Because I tend to be the last one to find out these things, I had no idea that American Greetings had added a page to each of their brands for video clips until yesterday. And even though they by no means had to do this, they posted an entire 11 minute episode of the new CGI Strawberry Shortcake series, which won't debut until next Fall. I'm assuming that this is the pilot episode, so there's no telling what elements will show up again. Overall, I thought it was cute, although there were a few things that I know are going to bug people.
The plot of this pilot concerns itself with the party Strawberry's throwing to celebrate the grand opening of her new cafe. With just a few hours to go, Strawberry delegates some of the preparations to two of the three berrykins that hang out around town. I know a lot of people are not going to like them, and in fact, I wasn't that crazy about them myself, until I looked up the definition of nebbish (AGP describes them as "nebbish creatures"), which turns out to mean pitifully ineffectual. Heh. Anyways, Strawberry sends them off to get favors from her core friends, and Custard tags along to keep an eye on the Berrykins and try to keep them from messing up, but since she doesn't talk in this incarnation (Thank you!), she isn't too good at that.
First stop is Plum Pudding's dance studio. Although she doesn't have any glasses this time around, she's still too cute. Now, since Strawberry didn't actually tell them what she wanted from Plum Pudding, and only actually said, "Who loves dancing more than her?" the Berrykins assume (as I did the first time around) that she wanted Hula Dancing at the party, and ask Plum to teach it. Improvising a hula skirt from a nearby flower, Plum Pudding is on the case!
Next, the Berrykins head to Raspberry Torte's dress boutique to borrow a dress for Strawberry to wear (guess she used up all her savings on opening the cafe), but can't remember which one she wanted. It was the one with the bows, but the one with the rose looks much nicer. And apparently Raspberry is so allergic to flowers that even one made of cloth is enough to send her into a fit of sneezes. There's a quick interlude at the cafe to show Plum Pudding showing up, and Strawberry realizing the Berrykins mistake. Neither seems too worried about it.
Moving on to Orange Blossom's general store, the Berrykins can only remember that Strawberry wanted something orange and sparkly (sparkling orange juice, actually), so Orange Blossom pulls out all the things that fit the bill, including vases and a tablecloth, and even her Orange Brand laundry detergent (to make clothes sparkly clean). The Berrykins tell her to bring all of it, just in case.
Again, Strawberry was too vague about what she wanted from Blueberry Muffin's bookstore. She just told them that Blueberry put all the recipes Strawberry uses at her cafe into one book, but not whether she wanted one copy to display, or a copy for all her friends (which doesn't make good business sense when there's only five or six inhabitants of the city to begin with). The Berrykins assume she wants one book per friend, but don't remember which cookbook Strawberry was talking about. Fortunately for Custard (who hasn't been able to let the others know how wrong the Berrykins have been about things), Blueberry easily intuits that Strawberry probably wants copies of her own book, not someone else's.
Back at the cafe, Orange Blossom shows up with everything but what Strawberry wanted, and Strawberry "smells a little trouble" (I hope that's not a recurring catchphrase or anything). Meanwhile, the Berrykins are at the last stop, Lemon Meringue's Beauty Salon, and I admit, I had totally forgotten what Strawberry told them she wanted from there by this point, so it's no wonder the Berrykins forgot, too. The best they can come up with is having Lemon give Custard a "cute clown" makeover (in reality, Strawberry wanted Lemon to make fruit crowns as party favors, although why she'd be asking that so late in the game I have no clue). And Custard does make a very cute clown once Lemon is done with her.
With all that taken care of, the Berrykins return just as Blueberry Muffin finishes telling Strawberry about their inability to remember stuff, and Strawberry gives them a quick lecture about actually listening to people when they tell you stuff. Which is when Raspberry Torte and Lemon Meringue show up with the last of the Berrykin's mistakes. Strawberry makes the best of it, though, as Lemon Meringue ties some dandelion puffs to Custard's neck ribbon for the finishing touch. Which make her start to float away. You'd think it would take more than three to do that, though. As the girls watch in horror, the dandelion fluffs start to blow away in the wind, and Custard drifts ominously closer to the ground. But Strawberry "smells a plan" (seriously, that better not show up every episode), and grabs the tablecloth. She instructs everyone to grab an edge, and even the Berrykins help out (no doubt, the other girls are confused as to why Strawberry keeps telling them to "hula to the left" and "hula to the right" as they follow Custard's trajectory, since only she, Plum, and the Berrykins know about the hula/who loves incident). And thus is Custard saved. The Berrykins claim it was because of their listening skills, but Strawberry reminds them that it was actually teamwork that saved the day. And just like that, it's four o'clock, time for the start of the party (kind of late for a grand opening...) and the end of the episode.
So generally I liked the episode. The moral wasn't overly anvilicious, even if the Berrykins' rhyming talk got annoying after a while. But seriously, Strawberry brought it on herself by not writing it all down, anyway. BTW, I'm 89% sure that Orange Blossom is voiced by Janyse Jaud. There aren't any end credits, so I don't know who else does voices here, although there are stills that are definitely where the end credits will go when it actually airs. I have a sneaky suspicion Ashleigh Ball is one of the Berrykins, but their voices are so sped up that I could be wrong.
It seems a little odd that after all the talk of harkening back to original series, no one had their original personalities. But then, we didn't really get to know anyone all that well. The actual series and upcoming movie will probably flesh out the other characters a little more, but I can tell you this, the original Raspberry Tart would never own a dress shop.
Screenshots
I'm so excited to show this to Jo and Li~!
ReplyDeleteI think my faves this far are Orange, Strawberry, and Plum. Although if Blueberry has her old personality (it could go either way at this point) then she'll probably be my fave. ^_^
~Esme