Strawberry Shortcake

This article refers to the character; for the dessert, see shortcake.

An original Strawberry Shortcake poster

Strawberry Shortcake is a licensed character owned by American Greetings, originally used in greeting cards and expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products. The Strawberry Shortcake properties also include a toy line of the character's friends and pets.

History

The original design of Strawberry Shortcake and her cat Custard was done in 1977 by Muriel Fahrion during her time as a greeting card illustrator at American Greetings' Juvenile & Humorous card department. After the idea was presented to Bernie Loomis of General Mills and became a licensing entity, Fahrion designed a subsequent thirty-two characters for Those Characters From Cleveland (American Greetings' toy & licensing design division).

Cindy Moyer Patton and Janet Jones designed other later characters of the classic Strawberry Shortcake line. Lyn Edwards was the editor of the line and along with brainstorm group developed the personality profiles and the story line and philosophy. The first doll was a rag doll directed by Muriel Fahrion and created by Susan Trentel, Fahrion's sister.

The Strawberry Shortcake line of characters each had their own fruity or dessert-themed name with clothing to match, and they each had a dessert- or fruit-named pet. Like the Strawberry Shortcake doll, all the other characters' dolls had hair scented to match their dessert theme. The characters lived and played in a magical world known as Strawberryland.

During the 1980s, Strawberry Shortcake became a huge fad. At the time, there were several related products, such as sticker albums, clothes, a videogame for the Atari 2600 [1], and several other products. Several videos were made featuring the characters, one each year between 1980 and 1985, when the fad had apparently waned. Kenner produced no new dolls or toys thereafter.

In 1991, THQ tried reviving the franchise by producing an updated line of Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Strawberry and five of her classic friends each got a makeover, with new clothes, hair, and eyes. However, the line enjoyed at best a modest success, lasting just the one year.

In 2002, the franchise was revived again, this time with a revamped look by a different designer. Also, for the first time ever, a television series with new DVD and VHS (and in certain markets, Video CD) releases was made, along with many strong licensing deals. Bandai (along with KellyToy) was granted the rights to manufacturing the dolls and toys. DiC Entertainment was granted rights in producing the TV series, who sub-licensed the production of videos, DVDs and Video CDs of the series to 20th Century Fox Home Videos (who subsequently licenses the production of the video outside the US to various other licensees). For the first time in almost two decades, new videogames were launched, produced by The American Game Factory for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Educational CD-ROMs for the PC were also produced. The current revival is still running, with the most recent activity being the release of a CGI-animated feature film into the US market as well as games based on the feature film for various different gaming platforms.

In 2006, Playmates Toys picked up the rights to make Strawberry Shortcake figures. The line is named "A World Of Friends". The doll Frosty Puff was new to this line, but, although a good deal of shuffling and re-distribution was made concerning the pets of the re-launched characters, very few of the new dolls were actually merchandised with pets. The line was received with mixed reactions (see Criticisms section below).

1980s Friends

The following is a list of the original Strawberry Shortcake's friends and villains with their pets and release dates. There is a bit of "wiggle room" in a few cases, between the introduction of a character, and their release as a toy. For instance, Raspberry Tart (the character) was introduced in 1980, with the first Strawberry Shortcake TV Special, alongside Huckleberry Pie, Apple Dumplin', etc., but wasn't released as a Doll until the next year. The same is true of Strawberry Shortcake's nemesis, The Peculiar Purple Pie Man. Plum Puddin' also debuted in 1980, but would not get a doll until 1984, by which time the character had apparently switched genders, and was now a girl! Moreover, with the exception of Apple Dumplin', Apricot, and The Purple Pie Man, none of the other characters would come packaged with pets (nor indeed, would most of them even be known to HAVE pets) until the 1982 releases, when all the earlier-released characters were re-issued with their animal friends. A couple of the below-listed characters weren't produced as dolls at all, namely T.N. Honey, Raisin Cane, and Baby Needs-A-Name, who was only made as a larger-sized "Blow-Kiss" baby doll. Raisin Cane was introduced as the niece of villainess Sour Grapes in Issue #1 of Star Comics' (an imprint of Marvel Comics) short-lived Strawberry Shortcake Comic Book, and, as far as is known, was never considered for any kind of commercial merchandising.

Friend	Introduction	Pet
Huckleberry Pie	1980	Pupcake the dog
Blueberry Muffin	1980	Cheesecake the mouse
Apple Dumplin'	1980	Tea Time Turtle
Raspberry Tart	1980	Rhubarb the monkey
Orange Blossom	1981	Marmalade the butterfly
Lemon Meringue	1981	Frappe the frog
Apricot	1981	Hopsalot Bunny
T. N. Honey	1981	No known pet
Butter Cookie	1982	Jelly Bear
Lime Chiffon	1982	Parfait the parrot
Cherry Cuddler	1982	Gooseberry
Angel Cake	1982	Souffle' the skunk
Almond Tea	1983	Marza Panda
Café Ole’	1983	Burrito the burro
Crêpe Suzette	1983	Éclair the poodle
Mint Tulip	1983	Marsh Mallard the duck
Lem n' Ada(twins)	1983	Sugar Woofer
Peach Blush	1984	Melonie Belle the lamb
Plum Puddin'	1984	Elderberry Owl
Baby Needs-A-Name	1984	Fig Boot
Banana Twirl	1985	No known pet

Villain	Introduction	Pet
The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak	1980	Berry Bird
Sour Grapes	1982	Dregs the snake
Raisin Cane	1985	Durt the worm

1980s toys

• Berry Bake Shoppe
• Snail Cart (with Escargot The Snail)
• Carrousel
• Berry-Shaped Carry Case
• Flitter-Bit the Butterfly
• Garden House (Gazebo)
• Berry Cycle
• Big Berry Trolley
• Berry Merry Worm (Philbert Wormley III)
• Berry Happy Home
• Maple Stirrup and the Oatsmobile

2002-current relaunched characters and DVD voice actors

File:K-strawberry234.jpg

A contemporary Strawberry Shortcake poster called "Berry Best Friends"

Character	Voice Actor
Strawberry Shortcake	Sarah Heinke
Custard the cat	Sarah Koslosky Anna Jordan
Pupcake the dog	Nils Haaland
Apple Dumplin'	Katie Labosky
Angel Cake	Rachel Ware
Ginger Snap	Samantha Triba
Huckleberry Pie	Daniel Canfield James Street
Blueberry Muffin	Bianca Heyward
Peppermint Fizz	Rebecca Noodle
Orange Blossom	Dejare Barfield
Coco Calypso	Melissa Deni
Rainbow Sherbet	Laura Grimm
Seaberry Delight	Abigail Leib
Crepes Suzette	Caroline Iliff
Tea Blossom	Marissa Maliani
Frosty Puff	Samantha Triba
Tangerina Torta	Caroline Iliff Dana Donlan
Raspberry Torte	Haley Hyden-Soffer
Lemon Meringue	Mary Waltman
Peculiar Purple Pie Man (villain)	Cork Ramer
Licorice Whip (villain)	Jerry Longe
Sour Grapes (villain)	Bridget Robbins

Relaunched characters and their pets, and homes

A little revamping took place at the characters' relaunch. Both Pupcake and Custard now belong to Strawberry Shortcake. In Pupcake's place, a new pet, Shoofly Frog, was introduced as Huckleberry Pie's pet. And Apple Dumplin' was relaunched as Strawberry Shortcake's sister. Also, Strawberryland is now divided into "districts" like Cakewalk, Orange Blossom Acres, Huckleberry Briar and Cookie Corners.

Character	Pet(s)	Home	Notes
Strawberry Shortcake	Custard the cat and Pupcake the dog	Strawberryland
Apple Dumplin'	Apple Ducklin'	Strawberryland	Re-introduced as Strawberry Shortcake's little sister
Ginger Snap	Chocolate Chipmunk	Cookie Corners
Angel Cake	Vanilla Icing the lamb	Cakewalk
Orange Blossom	Marmalade the butterfly	Orange Blossom Acres
Huckleberry Pie	Shoofly the frog	Huckleberry Briar
Peppermint Fizz	Cola Chameleon	Peppermint Place
Coco Calypso	Papaya Parrot	Seaberry Beach
Blueberry Muffin	Cheesecake the mouse	Blueberry Valley
Rainbow Sherbet	Triple Ripple the toucan	Punch Bowl Pond	Pet also sometimes called Triple Dip or even Triple Treat
Seaberry Delight	Kiwi the sea turtle	Seaberry Sea
Lemon Meringue	Sourball the skunk	Lemon Lane
Raspberry Torte	Rhubarb the racoon	Raspberry Fields
Crepes Suzette	Eclair the poodle	Chez Crepes in Pearis
Tea Blossom	Marza Panda	Plum Blossom Province
Tangerina Torta	Banana Bongo the monkey	Tangerine Bosque
Frosty Puff	Freezer Pop the penguin	Niceland
Apricot	Hopsalot the bunny	TBA
Cherry Cuddler	Gooseberry (TBA, not yet finalized)	Pearis(tba, not yet finalized)

Villains	Pet(s)	Home	Note
Licorice Whip	Raven	Traveling Horsey Hoedown Show	introduced in the Adventures on Ice Cream Island DVD/episode
Peculiar Purple Pie Man	Berry Bird	Porcupine Peak	re-introduced in the Sweet Dreams movie
Sour Grapes	Dregs the snake	Porcupine Peak	re-introduced in the Sweet Dreams movie as The Peculiar Purple Pie Man's sister. Dregs is re-introduced in the "Berry Blossom Festival" movie/dvd.

Strawberryland Fillies

Filly	Friend of	Home	Note
Honey Pie Pony	Strawberry Shortcake	Honey Pie Pastures	Has a friend/pet named Honey Doodle the bee.
Cookie Dough	Ginger Snap	Ice Cream Island
Milkshake	Angel Cake	Ice Cream Island
Orange Twist	Orange Blossom	Ice Cream Island
Huckleberry Hash	Huckleberry Pie	Ice Cream Island
Cherry Vanilla	Peppermint Fizz	Ice Cream Island
Spumoni	Coco Calypso	Ice Cream Island
Blueberry Sundae	Blueberry Muffin	Ice Cream Island
Pistachio	Seaberry Delight	Ice Cream Island
Butter Pecan	Rainbow Sherbet	Ice Cream Island
Lemon Ice	Lemon Meringue	Ice Cream Island
Raspberry Ripple	Raspberry Torte	Ice Cream Island
Ambrosia		Cinnamon Forest	a magical unicorn in some of the stories told by the friends

Movies, the TV show and specials

1980s television specials

In the early 1980s, there were six television specials starring Strawberry Shortcake. The first three were made by Romeo Muller and Fred Wolf, and the rest were produced by the Canadian company Nelvana. Russi Taylor provided the voice of Strawberry Shortcake for all six specials.

Special	Release Year
The World of Strawberry Shortcake	3/1/1980
Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City	10/10/1981
Strawberry Shortcake: Pets on Parade	(1982)
Strawberry Shortcake: Housewarming Surprise	(1983)
Strawberry Shortcake and the Baby Without a Name	(1984)
Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins	(1985)

As of April 2007, The World of Strawberry Shortcake and Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City have been released on DVD.

2000s TV series

In 2003, almost two decades after the last special aired, Strawberry Shortcake finally got her own TV show, animated and produced by DIC Entertainment. At present, there are 20 episodes released[2]. They have been released by Fox on DVD and VHS (and on VideoCD in certain markets by various Fox Licensees) as well (see below), and currently air on select networks worldwide.

2000s Episodes

#	Episode	Release date	Notes
1/2	Meet Strawberry Shortcake	3/11/2003	45 minutes length, broadcast version either edited to 22 minutes, or presented as a two-parter
3/4	Spring for Strawberry Shortcake	3/11/2003	45 minutes length, broadcast version either edited to 22 minutes, or presented as a two-parter
5/6	Get Well Adventure	10/14/2003	45 minutes length, broadcast version either edited to 22 minutes, or presented as a two-parter. Released in the UK as Horse Tales
7/8	Berry, Merry Christmas	10/14/2003	45 minutes length, broadcast version either edited to 22 minutes, or presented as a two-parter
9	Horse of a Different Color	8/31/2004	New opening sequence from previous 4/8 episodes, shorter credit sequence. The voice of Huckleberry Pie has changed from Daniel Canfield to James Street for the rest of the series. Also, the voice of Custard the Cat has changed from Sarah Koslosky to Anna Jordan for the rest of the series.
10	Festival of the Fillies	8/31/2004
11	Here Comes Pupcake	8/31/2004
12	Peppermint’s Pet Peeve	8/31/2004
13	Angel Cake in the Outfield	2/15/2005
14	Win Some, Lose Some	2/15/2005
15	The Mystery of Seaberry Shore	2/15/2005
16	Legend of the Lost Treasure	2/15/2005
17	Ginger Snap’s No-Light Night of Fright	8/30/2005
18	The Blueberry Beast	8/30/2005
19	The Play’s the Thing	10/18/2005
20	The Costume Party	10/18/2005
21	A Trip to Pearis, France	2/7/2006	Alternative title: The Friendship Club, New opening sequence from previous episodes, credit sequence no longer includes a thumbnail version of the opening theme sequence.
22	The Great Friendship Festival	2/7/2006	Alternative title: A Festival of Friends
23	When the Berry Fairy Came to Stay	8/22/2006
24	The Legend of Sherry Bobbleberry	8/22/2006
25	Baby Takes the Cake	11/14/2006
26	Piece of Cake	11/14/2006
27	Mind Your Manners	5/1/2007
28	Queen For A Day.	5/1/2007

2000s Home Video releases

File:Sscvideocds.jpg

A set of Strawberry Shortcake VideoCDs exclusive to the South-East Asia region, next to a set of Strawberry Shortcake DVDs released in the US

Shortly after the premiere of the TV series, 20th Century Fox has released Strawberry Shortcake episodes from the new show on DVD (the first few episodes were also released on VHS and bundled with certain toys). They are also released in VideoCD format by various fourth party licensees in certain markets.

The first four videos contains only one story but runs for twice the length of the broadcast version of the episode in some markets (other market shows the episode on the first four videos in two parts). It is thought that these episodes were initially created for video and then edited down (or split up) for broadcast. Subsequent videos in the series have two 22-minute episodes in one video.

#	Video (VHS/DVD/VCD)	Release Date	Stories	Notes
1	Meet Strawberry Shortcake	3/11/2003	Meet Strawberry Shortcake	45-minute story
2	Spring for Strawberry Shortcake	3/11/2003	Spring for Strawberry Shortcake	45-minute story
3	Berry, Merry Christmas	10/14/2003	Berry, Merry Christmas	45-minute story
4	Get Well Adventure	10/14/2003	Get Well Adventure	45-minute story, Released in the UK as Horse Tales
5	Adventures on Ice Cream Island	8/31/2004	Horse of a Different Color / Festival of the Fillies	Villain: Licorice Whip
6	Best Pets Yet	8/31/2004	Here Comes Pupcake / Peppermint’s Pet Peeve
7	Seaberry Beach Party	2/15/2005	The Mystery of Seaberry Shore / Legend of the Lost Treasure
8	Play Day Surprise	2/15/2005	Angel Cake in the Outfield / Win Some, Lose Some
9	Moonlight Mysteries	8/30/2005	Ginger Snap’s No-Light Night of Fright / The Blueberry Beast
10	Dress-up Days	10/18/2005	The Play’s the Thing / The Costume Party
11	World of Friends	2/7/2006	A Trip to Pearis, France / The Great Friendship Festival	Alt titles: The Friendship Club / A Festival of Friends
12	Berry Fairy Tales	8/22/2006	When the Berry Fairy Came to Stay / The Legend of Sherry Bobbleberry
13	Cooking Up Fun	11/14/2006	Baby Takes the Cake / Piece of Cake
14	The Sweet Dreams Movie	2/6/2007	The Sweet Dreams Movie	Villains: The Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes
15	Berry Blossom Festival	5/1/2007	Mind Your Manners / Queen For A Day.	Previously announced to be released on DVD in Spring 2007, the DVD is revamped into an animated feature and is currently showing at selected cineplexes across the US. Like many of the video releases, the feature actually consists of two stories. It was eventually be released on DVD in the US on May 1st, 2007, although it has been released in VideoCD format in Singapore and Malaysia in late April. To be fair, tho, it was not shown in cinemas in either of the beforementioned countries on the March cinema release date. Villains The Purple Pie-Man and Sour Grapes appears only in the episode "Queen For A Day", while Raspberry Torte is featured in a Peppermint Fizz like role in "Mind Your Manners".[3]
16	Let's Dance	Oct. 2007		According to DIC, this latest dvd is slated for release in Oct. 2007

Shorts

A five-minute Strawberry Shortcake short, "Growing Better All The Time", is available exclusively in the Care Bears: Daydreams DVD (released September 27, 2005) as a bonus feature. Another different short is also available exclusively in the Care Bears: To The Rescue DVD.

Game Boy Advance Video

Majesco has also released Strawberry Shortcake episodes as a Game Boy Advance Video cartridge:

Strawberry Shortcake Volume 1

• Meet Strawberry Shortcake
• Spring for Strawberry Shortcake

Note: The episodes released on Game Boy Advance Video are the 22-minute edited broadcast version of the episodes (some markets show these episodes as a two-parter without cutting off scenes instead), unlike the video versions which are 45 minutes in length each. Presumably this decision was made to keep the costs of producing the cartridges down (as the need for higher density memory chips would drive the cost of the cartridge up). As a result, two songs and a significant number of scenes from "Meet Strawberry Shortcake", as well as a song and half of the scenes from "Spring for Strawberry Shortcake" were missing from the GBA Video release if compared to the other videos.

Theatrically-released feature film

In October 2006, the first Strawberry Shortcake film, The Sweet Dreams Movie, was released in select cities by Kidtoon Films. The Peculiar Purple Pie-Man of Porcupine Peak and Sour Grapes, which were notably absent from the TV series, are re-introduced in the movie. However, Sour Grapes is re-introduced as Purple Pieman's sister in materials related to the Sweet Dreams Movie. The movie premiered on DVD on February 6, 2007.

Criticisms

Inconsistencies

A criticism from long-time fans is the inconsistency of characters, pets, scents, etc. that exists between the vintage franchise from the 1980s and the current franchise. Some examples are:

Character names - Raspberry Tart's name was changed to Raspberry Torte. Almond Tea's name was changed to Tea Blossom.

Pets - Pupcake now belongs to Strawberry instead of Huck (who now has Shoofly Frog). Angel Cake no longer has Souffle skunk, but instead Vanilla Icing. Lemon Meringue's pet frog, Frappe, is replaced by Sourball the skunk (possibly explained by the switching of Souffle skunk to Vanilla Icing for Angel Cake). Apple Dumplin's turtle, Teatime, is replaced by Apple Ducklin'. And maybe oddest of all is Rhubarb's (Raspberry's pet) change from a monkey to a raccoon. This might be explained by the existence of Banana Bongo (Tangerina Torta's monkey), although Banana Bongo himself was originally introduced as the leader of a monkey band on Seaberry Beach during the story introducing Coco Calypso and Seaberry Delight.

Relationships - Previously unmentioned sibling pairs keep popping up, such as Strawberry Shortcake and Apple Dumplin' and The Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes. There is also some confusion about the relationship between Crepes Suzette and the younger, recently-introduced Cherry Cuddler. Both have cherry scents and early promotional materials indicated that they are sisters. However, the box for the Playmates doll set indicates they are merely friends.

Scents - Playmates' introduction of the 2006 toy line is very loose with the linked scents that have been traditional in this franchise. Examples include cherry used for Crepes Suzette, Grape used for Tea Blossom, etc. While some consider the scent mixing and blending to be part of the fun, it is also criticized for taking some of the unique and distinct personalities and associations away from each individual character.

Fillies/Ponies - In early 2007, Playmates introduced three new ponies, but these are different from the previous Strawberryland Fillies. The ponies belong to Strawberry Shortcake, Angel Cake, and Crepes Suzette, and are aligned with the Berries to Blossoms doll line. The Honey Pie Pony and Milkshake names are not used and neither pony looks like the fillies previously linked to Strawberry and Angel. The new ponies are not given names of their own.

Character designs - Many feel that the Playmates line of dolls does not look anything like the characters on TV or the other materials at all. Likewise, some eBay-savvy fans recently found a line of Baby Strawberry Shortcake dolls from South America that not only look nothing like the other Baby Strawberry Shortcake materials or the episode "Baby Takes the Cake", but even remind some fans of Psygnosis' Lemmings games[4].

The TV show and the movie

Some people were disappointed with the absence of The Purple Pie Man in the TV series. However, others applauded the removal of villains from the series with the latter preferring that the series being kept in its current format: a real-life adventure type of edutainment program along the lines of Arthur and Caillou. Two camps clearly exist on this issue: There are fans (adults and children alike) that love the inclusion of antagonists such as Purple Pie Man, Sour Grapes and Licorice Whip. These fans want to continue to see more of them in movies, books, and toys. However, there are others (possibly either non-fans, people who're unfamiliar with the franchise, people who're real-life-adventure-type edutainment programming fans who've taken a liking to the new version of the franchise, people who're only familiar with the current version of the franchise and people who disliked the original franchise due to the villains or various other attributes but found redemption in the new version of the franchise) who feel that the inclusion (or in the latter case, re-inclusion) of villains in the show take away from the primary focus on Strawberry and her friends as well as erode the educational content of the show, and would prefer the show and franchise be kept villain-free.

American McGee's Strawberry Shortcake

In 2003, webcomic Penny Arcade posted an "advertisement" for an imaginary computer game, American McGee's Strawberry Shortcake, in reference to American McGee's Alice - a twisted and violent take on Lewis Carroll's works. American Greetings took offense to the parody and issued a cease-and-desist letter, to which the authors begrudgingly complied [5] - but not without making their indignation very clear [6].

Some argue that Penny Arcade's case was not covered under the fair use doctrine because the use of the characters in this case was for satire [7]; they claim that fair use only protects the unauthorized use of copyrighted characters in parodies of the original material, and that satire and parody are totally different concepts. Others, however, take the view that parody and satire are equally protected by law [8].

Regardless of the legality of either side's actions, this brief altercation is likely to have caused damage to American Greetings far beyond what the removed piece could have done by itself; given the webcomic's immense popularity (amplified by an article of the lawsuit appearing on Slashdot - a news site with a very large readership base and whose majority of readers are for fair use and against the likes of DRM and copy protection), American Greetings made itself look to many eyes as overzealous as Mattel in the protection of their properties, to the point of being capable of trampling artistic expression. [9] [10][11] [12]

Various other TV shows, including Drawn Together [13] and Robot Chicken, have since also parodied or satirized Strawberry Shortcake in one way or another but apparently met no retaliation from American Greetings.

External links

• Strawberry Shortcake - official site
• Mint Tulip's Garden Tea Party - fan site
• Huckleberry Briar - fan site
• Strawberry Shortcake Guide - fan site.
• Strawberry Shortcake Convention
• Points of Articulation - toy web site
• Strawberry Shortcake Paradise - fan site
• Pink Lemonade Sea - fan site