And now, for the final special, Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins. Of other note, this is the only special where the title card shows up immediately instead of the during the opening credits.
Mr. Sun tells the viewers that it's time for Strawberry's first annual garden party. Everything's getting set up and we see newbie Banana Twirl hopping around like a gymnast hopped up on sugar. Strawberry tells her about berry hunting, where as soon as she finds the best fruit or berry in Strawberryland to put along their place of honor, they can begin the garden party. We then, for the final time, head to the opening credits and song. Well, that was freaking quick. Also, Orange Blossom almost gets run over by one of her oranges near the end of the song. We see that each girl has picked the best of which fruit they represent and set it on the table.
After the fruits have been picked, Strawberry tries to find an outfit for the party. And as quickly as the last one ended, we're treated to another song with a fashion montage in the process. After it ends, she steps out and notices that the berry she picked is on her doorstep. Apparently, the other girls had something similar happen to them, and then all of a sudden, a fairy princess teleports in front of them. Should I cue the fairy fountain from theme from Legend of Zelda?
She's the Berrykin princess, and she's looking for her Berrykin helpers. They basically are the "fruits" that Strawberry and her friends picked eariler, and go about their day making the fruits smell sweet and tasty with their magic. They're also miniaturized versions of the protagonists. Then a rainstorm kicks in and they hide in the gazebo. Five bucks as to who's responsible...
The Peculiar Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes are trying to create the best perfume ever and sell it on the market, but with no success. Sour Grapes asks a berry bird to order a double cheeseburger with extra caramel on it, and the Pieman's worried about the effect the clouds are having due to the rotten stench. And since when did you carry about the environment, you old geezer?
The rain stops for now, but the fruits don't smell like fruits. They smell like all kinds of food, like pizza and popcorn. The Berrykins can fix it, but Plum Pudding says that they have an hour until it rains again and all of Strawberryland will smell like junk food. It's already caused elderberry to eat cherry blossoms that smell like marshmallows and Custard going after lemons because they smell like catnip, so we're treated to a jazzy song about how to distinguish edible foods from inedible ones. This is also the second song I genuinely liked from the this version.
While Strawberry's friends help the Berrykins restore the proper scent to everything, Strawberry and the princess head to where the clouds are coming from. During this time, the berry bird Grapes sent out earlier almost runs into them and dives into the stinky cloud, and just as quickly escapes it to take a rest in the forest. The Berrykins ambush him and smother him in fruity scents and flies off, only to swoop back down and capture them. The others know that they're being taken to Porcupine Peak. Speaking of which...
Their attempts to make a perfume are still a bust, but it's expected when you mix odd food choices like peppermint and chicken gravy. Like those were ever going to be appealing scents. A knock is heard on the window and it's Strawberry and the princess floating on a cloud. He's not surprisingly annoyed at Strawberry's presence, but he get the hots for the princess, who tells him that his machine will cause all of Strawberryland to reek of it's bad smell if he doesn't shut off the machine. Because Love Makes You Stupid, he agrees to do it. Well, that was simple, but we're halfway through, so this isn't over yet.
Besides, you have Sour Grapes. That princess is too good for you.
Strawberry and the princess arrive in time to find out all but one of the Berrykins (The Strawberry one is the one who tagged along with the title character) have been caught by a berry bird, so they have to make the trip back there. Meanwhile, the berry bird flies back through the window and knocks the Pieman out of his love trance. Inside the bag, he sees the Berrykins and gets an idea. They'll shake the scent out of them to make their perfume. Just as they get to work, Strawberry and the princess returns and demands back her Berrykins. Since the Pieman is too Distracted by the Sexy, she goes in his place and says she'll do so after she drains them of their scent. Strawberry has a plan, but it's improvised, and they'll need to hurry as the have 5 minutes before it smells like something from Kitchen Nightmares.
The princess deals with the storm cloud while Strawberry sends the last Berrykin in to have some fun with the Pieman, who's currently exhausted from all of the pedaling. When they spot the remaining one, Grapes sends the Pieman after it. Eventually she causes him to get stuck in the pipe and grapes has to pull him out. During this time, the last Berrykin gets the door open and Strawberry rescues them all. Just as they leave, Grapes pulls out the Pieman and they end up smelling like badly mixed food from their earlier perfumes.
As for the raincloud, the princess swoops down into the center of the storm. 15 seconds later, it starts to rain. But it now smells like fresh fruit instead. Nighttime hits, we see Mr. Sun go down for the last time and the princess sings them a lullaby to the Berrykins. She asks Strawberry to watch over them and leaves, and the last thing see before the closing credits is Strawberry's hair growing longer.
Finally, I thought I was never going to get past this! So how's the 80's series as a whole? Well... the first three are below average but the second three are an improvement, especially in the writing area. But for the most part, only Strawberry seems to have any character development for the most part. She goes from someone who breaks down and cries when everything hits a low point in the first three specials to a more fearless, courageous character in the last three specials. The supporting cast are almost FlatCharacters. Sure, they have some semblance of a personality, but it's not really developed much. As for the villains, well... in the Peculiar Purple Pieman's case, his first plan was somewhat menacing in the first special, but the other two were just laughable in the later specials. Sour Grapes was barely better than his as far as plans go. I'll give them credit for one thing and one thing only, the "evil conscience" that the Pieman had. If anything, they were smart enough to not try to befriend him the second time around from here on out and for good reason. It just feels embarrassing to do something like that.
I know people will try to pull the "It's a Merchandise-Driven cartoon!" card, but here's the thing, it hasn't aged well. Not just as far as animation goes, but as far as writing as well. And believe me when I say there are good cartoons which are Merchandise-Driven. Many of the Series/Transformers cartoons, particularly Beast Wars, had good writing and animation. And of course, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is one of the best examples of a Merchandise-Driven show done right with the right talent.
Next up, the 2003 series.
Comments
