This is a belated followup to a pair of undistinguished mid-1980s low-budget kiddie adventures concerning Goldy, the last (and evidently, least) of California's golden bears, befriended by a prospector's daughter on the 1913-ish frontier.
Little Jessie Rivers (Bonnie Morgan) fears that her uncle's impending marriage to a bear-shy western belle means Goldy won't be welcome around the family cabin anymore. Then clumsy illusionist Master Borgia (Cheech Marin), enters the territory. Despite his onstage bumbling, Borgia actually does
wield magical powers, and maintains that "the golden bear is a Holy Grail to magicians." Borgia hypnotizes Ned Rivers (Jeff Prettyman) to lose a crucial target-shooting tournament; without the prize money he and Jessie will lose their homestead. Borgia then offers a fortune to buy the bruin, but
Jessie and Goldy flee to the forest instead. Goldy has lost her fear of people and is nearly shot by poachers until the bad guys are scared off by Freedom (Mr. T), the environmental-minded descendant of liberated slaves who now lurks in the woods as a make-believe ghost to spook hunters away from
his animals. Freedom knows of a lone male golden bear, and convinces Jessie to let Goldy go join him. A now-contrite Borgia gives Ned the prize money and hypnotizes Goldy to forget her life with humans for a sentimental farewell.
The combined presence of Cheech Marin and Mr. T adds minor camp value to this tame pablum, in which the lead animal performer does not so much act as is acted upon; when the generally-inert Goldy rides a bicycle the use of a human double in a bear suit is painfully evident. Crude camera edits help
accomplish Master Borgia's wizardly feats, and the western setting, rife with anacronisms, looks about as realistic as a pioneer-themed tourist trap. Tomboyish heroine Bonnie Morgan performs an amazing series of physical contortions in a vaudevillian bit that's more impressive than any of the
ursine antics. Did this really take five credited scriptwriters?
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