Let's do this. We start with the first special, The Wonderful World Of Strawberry Shortcake.
It opens up with the sun rising in the sky. You hear a narrating voice and it comes from the sun himself, known as Mr. Sun. He starts narrating about Strawberryland, where Strawberry and her pals live. According to him, it's so small, you can't see it on the map. And apparently, you can easily step on it too, because from the looks of things, the entire cast of Strawberry's world are basically miniature people. From where you see the small village, you can see a soda bottle spilling over and forming a river, which is most likely old and flat by this point, and therefore nasty. We then we see the title character's house, an actual Strawberry Shortcake near a strawberry patch. Thankfully, it's an actual house and not real food. Inside, we see her sleeping in her bed along with her cat Custard, who Mr. Sun says is a Calico cat. Er... last time I checked, calico cats aren't pink.
Her friends also live in houses which are like their namesakes (Blueberry Muffin lives in a muffin, Huckleberry Pie lives in a pie, etc.), but you won't see them until later. We are also introduced to the main villain, the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak, who lives in what appears to be a castle made out of literal junk like pots and pans. Plus, for some ridiculous reason has to do a silly dance as a Character Tic everytime someone says his full name. He also tends to rhyme while doing so. And then there's his flock of berry birds who hangs around him and helps him cause all kinds of trouble in Strawberryland.
Mr. Sun remarks "He better not try to spoil this special day!" Except he will, because he's the villain and such. And the reason for this is because it's Strawberry's birthday, as we will find out later. Mr. Sun finally decides to get on with introduction of this special.
- Mr. Sun: "Boys and girls, mods and dads, brothers and sisters, cats and dogs, welcome to The Wonderful World of Strawberry Shortcake!"
Implying boys are even gonna watch this... By the way, it's barely 2 minutes and I already hate the character designs and how it's animated. I know it's the early 80's and what not, but it looks so dated.
Anyway, we being our first song during the opening credits, which is basically Strawberry going about her day and stopping to pet her cat like every 7 seconds or so. At least the song is catchy. After she goes to sleep, the song ends and we can finally proceed with the episode.
Strawberry wakes up for the day and hits her alarm clock which overslept. Wait, so everything's basically alive like in Rolie Polie Olie and The Amazing World of Gumball? Ah well, whatever. She also wakes up Custard, who in typical cat fashion, would rather sleep and not smile a whole lot, so Strawberry makes her and we're treated to Custard making a goofy face. Oh, and if her voice sounds familiar, that's because Strawberry is voiced by Russi Taylor, who's best known nowadays for voicing Minnie Mouse and Martin Prince from The Simpsons. She actually does a good job voicing the character, good enough to do it until the last special which aired in 1985.
And it's time for another song just as she leaves the house. What? Already? It's barely been a minute since the intro! Sigh... fine. Basically it's one of those "It's a beautiful morning and everything is going to be a great day" songs as she wakes up the animals. It's not as catchy as the intro song, though...
Meanwhile, the Pieman watches her through a magical pie tin. This is already getting more surreal by the second. He decides to send his flock of berry birds for a surprise attack to grab some berries, but Strawberry sees the flock and tries to fend them off with her broom, which works about as well as you'd expect. A nearby tree comes to life and scares them off with a growl. That was pitiful... Strawberry thanks it for it's assistance. Okay, almost everything seems to be alive in this world to some degree. Maybe not like those two cartoons I mentioned, but this seems to be the case here. The Pieman weeps for a bit and decides to come up with a plan B to get the berries.
Everyone else wakes up by this point and we now see the rest of Strawberry's friends. First up is Huckleberry Pie, who in this version is an Expy of Huckleberry Finn. Also, his voice actress (Yes, he's voiced by a woman, she's named Julia McWhirter according to The Other Wiki) sounds pretty bored doing this role. Seriously, just listen to his voice. He's fishing in a nearby river of soda with his dog Pupcake and Mr. Sun scolds him for slacking off and tells him to get something for Strawberry's birthday today. After getting repeatedly nagged, he finally decides to do it. Who made him the boss of Strawberryland?
He then goes to Blueberry Muffin's house. She's basically a forgetful ditz with a southern accent, and not surprisingly, forgets Strawberry's birthday. They both go to Plum Puddin's house, who is The Smart Guy and is also a boy in this version, at least for now. I point this out because in later specials, this character will be Put on a Bus and then come back as a girl with the same personality. No one is going to call attention to it either. He suggests that they throw a surprise party for Strawberry. Blueberry, being ditzy as she is, asks who it's for.
Great, I see where this is going... It's one of those stories, minus the fact that Strawberry remembers it's her birthday. All right, let's get this other with...
The last two characters they meet are Raspberry Tart, who's a Tomboy and a feisty smart mouth and has her Establishing Character Moment where she jokes about Strawberry's age. Along with Raspberry is Apple Dumpling, a baby who can't talk and suffers from horrible handwriting that only Blueberry Muffin can read, apparently. The Other Wiki says she's good at handwriting for someone her age and you will see this later on, but these scribbles are something that someone her age will typically churn out with a pencil. And yet somehow this Cloudcuckoolander has the ability to read this gibberish. Also, I'm not sure if she's Raspberry's sister either, because they seem to be living together in the same house. They decide to hold her birthday party in Lilac Park according to the note.
Mr. Sun now starts to sweat (WTF?) and signals that it's lunchtime. Strawberry is shocked and upset that her friends are busy doing something else instead of spending time with her for lunch, causing her to cry. Er... wow, someone's too sensitive. They're just doing their own thing, don't take it so personally. It's not like everyone hates your guts now. Then again, she's a child (She turns 6 on this day) so maybe I'll let it slip. Mr. Sun tells the audience that they left to set up the surprise birthday party for her at the park.
After the party is set up, Huck sends out a ladybug known as Lucky Bug to see what Strawberry wants for her birthday. Meanwhile, the Pieman is dressed up as a peddler and heads towards Strawberry, who's sulking near a set of matches. He tries to sell a "Magical Watering Can" to her that never runs out of water and is easily stopped by turning it back up, but she doesn't have enough money and walks off. However, Lucky Bug overhears the conversation and directs him to the birthday party, where all of her friends decide to combine their savings and buy it for her. This won't end well...
Mr. Sun eventually gets sick of her sulking in the fields and tells Strawberry to go to Lilac park because her friends are waiting for her. When she arrives, she finds out that it's her surprise birthday party, which they enjoy and immediately cheers her up. They then give Strawberry the watering can that she couldn't afford earlier. Things start to go downhill when she demonstrates how the water can works. She pours it but doesn't get it to stop. Her friends try all sorts of ways to stop it, such as a pitiful "magical" attempt by Huck trying to stop it and Plum Pudding placing a stopper on the front, but to no avail. Eventually all of Strawberryland gets flooded within minutes and the peddler reveals himself to be the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. Also, that dancing of his is already starting to get annoying.
A magical watering can that never runs out? Really? I was expecting something a little more menacing...
He makes a simple offer - give him all of Strawberryland's berries and he'll undo the flood. They take the offer and proceed to load them onto the carts, then carry them to the Pie Tin Palace where he lives. However, we see Apple Dumplin' falling asleep on the last cart in the line. Uh oh.
The flood recedes off screen and all of Strawberryland is now muddy. They also find out Apple Dumplin's missing and Lucky Bug tells Huck about her whereabouts. All is lost when Mr. Sun decides to give Strawberry a present of her own - a Deus ex Machina. He tells Strawberry to make a wish, and she wishes for an army of trees to go after Pieman. They march forward military style and cause the entire palace to collapse while he's in it. Rather comically, it seems to fall long before they even reach it. Just don't ask how the berries remain intact from a collapsing tower. In fact, Apple Dumplin' was in that tower, too and she could've gotten hurt. That's a pretty reckless wish, Strawberry!
The Pieman recovers and finds Apple Dumplin' with a note (In perfect handwriting, mind you) saying he promises to surrender and be a good guy from now on, even going so far as to hand him a pencil. He refuses, but the trees approach and threaten him. But since violence is a no-no in girl cartoons (At least in those days), he signs it. He gives the berries back and he begs for mercy. She instead decides to have the trees strangle him to death and... nah, she wants to be his friend, because everyone deserves to do good in Strawberry's mind.
Sigh... seriously? Now I see why girl's cartoons have the reputation that they do. Given that he just tricked you and basically flooded Strawberryland, the last thing I would want to do is to play the Easily Forgiven card. Not only that, I know that the villains return at a later point during the 2003 series, and tend to go through the Heel-Face Revolving Door, so I'm not sure how it's handled in that version. Hopefully it's better than how it's handled here.
Anyway, the Pieman becomes annoyed at Strawberry's berry talk and asks why does she even do it frequently. Well, she finds it fun to do. And guess what? it's time to sing about berry talk! As such, as he struggles but inevitably learns berry talk, throughout the song. We're also treated to a barrage of berry puns such as "Berry Christmas" and Tom and Berry. And in true to form, they sing about how it's great they're friends now, ending the episode.
Ugh, what a nasty first impression. To her credit, Russi Taylor does a good job voicing the title character and the intro song is pretty catchy. But I'm not liking what I'm seeing so far. But there's only 6 specials and I have five more left to go. And they're only 30 minutes long so I should be able to breeze through them in less than a week. Still, this is not good. Part of this could be due to the fact that I didn't watch this version, much less cared for the original version of Strawberry Shortcake when I was younger. Heck, I watched action cartoons like many boys did in my day.
I'm sure the later ones will get better, but I have my doubts...
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