flair that people weren't someplace else.

They were immersed in the Build-A-Bear experience.

[narrating bear] Music has always been a big part of the Build-A-Bear story.

Artists like the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus,

and even Justin Bieber

all had strong connections to Build-A-Bear

during their illustrious careers.

Legally, we aren't allowed to say that Build-A-Bear

is the reason they all became huge pop stars.

So we won't say that!

Now, early in my days at the May Company,

Stanley Goodman, who was the chairman here in St. Louis,

came for a visit, and we were all sitting there with--

You know, just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, waiting to hear his words of wisdom,

and I always sat in the front row because I was small.

It was like he was looking at me when he said this.

He said, "Retailing is entertainment, and the store's a stage.

And when the customer has fun, they spend more money."

Our first guest conspired with a ten-year-old

to come up with an "un-bear-ably" cute idea!

That's a story of no, not necessarily a story of yes.

-[phone ringing] -I got a call, and it said,

"Oprah Winfrey wants you to be on the show on Monday,"

and I said, "Well, I'm sorry, I can't be there because I'm in Japan."

And she said, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yes, I'm sure,

I couldn't get back if I wanted to."

And then the next call was from the producer...

-[phone ringing] -...who said we could do it on Tuesday.

And I said, "I'm sorry, I can't be there on Tuesday."

The next call, about an hour later, was from Oprah Winfrey.

Pick up the phone, she says, "This is Oprah Winfrey."

Of course, she didn't have to give me her last name,

but she said, "I understand that you're traveling on business,"

and that, "we would really like to have you on our show,"

and, "When could you be here?"

And I said, "I could be there Friday."

And in that time period, because I didn't say yes right away,

they had the time to set up

an entire Build-A-Bear store inside the studio.

Oprah wanted to make her own bear on the show.

We have a couple of choices here for you today.

-[Oprah] Do I get to stuff? -Yes, you do.

-It's totally up to you. -[applause]

Okay, so I can have as much or as little, right?

-Yeah. -Okay.

And it was like this, you know,

magic that happened.

[audience cheering]

Oh, this is too cute. Too cute.

After the show, she let me use her office 'cause I had to do a conference call afterwards.

And I'm sitting there in her office, and I'm looking around,

and I wanted to touch everything, just to say I touched it.

[Oprah] We're all adults in this audience,

and we had so much fun when the bears came out.

Everybody, wave your bears in the air!

[cheering]

The effect of Oprah was immediate.

Like, almost as the show aired, we saw our sales going up.

It was off to the races.

And we also, uh, were launching, uh,

national TV advertising campaigns.

[announcer] What does your Build-A-Bear Workshop bear say about you?

Put that together, and you have the perfect storm

that really just was a force that,

you know, turned us on to-- In a whole new way,

and we actually went public as a company.

Um, had our IPO that year.

And so it was a pretty, um, momentous, uh, activity-driven era.

[whispering] Hey, I'm out of popcorn. You want anything?

No, thanks, I'm stuffed.

[chuckles] I liked it both times.

Hello, my good man. Running low on pops.

Got it.

[Muzak playing faintly]

-Anything else? -[Holmes] Oh, yeah, I--

-Soda? -No. No, thanks.

-Sandwich? -You make sandwiches?

-No. -[beep]

Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.

-[beep] -Have you noticed anything weird around here?

What do you mean by weird?

Well, there's that.

-[beep] -But I was thinking of,

like, talking teddy bears?

-Talking teddy bears? -Yeah.

-Well-- -[beep]

You're putting me on, right?

No, I-- I'm not saying I saw a talking teddy bear.

I'm watching a movie about teddy bears.

I probably just saw one reflected in the eyeglasses--

A movie about talking teddy bears? That's a good one.

Was that-- This was...

-[beep] -[chuckles] Well, I regret every moment of this.

-Um, thank you. -Would you--

Good God!

[chuckles nervously]

[♪]

What'd I miss?

-A lot. -Like what?

Mostly bear stuff.

Did you say "bear stuff," or "bears stuffed"?

Yeah, I'll just watch.

I'm Heather Dubrow. I'm a mom of four kids,

and we have been Build-A-Bear fans forever.

They added things as the years went on.

Build-A-Bear always, of course, has the little heart,

but then they added the voice.

And that just took it to another level.

'Cause now, you know, you have a baby or a young child that's not sleeping well,

and all the moms got together, like, "What are we gonna do?"

"Go to Build-A-Bear. Make a bear.

Put your voice in there, and the middle of the night,

then they can hug it and hear your voice."

I recorded my voice in the very first bear

that my daughter had because I was on the road.

98 Degrees was on the road a lot,

and so I got an opportunity to say

"Hey, you know, Alyssa, I love you very much,"

and at any time, she could hear my voice when I was on the road.

What I wanted my voice to say in the animal is,

[shouting] "Go to bed! Mom is tired!"

[lullaby playing]

But probably, it was something like,

[softly] "I love you. Go to sleep.

I'll see you in the morning. You're safe. Everything's okay."

There's all kinds of stories.

Guys would use it to propose.

Um, my son used it to ask his girlfriend to the prom.

People recorded their voices for it to say "I love you.

Will you go to the prom with me? Will you marry me?"

But also, Build-A-Bear has been used for commemorating sad things as well.

Um, we all live in a world of unfortunate circumstances,

and if you've had a death in the family

but were fortunate enough to have a voice recording

and have that voice in the bear...

[woman's voice 1] Wanted to call and wish you a happy birthday,

my beautiful little five-pounder...

-Seriously, Jillian? -...love you very much.

[woman filming] So Mom didn't have a voicemail.

Like, it said her number. It didn't have her voice.

-Thought it did. -[woman] No. So I went through my voicemails

and I found a couple voicemails, and I just put it together.

And that's the dress she wore for Dave's wedding.

And push its hand.

[woman's voice 2] Hey, baby. Love you.

[weeping]

[man] Thank you.

[narrating bear] Long before there were sounds in bears,

even before there was a single store in a single mall,

Maxine had a plan for Build-A-Bear.

[Krueger] She always saw it as something bigger than,

you know, just the single store.

So in 1998, they had four stores.

1999, finished the year with about 15,

and by 2001, we surpassed 50 stores,

and then just a couple of years later,

our 100th store actually opened in Roosevelt Field

on the 100th anniversary of the teddy bear.

And we had kinda internally set our eye

to eventually being in New York, and had our float

in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that year.

[announcer] 76th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

[host] Can you bear it? The Teddy Bear Centennial

is celebrated with the 100th "anni-bear-sary" party.

To be a part of that was a big deal.

We were the first retailer that was ever invited to participate.

And so it actually was important,

because it brought it to life, right?

It gave it a personality.

At the time, our brand awareness was still... growing.

And so I think a lot of people at that time were like, "Go to what?"

A couple of years later, we opened our store

in Fifth Avenue, in New York City, and we went over 200 stores.

Our 200th store was at the Mall of America.

-[Holmes laughs] -So.

Kept expanding probably until

about the time that the recession hit.

[thud]

The signs were everywhere, but now it's official.

We are in a recession.

But when the subprime bubble popped and the stock market collapsed

and home prices collapsed, well, in that kind of world,

you're not spending a lot of money on Build-A-Bear.

In fact, discretionary retail in general got hammered.

[narrating bear] And that was the end of the Build-A-Bear story.

That can't be true. I was just at one last week.

Okay, you got me.

Let's see, where was I? The-- Oh, yes.

Things were not looking good for the once-booming toy company.

After years of growth, they were facing the first big decline in revenue.

And then, in 2013,

Maxine stepped down as Chief Executive Bear,

and someone new took over.

Hey.

This little fella is called a Delivery Bear,

and at Build-A-Bear,

um, when you get a job offer,

a lot of times, you receive the job offer

through this little guy.

And it says, "A 'beary' special delivery."

Um, and I did receive this delivery bear

when I got my offer to be the Chief Executive Officer at Build-A-Bear,

and of course I had to keep it.

One of the things I love about Build-A-Bear

is that my kids had already fallen in love with Build-A-Bear.

This is my son's doggie

that he loved so, so, so, much,

and now he's 20 years old, so.

I'm pretty sure his original name was Excited Ears,

for obvious reasons,

but he became Ruffy over time.

And then this is Pink Stars,

and Pink Stars is super special.

This is my little girl, who's now 17, this was her unicorn.

She used to fall asleep chewing on this unicorn horn.

And that would just comfort her right to sleep,

and... I think they all sort of tell a story

about how special these stuffed animals are for little kids.

Obviously my kids were pretty excited

when I started working at Build-A-Bear,

but you also have to understand that

I'd been working in the toy industry for a long time,

so they're pretty used to this stuff.

[chuckles]

[laughing]

[laughs]

[narrating bear] Ha! That's so cute.

So, Sharon came in, and, you know,

um, energetic, and she was very kind of business-oriented.

A lot of when Build-A-Bear started,

it was a lot of fun stuff. The titles were, like, you know,

all had "bear" in it and things like that.

Yep, did you know that I almost

did not get the offer, the final offer,

because I didn't wanna be "Chief Executive Bear"?

-I did know that. -[laughing]

-I did know that. -And then I'm like,

"Why shouldn't Maxine always be the Chief Executive Bear?

I think we should retire the title."

And that's why I'm here.

-[laughs] -I appreciate that. I get it.

I got it from then-- that moment on here. Yeah.

[narrating bear] Aww.

Some of the things I've made for Cole Bear--

Again, I am not good at sweaters, so please forgive me.

But he is-- We have decided Cole Bear is a Hufflepuff, like us.

-[Maribeth] Obviously. -Yes. So he's a Hufflepuff.

So I had to make him a Hufflepuff sweater.

This is before Build-A-Bear came out with anything Harry Potter.

-We were waiting for years. -We were waiting so long for that.

Uh, one of the hats I made, it has not--

-That's-- that's seen some better-- -Not stood the test of time.

Some Minion hats.

Because I made him and Maribeth--

-Oh, yeah, we were matching Minions. -Matching Minions.

-[Minion voice] Banana. -And if you're a big nerd, also, Doctor Who.

Yep. So there's the TARDIS.

-This is what Beth's-- -Yeah, this is what I do.

-This is what we do! -Mm-hmm.

[♪]

Did you see that guy?

"Did you see the magic teddy bears?"

I mean, that guy is weird. You want some?

Okay, in my opinion, I think a tablet or an iPad, it's--

you have no connection to it, other than addiction.

That's the only thing.

What?

Whereas with a teddy bear,

you're able to create a relationship with it.

It's-- it's a different connection.

When you think about what a teddy bear means to a child,

I think what's so beautiful is that it means something different to every child.

Teddy bears, when you're a little kid, are just, like, your little comfort blanket.

You sleep with them, you hang out.

I used to have, like, a bunch

on this side, and a bunch on that side.

I mean, teddy bears, they make everyone happy.

This should be, like, a mandatory thing.

Everybody's just keep one in your car.

When you get stressed out, hold the bear.

But you can take them anywhere. Like, you can stuff it in your bag while you're going shopping.

And just, like, take 'em out.

And, like, "Hey. I have a bear, you don't."

[both grunting]

-Oh! -[both chuckle]

I like teddy bears

because they keep me company when I'm in bed.

I mean, I'm kinda scared

to-- when, sometimes when I-- when I'm in bed,

and, um-- and if I have, like,

the teddy bear beside me, I just feel like, safer.

There.

-I saw that. -[Lopez laughs]

Yes, so, sometimes it's weird 'cause, when I have, like,

these toys beside me, um,

I make them sing me a lullaby to sleep.

You make them sing to you? Like, what does it sound like?

You don't wanna sing it, it's a secret?

Okay, just tell 'em it's a secret.

It's a secret.

[narrating bear] I like him.

Did you know some of the very first employees

of Build-A-Bear Workshop were small children?

-That can't be right. -[buzzer]

Oh. Hmm.

Our Cub Advisors were our first board of directors.

I obviously was not a small child when I started Build-A-Bear,

and I knew that I did not know everything,

so I went to my friends' kids and brought them all together

to ask them questions about what they thought we should have,

and what we could name them, and--

It just seemed like all the kids got together

and voted on their favorite, whatever it was.

They were very wise, and they had no holdbacks.

Like, if they didn't like something, they told you.

And we would meet at our offices or we would meet in the store

on a Saturday morning before it opened.

Probably anybody came by, they would sort of wonder,

"What are all those kids doing in there working?"

But they loved it, and I thought it was a great experience for them to have,

to be part of something that was starting up,

but also to see what it's like to work in a store.

So, who wants to work at Build-A-Bear?

Just think about the psyche of somebody

that was like, "I think that would be fun."

They're probably the right kind of person to work at Build-A-Bear.

[Stephen Yeun] My parents were like,

"You need to go get a job. Please go get a job."

And I was definitely not cool enough to work

at any of the cool spots,

so I worked at Build-A-Bear.

We love to hire people who like people.

Many of our associates are in their drama club,

or they're aspiring performers,

or they're cheerleaders.

It's a different personality, and I think they select us

because you don't come into Build-A-Bear,

you don't join the Build-A-Bear team to just fold clothes.

-They're so nice. -I've never gone in and been like,

"What's your bear's name? Rub the heart, here you g--"

No, they have always been like, "Now, what's their name?"

-No matter how old or young you are-- -It does not matter.

They treat you the same way. At that moment,

you are the most important person in the room.

-[audience applauding] -I suck at Build-A-Bear.

I used to go in there for my kids, and--

-It's a weird place. -It is a weird place.

[♪]

A bear-ism is a language that we invented for Build-A-Bear.

We thought about this as a childlike experience.

And so the bear-isms, the language here that we spoke,

was a little corny, but everybody got into it.

So this is a collection of those original bear-isms that we used.

Here's some of the cute ones.

"One small step for bears,

one giant leap for bearkind."

"Think like a bear of action, act like a bear of thought."

And most of all, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

Build-A-Bear has its own culture.

I-- Well, it's really fun culture, you might imagine.

You know, it's-- Everything you probably think it is, is what it is.

Along with that culture comes a language.

And that language is really all about bear puns.

-Hi, I'm Dani. -Hi, I'm Dannah.

And before we start, can I just say

how "paw-esome" it is to be here?

And it's truly an honor, but I mean,

this was the "bear" minimum.

Oh, my God. You didn't have to start it like this.

What can I say? I'm a genius.

Okay. My jokes are "un-bear-able."

[Dannah laughs]

You know, things, like, instead of "very,"

something's "beary."

Now, this is typical vernacular.

I'm not kidd-- Like, you write this in your emails.

"That's 'paw-esome.'"

And, you know,

we have a whole lot of, like, "consider the 'paw-sibility.'"

"That's 'un-bear-lievable,'" or--

and "paw-tay."

-[chuckles] -[director]

But we do a lot of "cele-bear-ation," that is true.

[Dannah chuckles]

What button does a bear use to pause the TV?

Wait. I just said it.

The p-- Hey. Can we, like, cut that?

I can "bear-ly" stand another one of these jokes.

You just get used to it, okay.

So here's the truth.

Not only do you get used to it,

sometimes you're out in the world,

and you still use the language.

Which is embarrassing.

[♪]

Um, when Sharon came in, one of the things was to sort of modernize Build-A-Bear.

Everybody might remember the Funhouse font

that's on the front of our stores,

and we use that everywhere,

and, uh, real hard to read,

especially if you do a whole poster with it.

I am a total font nerd.

So-- Yeah, so, for a company,

you want the logo to sort of age well.

And our logo was startin' to look a little dated.

[♪]

It is very iconic, but what I wanted to do

is make sure when we rebranded,

we kept everything that made Build-A-Bear, Build-A-Bear.

Just making it a little bit more modernized.

And one of the great things that Sharon decided to do

was separate the brand from the workshop,

where we took the head-- we call him Bernard, by the way.

He's Bernard, if you can see him back there.

We took his head, he goes into the workshop logo,

and then the word "workshop" is like, this real fun kind of a font.

I loved Funhouse. I love the typeface.

But I got, you know, to make it cleaner and neater,

and looking at something not like it looked like the past, but create a new future.

So this is Happy Hugs.

He's one of our best-selling teddy bears, and--

we generally don't like to show bare bears.

You know what I mean?

Bear, he's bare, he's a bare bear.

Anyway, Happy?

Um, want to tell a little story about Happy Hugs,

and this, what we call a Paw Pad.

One of the things that I did when I got to Build-A-Bear,

was make sure that kids would know that it's a Build-A-Bear.

Now, we've always had the little tags on them,

but having been on Barbie and all these other brands,

it felt like the Build-A-Bear should have a brand mark.

We created this really-- like, I would say,

natural kind of mark for his paw pad.

It's a heart in a pawprint with the "B.A.B" in it, so makes sense why it's there.

We just wanted people to be really proud when they got a Build-A-Bear,

and know that it was a Build-A-Bear, particularly when we're gifting bears.

"Hey, I've got a paw pad.

So cool."

[narrating bear] Has that always been there?

I'm Damon Elliot.

Music producer, and, um,

I like to think I'm a pretty handsome guy.

[director]

I've known Mike since I was 14 years old.

I mean, he was heavyweight champion of the world,

and we hit it off right away.

When we do these celebrity bears,

we often auction them off,

or they're at different events, and for silent auctions.

And we had created a Mike Tyson bear.

Our designers are truly fabulous,

and they had gone to all lengths

to make sure they had gotten

Mike's tattoo just perfectly stitched, hand-stitched,

onto the teddy bear's face.

But we were going to get these signed,

so we could put them at the silent auction.

Do you really want to know about Mike and his teddy bear?

Well, the time I gave Mike Tyson the teddy bear,

I went to his house and, uh,

handed him this bear,

and his eyes lit up, and he got very excited,

and it seems like he got really attached.

The bear was supposed to be handed right back to me,

after he signed it, 'cause it was a--

it was done for him-- for my mom,

who's Dionne Warwick, for her charity,

and all that went out the window

because Mike seemed to become very attached to the bear.

And he's like, "And it's mine now! I'm keepin' the--"

Mike Tyson refused to return his teddy bear, he loved it so much.

And then afterwards, we're on a conference call, and I'm like,

"So, we've gotten this bear, check, this bear, check,

and who else are we gonna-- And where's the Mike Tyson bear?"

"Oh, no, he's keeping it." Well, "What do you mean, he's keeping it? He can't keep it."

He's like, "You wanna get the Mike Tyson bear back?"

The last time I saw this bear,

we were on a private jet going somewhere near Miami,

and he had the bear, I saw the bear for about two seconds.

It seems like he takes this bear everywhere with him.

[♪]

[crew member] Mike interview, take one.

Oh, God--

[director]

What bear? What are you talkin' about?

[director]

Oh, you mean that bear.

[director]

I don't think so.

[dramatic music playing]

♪ Oh, my teddy bear My teddy bear ♪

And then Mike would go... [imitating] "He's the best, the best bear in the world."

You can use that, 'cause he doesn't mind that I do that.

So, um, I've asked for it back, and he-- he wouldn't give it back.

[director]

Uh, how 'bout this, man?

I'd like to see you try to take the bear from him.

[yawning]

[narrating bear] For the record, I think this is a bad idea.

I know, right? You don't poke the bear!

[text send tone whooshes]

[spy music playing]

Hey, [bleep], what do you think you're doin'?

[bleep].

[sounds of struggle]

[tiger roaring]

When Mike Tyson wants to keep his teddy bear, he keeps his teddy bear!

-That's all there is to it. -[chuckles]

And then what was so funny about it is, of course, we could just make another one.

[bear] I'm Mike Tyson. Been the wildest, I've been the craziest,

I've been the outrageous, the vicious, the most destructive fighter.

-I'm Mike Tyson. -I'm Mike Tyson, yeah.

[bear] An international star, a warlord just rip your heart out.

And guess what? I'm Mike Tyson.

[club music plays, stops]

[narrating bear] And so, the teddy bear

has once again tamed the mighty heavyweight champion.

I'm Trinity, I'm 12 years old,

and, um, I like Build-A-Bear. [chuckles]

[director]

This is Irwin. He's my froggy prince.

As soon as I laid my eyes on Irwin,

I really wanted to bring him to life.

They told me he's very famous on TikTok.

[kid] It came!

It finally came!

[woman] Build-A-Bear frog, Build-A-Bear frog.

-Build-A-Bear frog! -[computerized voice] You did it!

[man] Aw, look at the little baby!

So, I've seen the Build-A-Bear frog,

which is actually really funny.

My roommate is really afraid of frogs, so I have, like,

a frog costume, and, like, I dressed up and scared her in it,

and so now I just make TikToks in this frog suit a lot.

[computerized voice] Clothing I like--

-[woman] I'll call you back. -[Tessa] All right.

-Bye. -Go, Build-A-Bear frogs!

We, um-- And we have encountered this before,

people like, "Aren't you too old for that?"

And here's the thing. When you're growing up, you're told,

"Dream and use your imagination

and make everything around you a part of your life."

And when you get older, the world's like, "Stop that!

No! Stop!" It's like, "Excuse me, sir. No."

If my friend was a teddy bear when I was a child,

my friend should be allowed to be a teddy bear now.

It's like, just for this tiny bit of time,

Build-A-Bear, it gives you almost permission

in a way, to embrace who you used to be.

-Like, when you were little, when you were happy. -[both] With no judgment.

And you get to pick out the clothes, which, growing up, you don't always get to do that.

But yeah, it's-- it's just that.

[♪]

Because you are never too old...

[both] To have a happy childhood.

[both laugh]

-It's so true. -It is so true.

You need to tell us to stop, because we're just--

Yeah, we're not gonna stop on our own.

[director]

[narrating bear] Over the years, Build-A-Bear has branched out

into many media formats outside of stuffed animals,

with an online community, cartoons--

No moose has ever flown. It's a fact.

[narrating bear] ...video games...

[bunny] It's always better to party with friends!

[narrating bear] ...their own radio station,

and they even make movies now!

Hi, I'm Frankie McNellis, and I'm 16,

and I play Alex in the Build-A-Bear film Honey Girls.

["What We're Looking For" by Aliyah Mastin, Ava Grace, and Frankie McNellis playing]

♪ This is where We're meant to be ♪

Well, the first time I ever went to Build-A-Bear,

I don't remember that, I was a baby.

Okay, at first when I first got the audition,

I'm like, "Is it an animation?

Am I gonna be dressed up as a bear?"

But then, once I, like, read through it, I was like,

"This is the coolest thing ever."

The Honey Girls are a band of three very talented artists.

The original names of the Honey Girls were Teegan, Risa, and Viv.

Mine's the tiger.

Purple tiger. I roar in the movie.

-Easy, tiger. -Rawr!

-[both chuckle] -[giggles]

I was really cool, 'cause when we were filming the Honey Girls,

we each got, like, our own little, like, Build-A-Bear

that looked exactly like us, and, like, was really cute.

What's going on?

Hi. Hi, thank you.

Can you do a little dance for me?

-[disco music playing] -Here we go.

[Brooks laughing]

He's in his own world.

Boom, Build-A-Bear.

The moonwalk.

That was actually a pretty good moonwalk, I'm not gonna--

-[record scratches] -Oh, whoa, there he goes. [chuckles]

Did he do that to everybody, or just me?

[director]

Okay, cool. Thanks, guys, for the interview.

I'll see you guys later. [chuckles]

[crew member] After dark, take one.

This old thing?

Kids' stuff.

[cartoon voice] Hi, there!

What's the opposite of kids' stuff?

Grown-up stuff.

[actor purring]

-Cut! -[crew laughing]

Here's a story that has you clicking tonight.

Who says stuffed animals are just for kids?

We had a marketing campaign called Build-A-Bear After Dark,

and it was, you know, like, a little,

kind of, you know, edgier.

Um, romantic, kind of, you know.

And we had that campaign for, like, three or four years.

This year, someone picked it up, and it went crazy.

Build-A-Bear just launched an After Dark series

of stuffed bears for adults.

These are real.

Real seductive, bam!

Bam! You like it. Go ahead and...

Hey, do you know a bear named Marty?

He's about this tall, brown. I haven't seen him since I was a kid.

[narrating bear] Yeah, I'll keep an eye out for him, but, uh...

do you think you could possibly be more vague?

Oh, he's a bear and he's brown.

Gee, I haven't seen one of those before.

[newscaster] Have you seen this teddy bear?

The whole nation is looking for it.

If you have that teddy bear, please return it. That is precious.

[newscaster] This isn't just your average teddy bear.

Not to its owner, 28-year-old Mara Soriano.

[laughing]

[blowing raspberry]

My name is Mara Soriano,

and I'm a storyboard artist from Canada.

Is that-- is that good?

[director]

Okay.

What can I say about my mom?

Like, she was the most amazing person

I have ever had the privilege to know.

She was kind, she was generous.

My mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2010,

and for ten years, she was in remission, it was really great.

One Christmas, she gave me this Build-A-Bear,

but I've made Build-A-Bears before,

so the thought of her, like,

picking out all of the things that made Mama Bear, Mama Bear,

and recording this voice message for me at the store,

it just makes me feel like there really is a part of her in that bear,

and that's why it's so important to me,

and it's such-- it's probably my most prized possession.

She passed away in June 2019.

Um, which was really tough.

[voice cracking] Sorry.

[sobs] I'm sorry.

Like, that bear is so her,

and like, I know that she put a lot of love in that,

and I-- I just know it, you know?

My husband and I were moving apartments one day,

and while we were moving, we had put all of our stuff on a truck,

and I put Mama Bear in this backpack.

With all of my important things.

I remember even going up to my friends,

with her little head poking out of the backpack,

and saying "Look, she's got her own special spot!

Like, she's in the special backpack."

On our way to the new apartment, we got this phone call

from one of our friends who was helping us move.

He was biking over, and he got hit by a truck,

-[tires screeching] [crash] -so I immediately dropped everything,

I told my fiancé to take care of everything while I go pick up our friend,

and take him to the hospital.

And it was my fault, because I just put the bear down

next to the U-Haul, because I was in such a rush

trying to get to my friend, who was hit by a truck,

and he was okay, it was all good.

Just a couple bruises.

But it wasn't until, like, a few hours later,

when we were unpacking, that I realized

that the backpack was never brought home,

so I-- I started freakin' out,

I went downstairs to the security

and asked to go through the tapes,

and lo and behold, somebody had swiped the bear,

and I lost it, I was devastated.

I immediately, like, stopped unpacking

and just started running up and down the streets,

like, asking people if they had seen someone with the backpack.

I immediately started going through dumpsters,

'cause I was told that, you know, it's--

like, it's just a teddy bear, so it's not valuable,

so they might have thrown it away or something.

And I couldn't find it anywhere,

so I didn't know what to do.

That night, I went on Reddit,

and somebody suggested that I reach out to local news sources, which I did.

And thankfully, CBC took pity on me,

and when Deborah Goble called me for CBC, she said, "Listen, I don't do this very often,

but I'll tweet about it, along with my little blurb on the radio for you."

So I was like, "Great, thank you. Anything and everything helps."

And then the next day, our friend-- the friend who got hit by the truck--

texted me, and said, "Hey,

did you know somebody tweeted about your bear?

And I was, like, "Wha-- Who?" He's like, "Ryan Reynolds."

Oh, I did not believe him.

I was like, "This is a troll account,"

like, it's somebody pretending to be Deadpool.

And lo and behold, I go on Twitter,

and it was nuts! Like, it was Ryan Reynolds.

He was offering a $5000 reward to find my bear,

and it was a crazy whirlwind after that.

Like, as soon as he did that, everybody picked up on the news,

like, everybody wanted to talk to me.

This teddy bear held a special meaning.

I was absolutely devastated.

All I really cared about was getting the bear back.

Aww!

[newscaster] This is the touching moment Mara's mom

played her the recording for the first time.

I guess the story really touched a lot of people.

I was honestly super-shocked with the amount of coverage

that it was getting.

So many different people

and companies reached out

to match Ryan Reynolds' reward,

and it was getting really crazy,

and I couldn't believe that people were doing that

for me, for a teddy bear, and I honestly think

my mom would've gotten a huge kick out of it.

And thanks to all of, like, that news coverage,

three days later, we got the bear back,

which is-- which never happens.

That never happens. I couldn't believe it.

When I got the bear back, it was--

it was like getting my mom back again.

It was like her telling me to calm down,

like, she has my back.

Like, the world has my back, and I felt really

unbelievably grateful, that that happened.

And it really felt like she was looking out for me.

I will never let this bear out of my sight ever again.

[Soriano chuckles]

[Mom]

[Mom]

Yeah. Yeah. She was so cheesy.

[chuckles] I love you to infinity and beyond.

[Soriano laughs]

[Holmes] I'm so glad she got her bear back.

Do you think Ryan Reynolds really paid that reward?

-[narrating bear] He really did! -Do you think Ryan Reynolds will put me in his next movie?

[narrating bear] He really won't!

That's fair.

[Price John] Right in the middle of the retail apocalypse,

where scores of retailers went bankrupt,

thousands of retail stores were closed.

Thousands of retail stores were closed.

And things like Toys"R"Us went bankrupt,

and we were the largest, last standing

toy store in America.

And this is where we then

sort of embraced this idea

of nothin' knocks the stuffin' outta Build-A-Bear.

[narrating bear] Build-A-Bear first appeared during the peak of shopping malls.

In the mid '90s, 140 new malls were being built every year.

By 2007, that number was zero.

Somewhere between 2012,

and 2018-19,

some estimates are that mall traffic

declined cumulatively by about 50%.

That is a massive decrease in foot traffic.

It was hard for retailers to understand

what to do in that environment,

particularly an experience-based retailer like Build-A-Bear.

Where families were going for fun and entertainment,

was no longer predominantly the mall.

We started to think about entirely new places

that we could be, places like Great Wolf Lodge,

or on a Carnival Cruise Line, or resorts,

and just pulling apart the old model,

and it opened up entirely new venues for us

to take Build-A-Bear that have been very successful,

and now we have a much more balanced portfolio,

with fewer of our locations located in malls.

[Johnson] Walmart is a different thing. Walmart's the biggest retailer in the world,

and they have a lot of traffic, you know, you can do everything.

You can buy everything at Walmart, including get your tires.

[Kruger] This diversification has been critical,

for us to becoming this thing that has staying power.

[narrating bear] You never know where the next big idea in marketing will come from,

and in 2018,

one of the biggest came from a meeting about birthdays at Build-A-Bear.

Hey, you're doin' great up there!

Is this your first starring role?

[narrating bear] Well, I mostly do theater.

The popular retailer Build-A-Bear is trying to

make amends after it pulled the plug on a big sale

due to overwhelming demand.

Ah, Pay Your Age Day?

Um, well, let's see, it's--

business had gotten kinda tough, the "mall apocalypse", right?

So I was sittin' there, and I was, you know, thinkin',

"Now, what can we do to get the-- the business going?"

Well, we had National Teddy Bear Day,

and what you could do is you could come in on National Teddy Bear Day

and get a signature bear for five bucks.

And the lines were out the door.

And so I was thinking,

what could-- How could we sell a bear for $5 every day?

So I went in to Sharon, I said "Look.

The number one reason that people come

to Build-A-Bear is for their birthday."

About a third of the sales for Build-A-Bear come from birthdays.

Millions of kids celebrated their birthdays at Build-A-Bear.

So what if, for every time a kid turned five,

they could come in and get a bear

on their birthday for five bucks?

And she sat there and she's like,

"It's a great idea, except for one thing.

You're gonna be the one to tell the four-year-old that they don't get it."

And so, we were like, "Okay, well, maybe we could just make it

so it's available for anyone to pay their age."

And then it was like, "One dollar?"

And so did a little bit of, you know, kinda math,

and adding up, and it made sense,

'cause the average was still gonna be five bucks.

So we came up with this idea for a birthday bear.

And so then it was like, "How do we introduce this," right?

Well, you get one chance to make a splash.

And so we played around with the idea of,

"What if everyone could come in that one day and get it?"

Why would someone want a Birthday Bear when it's not their birthday, right?

'Cause it says "Happy Birthday" on the paw.

So, I'm in my office,

and Sharon calls me.

"It needs to be all of 'em."

And, you know, it would really break through,

and we were managing our marketing dollars.

This was pushed out on social media, and that was practically it.

It was all fine, lookin'-- Gotten a little bit of buzz. That was good.

This deal is just so amazing, I can hardly bear it!

Don't miss Build-A-Bear's first ever,

and biggest deal ever, Pay Your Age Day.

And then all of a sudden, like, the day before,

people are signing up for the Bonus Club

in, like, record numbers.

In the middle of July,

with nothing else going on,

we put it out there.

Not really knowing

that it would be as big as it did.

We drove that traffic

to shopping centers around the world.

-[alarm buzzing] -[Chris Hurt] I was at-- I was actually in bed,

about two in the morning, but my phone rang.

It's a call from the UK.

I'm like, "Hello?" And he's like, "Chris,

there are lines all the way outside of the mall!"

I'm like, "Okay."

Now, in retail, especially in the field,

we-- we're not afraid to embellish a little bit.

"Define 'line outside the mall.'"

He's like, "Chris, literally the line is outside the mall.

It's into the parking lot."

And I had to hear it

a couple of times,

and then did a little Google search

to see that what they were saying was true.

[announcer] Build-A-Bear may have had its first clue,

when posts like this started hitting Twitter.

In England, mums are starting to turn.

This one read, "The end is nigh."

We went... [gasps] ..."This is really happening."

Well, good morning, everybody! Are we ready?

The saying goes, "If you build it, they will come."

Today, here in Douglasville, it's more like,

"If you let them build it at a really good price,

a whole lot of 'em will show up."

We started to see people lining up,

on the East Coast,

and decided to push out

some social media on "Don't come to Build-A-Bear."

I mean, that's not anything you ever think you're going to do.

[announcer] "Per local authorities, we cannot accept

additional guests at our locations."

However, the event had already drawn crowds

all around the country.

In Arizona, Washington,

-Florida, New York. -It's been a struggle.

It was our-- it was-- Of course, we were getting calls

from media outlets all over the country.

It was almost like you could see as stores opened

across the country, right, 'cause East coast opened first,

so the calls would come from the East coast.

And then it'd come through, like,

"Oh, well, it-- We opened in Indiana.

Okay, oops, we're-- Made it to Missouri."

The news kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger,

and the media kept, you know, hyping and hyping.

[reporter] You have got to take a look at this breaking Build-A-Bear news.

Thousands of people across the country today

got to the malls early, they stood in line for hours,

-all for stuffed animals. -[announcer 2] It felt like the Black Fridays of old.

We're told there was just too much interest,

and they had to cancel the event because of safety concerns.

I mean, this was a difficult scenario

for the folks at the stores.

[store clerk] Our line ended up going outside of the mall,

and it wrapped around the mall building.

It was very long, people waited for hours, and then--

very upset when they couldn't get in. Um, but it was very intense.

We actually ended up getting shut down because of it.

-What went wrong? -Do you feel that you owe an apology

-to those people who stood in line? -Well, absolutely, I mean,

that, that is not what we are about.

I guess the takeaway is, "Don't promise what you can't deliver."

Also, in a day and age of iPhones

and fancy video games, the good old-fashioned

teddy bear still gets people out.

Well, look, you know, it's funny.

Businesses come up with ideas

that you look back in hindsight, and you go,

"What were they thinking?"

The fact that, you know, little Build-A-Bear could virtually

shut down all the malls in the United States,

there's no way we could have predicted that.

I mean, when was the last time there was chaos in the malls when, like...

Backstreet Boys were performing? [laughs]

But I tell you what, everybody heard about Build-A-Bear

at the end of that thing, one way or the other.

People woke up to the fact that Build-A-Bear

is around, right?

To a certain extent, people were like,

"Oh, I remember doing that as a kid."

But all of a sudden, it was like, "What is goin' on?"

I think it was an important milestone

that is part of why we're thriving today.

The Birthday Treat Bear's our best-selling product,

and it has been since we launched that.

He's lookin' at the screen.

[Price John] We're glad that the kids get to come in

on their most special day, and pay their age

for the Birthday Treat Bear.

Oh, but by the way, we did not sell out

of furry friends that day, right?

It was just a matter of the number of people

that we could put through, because it takes

an amount of time to stuff the animals.

So it wasn't an inventory thing,

it was-- You know, just the-- the physical demand.

You know, we gotta start makin' sandwiches.

You get a lot of orders for sandwiches.

It is really extraordinary, how often Build-A-Bear

is just referenced constantly in pop culture.

[Wiggum humming]

[Wiggum laughs] Snow day!

This was my idea.

Honestly, until this exact second,

-I thought you were Build-A-Bear. -[Rocket Raccoon] Maybe I am.

[Fry] Build-A-Bot Workshop.

[Wilde] Stuff-A-Bear.

[bear explodes]

-Ooh. -[Gru] I don't think so.

Hey, Peter. Ready to go to Build-A-Bear?

Sheldon, if you don't like this stuff,

let's just go next door and build her a bear.

Ye-- I told you before, bears are terrifying.

As a pop culture icon, to ourselves,

we were able to mash up our brand

with other pop culture icons,

not just making a replica of the product,

but things that had never been made before.

Like, it wasn't just us making a stuffed Darth Vader,

it's us making a Darth Vader bear.

It's a Frozenbear.

Elsa's a bear.

It's not that common, that these brands

allow you to evolve their own brand,

to be a part of yours.

But that's the kind of brand Build-A-Bear is.

[narrating bear] Build-A-Bear had survived the recession,

the decline of malls, the retail apocalypse, Brexit.

It was on track to be more successful than ever before.

And then, in 2020,

a whole new challenge appeared.

When we first found out about

this pending, um, situation,

uh, we, as many,

didn't believe it would be as dramatic as it was.

I'll never forget, I called Sharon, I said,

"Sharon, we're gonna have to shut the stores down."

And within a matter of weeks,

we had furloughed 90% of the organization,

and we were having daily calls on what to do.

How could Build-A-Bear survive the pandemic,

knowing that everyone thought of us as a place to go,

um, in a store, when all of our doors,

um, and all of our retail locations closed.

We had to quickly shift gears,

and so we went from an indoor experience,

somewhere that you come to make

a personalized teddy bear,

to an experience that's now, um, online.

And we looked at it

as it-- as it was.

As our only viable revenue stream.

But over the entire company,

it was this can-do attitude.

It was, "How do we make this happen?

How can we do it safe,

and keep-- and keep the company going?"

I just said to the team, I'm like, "Look.

I don't know what the path is,

but I can tell you, we have one.

We have mapped a path,

so this is possible.

And all we need is possible."

Between us, though, I mean, Dorrie knows this.

That possible path...

was about as narrow-- It was like, this needed to happen, then this needed to happen,

this needed to happen, that needed to happen, that needed to not happen,

and this-- But there was a path.

We were in a really interesting position.

We had announced to our guests that we were going to be offering Grogu,

sometimes known as Baby Yoda.

Build-A-Bear Workshop debuts

its long-awaited plush Baby Yoda.

How hot is this toy right now?

When we knew when we were gonna get it, I was like,

"This is gonna be big," 'cause it's the cutest little thing.

This is the Build-A-Bear Baby Yoda.

-[plush squeals] -What?

And there was a tremendous amount of anticipation for that.

[audience aww-ing]

-I know. -It's gonna be best-seller.

Hitting the stores this spring.

We have all of this inventory there,

and we knew, once we put Grogu

live on our website,

that it would sell

at an incredible velocity,

and so we had to prepare ourselves for that.

Well, our warehouse can only handle stuffing

so many orders a day.

We hired back many of our bear-builders

who have been furloughed, and we brought in

stuffing machines to create what we called the nursery.

It was truly an extraordinary moment.

There he is, yes.

Oh, my goodness.

Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of these.

In many ways, Baby Yoda was such a pivotal part

of getting through the pandemic.

We were able to make a lot of people happy

at a time when it mattered more than ever.

An important furry friend,

as we like to say for-- for Build-A-Bear. [chuckles]

During COVID, there was the South Parkspecial

about COVID that's clearly, you know, more appropriate for an older audience.

[Butters] Hey, Dad. You think maybe we could go to Build-A-Bear today?

[Mr. Stotch] Butters, for the last time, you can't go to Build-A-Bear!

I think one of the things that was most extraordinary about that

was that in the storyline,

Build-A-Bear was the example of what returning to normal was.

[Marsh] Butters, Butters. Look!

[Butters] Whoa!

[Price John] And that's pretty amazing.

[narrating bear] Now, this is my favorite part.

Oh, hi, there, Curly.

Hi. How are you doing? Yeah.

["I'm Yours" by Build-A-Bear Kids playing]

[chuckling] I love it.

Oh, yay.

Aww. Cute.

♪ I fell right Through the cracks ♪

♪ And now I'm trying to get back ♪

What do you want me to do with this thing? Do I hold it?

[laughing]

Wow! Huh. Very nice.

♪ Divine intervention ♪

♪ I reckon it's again my turn ♪

Is that a Build-A-Bear?

Thank you!

♪ Or learn some ♪

♪ But I won't hesitate... ♪

This isn't a Build-A-Bear, is it? It is a Build-A-Bear?

I've never built one. How'd they build it?

See, they're always so flexible and cuddly.

And they're not hard to figure out, you know,

like a computer game, or, you know, something that you have to put together.

They're already kind of put together, and so you get just to look at them, and hug them,

and love them, and smile at them, and--

Cool. [chuckles]

This is great. My little buddy.

I mean, it's just so delicious.

How do you not love, like,

a little stuffed thing.

This is good, this is a good little cuddly guy right here.

It's-- I feel like takin' a nap now.

♪ Listen to the moment People dance and sing ♪

♪ We're just one big family ♪

♪ And it's our God-ordained right ♪

♪ To be loved, loved Loved, loved, loved ♪

-Sorry. -[vocalizes, chuckles]

It's gonna do, like, a breakdance.

♪ But I won't hesitate... ♪

I like teddy bears.

You know, it's-- Isn't that funny?

You see babies, and you go, "Aww,"

and you see like, little puppies, and it's, "Aww,"

and then you get a little bear, and it's "Aww!"

And they're so soft. Hi!

There's always love for a bear. I mean, doesn't it just sort of-- I just--

everybody just squeezes it.

I think I need a tutu on him.

I mean, that's fun!

He's-- he's a cutie-pie.

Oops!

Can't go without your boots.

There's always some sentiment to toys and things that you collect, and I just,

as an almost 50-year-old man, don't wanna start crying

about-- about it, about having a teddy bear.

I don't know, just being able to have a connection like this,

and hug it, and squeeze it, and cry, and like,

all of the emotions that you can go through with a teddy bear.

It's the best thing that you could ever ask for.

Bye! [laughs] I'll miss you.

♪ Oh, I'm yours ♪

Don't leave me!

♪ Oh, you believe I'm yours ♪

[narrating bear] So, how did Build-A-Bear

manage to survive all these years?

Maybe it's because Build-A-Bear

was never really just a toy store after all.

You have this relationship, not just

with the store itself, but with the people.

But especially with the feeling of what this brings.

Well, here's the thing, it's like, when you go shopping

at a store, you're buying a thing.

When you're going to Build-A-Bear,

you're having an experience.

I think the reason that Build-A-Bear resonates

for so many people is because they were--

they weren't making a bear, they're actually making memories.

It was somebody's birthday, somebody's anniversary.

I mean, there were so many things,

it wasn't really about the bear,

and I think that's the part that--

We became part of family memories,

so people can still be telling

their stories, so you can't sell that.

You can't manufacture that.

I think that in my time at Build-A-Bear,

the one thing I would be most proud of is the fact

that Build-A-Bear is going to live

for another generation.

Because at the end of the day,

the need for that teddy bear,

that teddy bear hug, that connection,

is as important, maybe more important than ever,

as we become more and more digital, and I'm really proud of that.

I'm proud that this company and these teddy bears

are still gonna be there.

You know, we have this saying, "Once a bear, always a bear."

And we have a lot of bears out there, in the human form.

And, uh, we made a lot of best friends,

not only furry, but also human best friends.

Which is probably the most significant part of my life.

And meeting Maxine.

It seems like just yesterday I was standing

at the ribbon cutting at the St. Louis Galleria.

Boy, have we grown.

But, you know, you forget all the little changes that you've made.

You just remember the day that you stood in line,

and all these customers came pouring in the door.

Sorry, it is an emotional experience.

To see that 25 years and 200-plus million children

have made bears in our company

and have a memory that's like that,

that's a gift that you can't really imagine.

You know, I don't know what life would be without Build-A-Bear,

and I hope they don't know what life would be without Build-A-Bear,

and that Build-A-Bear will be here, you know, for a long time.

And I try to encourage as many entrepreneurs as I possibly can to build their dream too.

Because I didn't dream this. It evolved.

And so you don't ever know what's possible until you give it a try,

and so Build-A-Bear is about giving it a try,

whether it's a stuffed animal, or a business.

There's a million ways to-- to be thankful,

right now, about building a company that's come

to this point in its life and has so much further to go.

[applause, cheering]

Whoo! Whoa!

You-- you guys are back!

Look, you-- you know, when I was a kid, I always used to tell jokes to my teddy bears,

and it would be a dream come true if I could...

tell some jokes for you guys? Yeah? Okay.

All right, okay, bears.

[clears throat] Um, so, uh, what do you bears, uh--

what do you bears think the employee discount is at the dollar store?

You ever think about that?

You think it might just be, uh, "just take it"? [chuckles]

[murmuring]

No?

[narrating bear] Hey, do the bear jokes!

Um, people-- It's not a fair stereotype.

People say bears love honey, huh?

"Oh, look at those bears, they love honey."

Doesn't everybody love honey?

-[laughter] -Right?

I mean, who do you give honey, and they're like, "Oh, no thanks.

-What-- what, do you think I'm a bear?" -[laughter]

"I'm a maple syrup guy." Get outta here.

Yeah, I mean, this guy knows what I'm talking about.

-[laughter] -[narrating bear laughing loudly]

I-- I feel like bears are better than human beings. Bears should rule the world.

I'm not just saying that to "panda" to you.

-[laughter] -Well, did you know that a bear has enough, uh, strength

in its jaw to bite through a bowling ball?

I looked it up, that's true. Cut to me cutting my tooth on a very stale pistachio.

[laughter]

You guys are better, is what I'm saying.

-[laughter] -Ah, grizzly bears. Any grizzlies?

Roar if you're-- if you're a grizzly.

-[bear] Roar! -Grizzly bears can actually run 40 miles per hour.

That's as fast as a greyhound. We race greyhounds.

-Why aren't we raising grizzly bears? -[laughter]

Probably because a greyhound won't hop the fence

and maul a woman for her Cracker Jacks.

[laughter]

Who are you talkin' to?

[whimsical music playing]

Hey, Pete. Did you forget somethin'?

[Holmes] Marty?

[♪]

[Marty] I love you, Pete.

You're my best friend.

["Build-A-Bear Theme" by Timmy Tappan playing]

♪ Build a bear ♪

♪ Build a bear At the Build-A-Bear Workshop ♪

♪ Where there's A bear for everyone ♪

♪ Here a bear, there a bear Everywhere a bear, bear ♪

♪ You're gonna have some fun ♪

♪ Choose me Stuff me, stitch me up ♪

♪ Fluff me, dress me Fill me with love ♪

♪ You'll never be alone When you take me home ♪

♪ Oh, won't you take me home ♪

♪ There's a bear At the Build-A-Bear Workshop ♪

♪ Just waiting for you ♪

♪ Big bear, little bear There's a funny bunny there ♪

♪ All kinds of friends For you to choose ♪

♪ Sing together And play all day ♪

♪ So think real hard Give me a name ♪

♪ Won't you give me a name? ♪

[♪]

[girl] My bear is special.

I brought it to life.

I chose it, I stuffed it,

and now I'm taking it home!

Best friends are forever, so I promise right now

to make my bear my number one pal.

[narrating bear] Bye, everybody. Goodbye!