Let's move on to Spring For Strawberry Shortcake.
It opens in winter with Strawberry in her house, saying that this winter had had wild storms and what not that she hasn't seen her friends in weeks. Once again, she shows us pictures of her friends like last time, only this time you see how they go about their business while Strawberry describes them. However, she also says spring is arriving tomorrow and needs to get her garden ready, but Apple Dumpling has no clue what spring is, and so Strawberry explains, what no, she sings about Spring to her.
Strawberry gets her gardening equipment, and Custard gets annoyed at the racket as she's trying to sleep. Strawberry has everything except seeds, which Custard points to a bowl filled with seed bags to her. Besides Strawberries, she grows various types of berries as well. I guess even she needs to diversify. And Pupcake opens a bag accidentally spilling them everywhere. Why am I not surprised at this point?
They then go outside and Strawberry sees a butterfly, which is a sign that spring is around the corner. Pupcake chases it and tumbles into the snow, becoming a snowball in the process, and Angel Cake show up with some surrealistic treats for Strawberry, including an upside down cake that literally turns itself upside down, platy fingers which come to life on the plate, and bear claws which slash and roar. Angel Cake, are you a baker or a mad scientist?
Anyway, she came to help Strawberry with the gardening and Huckleberry Pie arrives on a skateboard, and almost hits Custard on the road but dodges her. Sadly, Pupcake knocks him into the snow anyway. Huck came by to help Strawberry with her gardening too, and she tells her friends that Spring comes in March. When she pulls out a calendar, it's March 21st, which means Spring is pretty much late. Honey Pie pony comes by to help as well, and talks about some of her spring adventures to the point that Custard has to come by and basically close her mouth.
Strawberry then gives everyone a job to do on the garden. By the way, I should point out that it's technically still winter, which means Huck and Strawberry should even be doing stuff like this as there's still snow and the roads are still a little slick. Sadly, no progress is made as Huckleberry Pie and Custard are goofing off, which means Angel and Honey can't do their jobs. Custard tells Strawberry spring isn't coming, so there's no point in working in the fields. Strawberry decides that maybe she should search for spring, and her friends want to come along. But there's so much work to do in the fields and she tries to tell Huck and Custard that if they work together, they can get the job done faster. So Strawberry sings as song about working together to get them ready to help her gardening.
And Huck and Custard decide to goof off behind everyone's back anyway. I swear, they seem to get along well for some reason... maybe these were the "Cat qualities" Custard was talking about? Anyway, they head towards a tree and proceed to climb it. He fails the first attempt, but succeeds on the second, hopping from branch to branch as it falls off. He should be in a platform video game with these kinds of skills. The branch then falls anyway and they slide down the hill towards Strawberry's garden. Upset, she Strawberry wishes spring would hurry up.
She leaves her friends behind to find out why spring hasn't come yet. Flowers don't want to bloom, eggs don't want to hatch, and animals like squirrels don't want to come out of hibernation. She sees Ginger Snap who tells her that if spring doesn't come in Cookie Corners, she won't have ingredients for her cookies when summer comes around. The warm weather brings grain and grass so the hens and cows can eat it to produce eggs and milk, respectively. The milk is also churned into better as well. By the way, look at some of her contraptions. Eggs are smashed with a freaking bowling ball and mice are operating the butter churner... how much planning she spend building stuff like this?
Anyway, she also says that the farmers bring their share of sugar cane so she can produce flour and sugar. No spring, no ingredients, no cookies. That simple. And Pupcake decides to steal a couple and eat them during the conversation. Strawberry decides to let Ginger accompany her to help find spring, and they eventually come across a daffodil which is in full bloom. In fact, they find a few more like this in full bloom, because it's a sign spring is near.
Orange Blossom appears and says spring hasn't came in Orange Blossom Acres either, because she trims the trees and fertilizes the garden to grow stuff there. And she also gets help from animals like birds, bees and butterflies. Strawberry asks Orange to help her and Ginger look for spring too and decides to join them. Just in time for another song about searching for for spring to a reggae beat.
Orange says that spring comes in Huclkeberry Briar first, but Ginger gets a little scared of the place. Strawberry gives her a the classic reassuring "Don't worry we'll stick together" smile and comes along. They arrive and it's nothing but thorns and vines, and Ginger gets her jacket caught on a vine at one point. Pupcake decides to curiously stick his head in a log and gets stuck. The girls check out the River Fudge, which is frozen, but Strawberry says it tastes even better as a result. Pupcake still can't break free from the log and rolls downhill to catch up with the girls. Orange and Ginger gets scared by what they see, but Strawberry instantly recognizes it's her dog when she peeks through the log. She has trouble pulling him out until a strange old man helps her.
As you may have guessed, this is Old Man Winter, and he asks the girls what they're doing here. Strawberry tells him they're looking for spring, to which he says that she's late and not much older than them. He tells them that to find her, they need to go to the land of seasons, because he can't go home until she starts to do her job. Strawberry wants to know where the land is, but he walks away for she gets an answer. Time to find it on your own, ladies.
They do get tired of searching for it but Strawberry reminds them of what at stake here. They find yet another daffodil (Which is green instead of yellow, so that's a coloring error right there), reminding them that spring isn't that far if they follow it.
Back at Strawberry's house, Huckleberry and Custard finally get to work on the garden and plant the seeds. Huck then decides to compete with her to who can dig and plant better and she accepts. During the competition, Huck accidentally hits Custard with a mud ball, so she retaliates with a mud ball of her own by throwing it with her tail. It's quickly derailed into a mud fight and they stop as soon as they realize the damage they're doing to the garden. Uh, are you sure Custard should stay with Strawberry in this version, writers? These two seem to get along pretty well here.
Strawberry and Friends eventually find the land of seasons and they hear a voice asking them to play with her. They see a green fairy who invites them to make snow angels and play in snowball fights.
Yes, I know who this is, and you probably know too, but we gotta go through with this.
They enjoy themselves, but Strawberry tells them that they need to search for spring. Without it, they can't do their jobs. The fairy reveals herself to be responsible and decides to finally get on with doing her job, so she flies off. Try and disregard the PantyShots. There's not that many of them, but they are there. While bringing spring to the lands, she sings a song about how "I put the zing in spring" while restoring spring throughout the lands. They eventually go back to Strawberryland and her friends notice the fairy, who brings spring back to Strawberryland. Everyone, including Spring herself, and especially Huck and Custard, realizes the importance of working together and getting the job done. And that's the end of the episode.
This was ok, but I like the first two better. Anyway, I'm off to do the next one. By the way, the DVD version has a very catchy song by Ginger Snap which is separate from the main story called Snappy Ginger Snap. I liked this song because she's actually my favorite aside from Strawberry in this series.
