Welcome to Care-a-Lot - Episode 5

When AGP took down the Welcome to Care-a-Lot preview episode from their website, I promised someone I'd do a write up with screenshots, but in the time it took for me to do so, AGP put the episode back up.  However, they didn't simply put the episode back up, but instead put up a premix cut.  The only difference I can tell is lower quality, plus a timeclock and title stamp on the video.  So I figure I might as well continue to post this, since at the very least I'll have better screenshots.

Compassion Not
So, Funshine has all manner of fun stuff planned, but none of the other Care Bears are able to join him: Cheer has to weed her garden, Share has to clean her house before teatime, Harmony has to soundproof the birdhouses in the forest, and Grumpy is too hungry to care (plus he has errands).  Bummed out, Funshine just flops out where he is, which is where Tenderheart finds him.  He admits to the older bear that he can still have fun on his own, but it would be so much better with someone else.  And so Tenderheart summons a girl named Penny to Care-a-Lot, explicitly to hang out with Funshine, but also to learn a lesson.  Penny, it seems, is more than just a little self-centered, as her first act is to crow about how so many kids want to visit Care-a-Lot, but too bad for them 'cause they're not her.
Funshine is immediately taken with this girl, as he and Penny bond over their shared love of roller blading and extreme sports.  Though Penny continually jumps into things without listening and makes sure she gets to do everything first, Funshine just brushes this off, so glad is he to finally have met his perfect match.
Meanwhile, Grumpy traverses Care-a-Lot in his camper van, and comes across a shortcut that is, unfortunately, forbidden.  But this matters not to Grumpy, and he just continues on his way.  His disobedience seems to be rewarded when he comes across a dragonbeehive that's devoid of dragonbees.  As he rides his cherrypicker attachment up to the hive, he muses:

It's moments like these I think "what would Tenderheart say?"
*imitating Tenderheart* "Grumpy, I have a feeling that dragonbees wouldn't like that."
To which I think back, "I have a feeling that I don't care."  'Cause when I get home, I'm gonna have the feeling of sweet, sweet honey in my belly.

(No matter the version, Grumpy is the best.)  He plucks the hive from its perch and tries to continue on his way, only to find his van is stuck in the mud.  And not just any mud, but stick-til-you're-stuck-sand.  With a bit of effort, he manages to push his van back onto dry ground, but at the cost of sinking into the sand himself.  In this vulnerable state, he's approached by Beastly, though not the one from the 80's series.  I'm not sure what this guy's deal is, but no doubt that'll be explained in the first episode.  From this episode alone, he appears to be the king of some kind of creatures, as he has both a crown and two minions who lack proper speech.  Hearing that Grumpy got stuck while getting honey, Beastly makes off with the hive, leaving Grumpy stuck.

Left alone, Grumpy attempts to use his belly badge to call for help, but he's sunk too low into the sand for that. Fortunately, his cries for help are loud enough to be heard by Harmony in the forest, and she wastes no time in gathering everyone together.  Everyone except Funshine, that is.  Cheer heads off to find Funshine while the others go to find and help Grumpy.  But as Funshine and Penny are still hanging out at Adventure Beach, it doesn't take Cheer too long to find them, though it does take some doing to get them both to come and help.  Funshine has already begun to succumb to Penny's bad influence, you see, but not entirely, and so the three of them set off, though Penny happens to notice a certain vehicle floating in the water as they go.
Meanwhile, the others (including Wonderheart) search for Grumpy, finding his van before finding him.  Share spins the many possible things that could have happened to him, ending with "...maybe he's wandering the earth as a lost vagabond, seeking redemption for all the horrible things he- oh, wait, there he is." (I just love that line.  Especially the fact that she includes "horrible."  Grumpy, what kind of things are you up to in this series?)  Sure enough, Grumpy's still stuck in the sand, and not too pleased with the slowness of the other bears to help him get out.  So Tenderheart starts to reach out for Grumpy, but realizes that Grumpy is far enough in that they can't get him out without getting themselves stuck, too.  But there's rope in Grumpy's van, and soon the bears have a jerry-rigged pulley to get him out.
As the others pull, Cheer, Funshine, and Penny arrive.  Cheer immediately joins in the pulling, but Penny pulls Funshine back, pointing out that the power of five bears is bound to be enough to get Grumpy out, and since they're not needed, it's time to get back to the fun!  Funshine hesitates, but all-too-soon agrees with her, and the two split.  As they arrive back at Adventure Beach, Funshine starts to have second thoughts about leaving his friends, but Penny assures him that Grumpy will be fine.  Plus, she has an awesome idea....
However, power of five bears was, in fact, not enough to get Grumpy out of the mud, and Funshine and Penny's absence is quickly noticed.  While thinking about what else to try, Share passes out some tea and shares some gossip with Harmony (apparently Tenderheart was in a band back in his younger days).  Cheer proposes that they build a house around Grumpy, and Harmony latches onto that idea, as she has numerous housing designs she'd love to try.  Grumpy objects to this train of thought, and to the tea, but takes the crumpet Share offers.  Tenderheart asks the million dollar question (that is, what was Grumpy doing in a forbidden area anyway), and Grumpy is forced to admit that he stole the dragonbee's honey.  And there just happen to be a couple of dragonbees above them to hear that confession and take it straight to the queen.
The need to get Grumpy out of the sand gets a lot more urgent once Harmony hears the dragonbees approaching, so Wonderheart suggests using the van to pull the rope.  Unfortunately, the van is a stick shift, and only Grumpy knows how to drive it.  Still, Share volunteers to try, but even instruction from Grumpy can't help her.  Harmony remembers that Funshine has an ATV, but when they go to retrieve it, they are shocked to find it missing.
Not for long, though, as it's obvious who took it.  Tenderheart and Wonderheart head one way, and Harmony and Share head the other, hoping that between the two groups, they'll find Funshine and Penny before the dragonbees arrive.  Cheer, meanwhile, is keeping Grumpy company, though he'd rather she didn't.  Funshine and Penny, on the other hand, are oblivious to the danger, just having a good time in the ATV.  Funshine proposes he jump the ATV over the hill, so Penny climbs out to watch.  She uses a rope ladder to get a better view on the branch of a tree, but when she reaches the top, she almost loses her footing, accidentally knocking over the ladder in the process.  She calls for Funshine to help her, but the ATV is too loud for him to hear her.  Assuming Funshine forgot her in all the fun, Penny resigns herself to life in a tree, until she's spotted by Harmony and Share.  Harmony, to Share's surprise, suggests leaving the girl in the larch, and the irony of this is not lost on Penny.  She agrees that she deserves to be left there, but begs forgiveness, which Harmony gives.  With a little help from the birds, the ladder is soon back in place.  Penny climbs back down and thanks her saviors, now ready to help Grumpy.
But first they need the ATV, which Funshine is just then jumping over the hill.  His landing leaves something to be desired, but he himself is okay, and so is the ATV.  Funshine revs up to try again, but Penny stops him, telling him they need to help Grumpy now.  Funshine is confused by her sudden turnaround in ideals, but Penny explains the lesson she learned (it's selfish not to help your friends), and Funshine also begins to feel remorse for his behavior.  But there's no time for that, Harmony points out, as she quickly explains the situation.  And so the four drive in the ATV to where Grumpy is stuck.
Unfortunately, the dragonbees arrive before the rope has been tied to the ATV.  To buy a little time, Harmony uses her badge to create a flower illusion that distracts the bees.  With the rope attached at last, Funshine drives the ATV, pulling Grumpy out, then goes to apologize for not helping sooner, as does Penny.  Grumpy's just glad to be out of the mud, with everything all wrapped up.  Except the dragonbees are still there, and Harmony's illusion fades.  The bees, however, do not immediately attack, but instead ask what's up with stealing the honey?  (with Share translating, as she's the only one who understands dragonbee, I guess.)  Grumpy boldly sets the record straight that only he was involved in the honeystealing, and the queen demands the hive back.  The other bears are all, "Yeah, just give it to them already," unaware that Grumpy is no longer in possession of it.  And when Grumpy admits that Beastly stole it from him, the dragonbees immediately vacate the premises to go chase after him.  They even chase him after he returns the hive, presumably because he'd already eaten all the honey by then.  Happy ending!

So yeah, that was actually better than I was expecting.  There were some parts that made me laugh, and a number of good lines.  And this is probably just me, but Penny's obnoxiousness made her a pretty entertaining character.  That, and her corrupting of Funshine.  Animation-wise, it's not the greatest, but I like the textures, especially how fuzzy the bears are.  Obviously I'm going to need to see more episodes before I can make a real verdict on this show, but at least I'm not feeling as much trepidation as I was before.

Misc. Screenshots
Harmony's stylin'
Jumping on a bridge
Grumpy's victory pose
Harmony balks
Who knows how to drive a stick?
The dragonbees are coming!

Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot is coming soon

So the latest Care Bears series finally has a release date.  Though previously said to be coming Fall 2012, it's actually debuting in one month exactly.  There's a short promo already:



The website has also been updated, with character profiles and color pages, with videos coming next week.  However, AGP's official site has a full episode up, if you're curious.
Edit: Scratch that, they took it down.  Was it put up too early, or was it because I linked to it? (That's happened before.)  Stop doing that, AGP!

It's about time!

At long last, Cherry Jam is part of Strawberry Shortcake's section of AGKidzone.  I'm assuming that they put off adding her until this week because in this past episode, she decided to make Berry Bitty City her home for good.  It's not like they had a lot of extra work to do that kept them from adding her.  Clicking on her just brings up a profile blurb, aim icon, a non-existent coloring page (I assume it'll surface eventually) and her music video. For all I know, the video might have been on the site earlier, since every time I checked, I only bothered looking at the front page, assuming that, as the newest video, would be the very first one.  But no, now that it's on the site, it's the last video, on page two.  Why?  Who knows?  At any rate, the music video has been up on The Hub for a couple of weeks now (in better quality), and even SSC's youtube had it before AGP put it up (assuming they only put it up this week).

ETA on Cherry Jam!

As I suspected, this morning's episode ("Berry Bitty Harvest") did not feature the debut of Cherry Jam, instead acting as the gateway for the Berry Bitty Market Playset, which will actually be built in next week's episode, "Room at the Top."  But, if Zap2It is to be believed, then the episode airing on the 19th, "Starlight, Star Bright," will finally bring Cherry Jam to Berry Bitty City.  Now if we could just get her over to the AGKidzone....

Berry Bitty Adventures News

So it seems that Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures has been renewed for a second season of 13 episodes, according to this press release.  I wonder if the series will continue to be full half-hour episodes, or break into two 11 minute episodes per show?  I'm inclined to think it's the former, since AGP has been upfront about that in the past.  Which is kind of a shame, really.  Much as I love the design, characters, and overall world of the new series, most of the episodes just don't have enough in them to fill a full 22 minutes.  Part of the problem, I think, is that Strawberry is usually the voice of reason, the character with the solution (and being a show for young girls, the solution is usually pretty obvious).  Thus, to stretch the episode out, Strawberry is often kept apart from the other girls as they go about their ways of trying to solve the problem, making it seem that they're all better friends with each other than with Strawberry, even though she's supposedly the heart of the group.
I've often thought, and probably said here, that Sushi Pack and Adventures in Care-a-Lot, would have benefited from being given a full episode for their stories (and the Care Power Team movies proved I was right), and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic just wouldn't be the same if the episodes were half as long (though it would probably still be awesome).  But in the case of SSCBBA, I really feel that the stories would be better served in 11 minute chunks.
Of course, I'm getting off topic from what I really wanted to talk about.  According to the press release, the new season will introduce a new character whose special talent is music.  This is apparently the first time a new character has been added to the SSC franchise in "more than 5 years," which strikes me as a little odd.  I mean, I started this blog less than five years ago, and I've blogged about new characters debuting in the DiC series.  So either those characters were created well before AGP let anyone know about them, or they're just looking for a nice, round number.  That "more than 5 years" phrase also puts the kibosh on the new character being a reimagined character from either the 80s or the 2003 series.
I know I sound kind of negative here, but I'm actually really excited about this new character.  I just wonder what confections are left to make characters out of?  Perhaps Carrot Cake will finally join the cast?  Or some kind of Buckle?  We'll just have to wait and see.

AGKidzone Updated

Since 2010 is Strawberry Shortcake's 30th anniversary, AGKidzone has updated its SSC page with a birthday splash image, a few birthday related activities and coloring pages, and four video clips from the upcoming TV series.  Miss Jadeybug shows up in most of them, but still has no lines.  Hm...

The Parents' section has also been updated, with lots of cool graphics, a Strawberry Shortcake Timeline, and info on SSC's partnership with Alex's Lemonade Stand.  There's also a small section for Maryoku Yummy now, and the Sushi Pack FAQs have been removed (>_<).

Maryoku Yummy Comes to AGKidZone

Upon learning that AGP finally found a home for its Maryoku Yummy TV series (The Hub, come October), I went to see if the official website, maryokuyummy.com, had been updated yet (the last time I checked, it just had a "coming soon" message).  Not only was it updated, but it had been made into a page on AGKidZone.com, with a fair amount of content (not surprising, as they've been trying to get the TV series off the ground for a while now).  Exploring Nozomu reveals various character profiles, which cleared up a few mysteries, such as the names of Hadagi's friends (Oolong and Baburu, i.e. the romanization of bubble, predictably not pronounced anything like that) and that Tapo Tapo is apparently the leader of the Nozomu, and not just some mystical guru-type guy.  There are also games and coloring pages already, and 9 video clips, only two of which are from episodes already seen on AGPbrands.com.  Speaking of videos, the Strawberry Shortcake page still only has the interview clip representing the 2009 version, despite the fact that there are two DVDs out and the TV series has already started to air in some places.  Come on, AGP, get on the ball!

AiCaL - Power Team update

Slowly but surely the latest permutation of the Care Bears is starting to show itself.  While AGPbrands.com has had a short description of the upcoming "Care Power Team" series on the site for at least a year, not much has been seen.  Various notepads and similar items have been seen in Target's dollar section, though that was a few months ago, and Share Bear Shines, originally slated for a Fall 2009 release, came out this past March -- in Australia.  However, Kidtoon Films, ever a friend to AGP and Hasbro, showed the first actual look at the CPT series, Care Bears to the Rescue Movie, this past month (and though a trailer was promised, one never materialized on their website).  Unfortunately for me, the only day it was showing, I had other obligations and couldn't make it (and the only theater that had showings every weekend was actually showing episodes from the 80's series).  I have, however, managed to see Share Bear Shines, and while I'm saving the write-up for when it actually comes out in the states (this Fall, we hope), there are a couple of things I'd like to complain about.  The first is a little (teeny tiny) bit spoilery, so if you want to save yourself completely, skip the next paragraph, please.
Okay, so the plot, as synopsized by AGP themselves, is that Princess Starglo is putting out the stars because no one believes in her anymore.  Now, that makes it sound like she's doing it out of spite, but in the movie, she explicitly states that she and all the stars are powered by belief and wishes made on stars, thus she's turning off the stars (and all of Glitter City) because there simply isn't enough power for all of them.  My problem, though, is with the inconsistency of the writing.  Half the time, Starglo's behavior is still treated as if she's doing this out spite, not, you know, prolonging what little life she and the stars have left, even by the princess herself.  (And frankly, if she's "the mother of all stars," shouldn't she be Queen Starglo?  Just saying.)  I mean, if it was one or the other, I wouldn't mind, but you can't mention "He's fading, just like me," and then just claim the whole thing was a selfish whim, y'know?  If there had at least been a little acknowledgement at the end or something, since a lot of it was just Share Bear apparently not getting it, then maybe I'd feel better about it.  And while I'm still in the spoilery paragraph, it majorly bugged me that Starglo kept telling Share that she was the only one who believed in her and still wished on stars, when, HELLO, Wish Bear still exists in this movie!
Tying into that point is my second, less spoilery, quibble: why does a movie dealing so heavily with stars and wishes NOT star Wish?  I mean, come on!  And it's not like she's just not there, because she is clearly visible in the background.  Maybe if AiCaL hadn't pegged her as an expert on stars and twinklets, this wouldn't rankle me so much, but really, honestly, why, AGP?  Or, if it really was so very, very important that Share be the star, why couldn't Wish have had a bigger part at least?  She and Share could have both gone to Glitter City together, or something.

Well, anyway, I'll go into both of those points in more detail come the Fall (hopefully).  In the meantime, you can check out a couple of clips from the movie on SD Entertainment's page.  The first is a song sung by Share in the movie set to clips from the song and other random movie clips. The song sounds different, though I'm not sure whether that's because the clip has her unpitched voice (does her voice get pitched up?  I wouldn't be surprised) or if it's sung by someone else entirely (probably the same chick who sings the AiCaL theme).  The second is a brief teaser trailer for the movie, still proclaiming its release in 2009.  And now, before we part, two quick images:

Share's mental image of Princess Starglo.

The real deal.

Slightly Worried About Strawberry Shortcake and Sushi Pack

With just three weeks to go until the release of "Strawberry Shortcake: Sky's the Limit Movie," I've been thinking about certain things promised that are yet to be delivered, with no news to be found. This is mostly due to the complications brought on by the American Greetings/Cookie Jar dispute. If you haven't been following it (and it's not like I've been ardently following this, either), here's my take on it. Back last year, Cookie Jar purchased DIC's library, which includes Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, and Sushi Pack. At the time, American Greetings was going to sell Cookie Jar the rights to Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears, but Cookie Jar couldn't raise the agreed-on amount. So another company, Moonscoop, offered to buy them instead for a lesser amount. Cookie Jar was given the chance to match that offer, but later sued AG for not giving them the same amount of time to get the money as Moonscoop. AG countersued, saying Cookie Jar never intended to get the amount they offered in the first place. Most recently, Moonscoop has sued AG to make them get a move on with untangling themselves from Cookie Jar and sealing the deal with them.

What this means for the moment is that Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, and Sushi Pack are not going to be on TV, as Cookie Jar acquired CBS' Saturday block, which will be changing its name from Kewlopolis to Cookie Jar TV on September 19th. What this means for the supposedly upcoming 26 episode Strawberry Shortcake CGI series is unclear right now, as is the future of Sushi Pack (Care Bears' upcoming retooled third season was already delayed, so I'm not as worried about that). Speaking of Sushi Pack, isn't there supposed to be a DVD coming out this fall? Lionsgate has the distribution rights, but so far, there's no word on a DVD release. And there's supposed to be toys coming out this Fall, but as of yet, I haven't seen any. There's still time for that, I know, but the way things are looking, I'm not feeling very optimistic.

Update: AGP is going to MIPCOM, and says that the new CGI series, officially called Strawberry Shortcake Berry Bitty Adventures, is still in production and will be "available for a Spring 2010 delivery." No word on Sushi Pack, though.

The Sky's the Limit!

There's finally a release date for The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's the Limit! According to amazon.com, it'll come out on DVD on September 15th. Now, according to the agpbrands website, the movie is also getting a theatrical release, which for them generally means screenings through KidToon Films. And since they have the movies listed for June, July, and September, I'm guessing that we'll be seeing it come August.

Evalana goes shopping

So, I went shopping yesterday for the express purpose of finding the following: Sushi Pack books and Maryoku Yummy products. You see, I recently learned that two Sushi Pack books were released back in January, both of which are available on Amazon.com, but since I got a Borders gift card for my birthday, I figured I'd see if I could find them there. I was only able to find the first one (based on the episode Rex Marks the Spot) and not the second (based on Wassup Wasabi), so I may be placing an order on Amazon sooner rather than later. You can see images from the first book here and the second here.

Not too long after I learned about the Sushi Pack books, I noticed a couple of press releases on AGPbrands.com that pertained to Maryoku Yummy. One mentioned the upcoming animated series and a March debut, but I haven't been able to find any information anywhere else about this, so I'm assuming it got delayed. But the other, more recent one mentioned that you can now find Maryoku merchandise in Justice/Limited Too stores, so I swallowed any embarrassment I might have and went straight to the front of the store. There I saw a few products including mini-plushes, pins, lip gloss and lollipops. As you can see, I got mini-plushes of Maryoku and Hadagi (of course) and a set of pins. The mini-plushes are very cute, and they have elastics on the back so you can tie your hair up with them if you so desire. Hadagi is definitely too magenta and not purpley enough. You can buy the mini-plushes and large plushes (which I didn't see in the store) on the Justice website.

The Latest on the 2009 SSC Revamp

The Toy Fair was last weekend, and with it came the debut of the prototypes of the upcoming Strawberry Shortcake toys from Hasbro. (You can also see the impending new look of My Little Pony, if you're so inclined.) In my opinion, half of the toys look very cute, but the other half look just plain weird. My personal favorites are the mostly plush dolls, and the figure that comes with the DVD.

To go along with the Toy Fair, Hasbro put up a bunch of press releases, including one for Strawberry Shortcake that gives descriptions of a handful of the toys debuted, and clues the reader in to a sneak peek website for the new look. There isn't too much at the moment, coloring pages of all the characters, a redesigned game from the main site, but there is a page of profiles for all the characters, which is a draw for me. I note that when I visited the site yesterday, there were two videos up, A Berry Grand Opening and the Interview, but now there's only the Interview. Hm...

The More, the Yummier - Maryoku Yummy

Today I am going to talk to you about Maryoku Yummy.  You may or may not recognize the name, but if you do, it's because you remember it from descriptions of American Greetings' licensed brands.  That's how I know of it, anyhow.

Now, for a good long while, next to nothing was known about this mysterious and strangely named property.  Only the very basics of the character were revealed: Maryoku looks after wishes that are made before they get granted.  Not exactly all the interesting, but good for birthday cards.  At least, that's what I thought until I discovered that, just like with the revamp of Strawberry Shortcake, AGPbrands.com put a handful of videos of the animated show based on this property, and while only three episodes are up, I think I love it already.

Maryoku Yummy takes place in Nozomu, and as you might have derived from that, the majority of the characters have psuedo-japanese names.  I say pseudo because while some of the names actually mean something relevant to the character (maryoku means magic power/charm), some of the names are unintentionally hilarious (one character's name, Hadagi, means lingerie), but most of them are either too broad (Shika can mean any number of things, including the price of paper or Japanese poetry) to have actual meaning, or just sound japanese-y without actually meaning anything coherent.  I should note here that nozomu means "to wish," but the characters all pronounce it no-ZA-mu instead of no-zo-mu.  Basically, nothing is pronounced the way it would actually be pronounced in Japanese, but is pronounced the way someone looking at Japanese would pronounce it (especially egregious in Maryoku, which is pronounced ma-ryoku, but all the characters call her mary-oku).

Bad pronunciations aside, the show is delightfully cute.  The characters (called Yummies as a group) all have a minimalistic design that was inspired by Japanese silkscreening.  The characters also tend to replace parts of words with 'yum' (as in 'yumderful,' 'yum's the word,' etc.), and they all have some sort of crazy design going for them.

While all kinds of Yummy live in Nozomu (doctors, bakers, handymen, police), the focus is on the wishsitters, groups of three Yummy that keep an eye on ungranted wishes and supposedly help them come true.  (I'm not entirely sure how this is done, even though one of the episodes details the process.  Apparently there are things a wish needs to know before it is granted, and hugs are part of it, too.)  The wishsitters live in a group of three and take care of up to eight wishes at a time.  When there's a deficit, it's usually filled pretty quickly by Bob, who brings the wishes in from somewhere else.  As the show description indicates, Maryoku is head of a wishsitting group, along with her timid friend Fij Fij and boisterous underling Ooka.  Maryoku is one of the those can-do-no-wrong main characters that tend to show up in these kind of shows and is generally the voice of reason in her little group, but she's also a terrible meddler (seriously, in the two episodes posted that focused on someone other than her wishsitting, she went out of her way to check in on the other wishsitter on multiple occasions).  Her touchy-feely approach to wishsitting tends to clash with the by-the-books police officer Shika, whose frequent flaunting of the rules inspires both fear and annoyance from the general population.  Still, he is the one they go to in a crisis.  There's also some kind of wiseman character named Tapu Tapu that the other characters go to for advice, but I'm not entirely sure of his complete role yet.

The wishes themselves are treated as a mix of pets and very young children.  As in, they're obviously sentient, but they don't really understand anything except having a good time, yet the Yummies talk to them as if they could understand, but probably don't.  I have to admit, I just don't get the whole wish concept here.  I mean, the conceit of the show is that when wishes are made by children, they become these candle-like entities and show up at some kind of HQ.  Wishsitters keep an eye on them and teach them what they need to know to be granted, but what about the wishes that can never be granted?  I mean, what if a kid wishes for an elephant for a pet?  Seriously, that kid is never going to get one, so that's a wish that will never get granted.  I guess I'm thinking too hard about it.  This is just a kid's show, after all.

The show is aimed at preschoolers, in fact, but the lessons are not hamhanded, and generally flow in a fun manner.  For instance, in one episode, Hadagi, a member of another wishsitting group, takes it on herself to try and get an enormous wish granted without any help (so she can claim all the credit), and the majority of the episode shows the messes she gets herself into as she tries to keep the wish out of trouble.  (Granted, I could be biased because this was the episode that made me love Hadagi, and not just because she's obviously voiced by Chiara Zanni, who also voices Kani on Sushi Pack.)

The series is slated to come out "sometime in the future" which has been officially stated as 2010, but since it was stated earlier to be 2008 and 2009, there's really no telling when this series will debut.  Which is too bad, because it looks like a fun little series, and I for one am looking forward to seeing more of it.

SSC 2009 series Pilot - A Berry Grand Opening

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

What's a party without dancing?

Strawberry looking weirdly cute

Plum and Berrykins

Plum in a hula skirt

Pink dresses

Strawberry mixing

Strawberry and Plum giggle

Orange and her laundry detergent

Strawberry's cookbook has its own display

Orange displays her wares

Strawberry smells trouble

Custard is a cute clown

The wrong dress

Custard sails away

Strawberry smells a plan, literally

Grabbing the tablecloth

Catching Custard

Custard Lives!

As I've mentioned before, there's been an uproar about the (very little) information posted about the latest SSC revamp, mostly based on that article in the Times. One of the things it mentioned (and people got upset about) is that Strawberry traded in her kitty, Custard, for a cellphone. Now, when I read that, I didn't believe it for a minute. While anything is generally possible, I didn't think that Hasbro would remove something so integral to the SSC mythos. And as you can see from the above image, I was right.
Thanks go to Youjo for clueing me into a French SSC forum, where I found the above image, which is taken from a sticker included in a pack of American Greetings Properties stickers, which I'm assuming was distributed at the Licensing Expo back in June.

Sushi Pack News!

According to a press release on the American Greetings official website, starting in August, Carlton Cards and American Greetings Stores (there are apparently 416 in the US) will have Sushi Pack merchandise in a special AGKidzone section of the store. From the sounds of it, there'll be 36 different products, from plush toys to messenger bags (happy happy Evalana ^_^) to stationary and stickers, and each purchase nets you a free DVD. The contents are unknown, only that there will be not only video (maybe clips, but I'm hoping for a full episode) and activities.
On a similar note, starting July 15, the website Ty's Toy Box will start carrying Sushi Pack merchandise as well. The press release only mentions clothing, including the ability to personalize t-shirts and sweatshirts.
I mentioned this on The Green Donut, but also this August, Kidtoons is going to be showing the cryptically titled Sushi Pack The Movie at various movie theaters (check the website for the closest showing for you). As far as I can tell, there's no information on what this movie will entail. I'm hoping for an origin story (finally! Come on, AGP, get on the ball!), but it could just be three or four episodes strung together and called a movie.
What really intrigues me in this press release is that it indicates that Sushi Pack's target demographic is young girls, which is suprising, since I would think it would be more a boy thing. I wonder if this is the result of them seeing a higher percentage of girls watching the show since its debut, or if it was always meant to be a girl's property?

Revamped SSC - my thoughts

In my continuing quest for information from the licensing show relating to things not about superheroes or upcoming movies (-_-), I've seen quite a bit of a reaction to the lastest revamping of Strawberry Shortcake, mostly negative. So I thought I'd share my two cents, since I don't feel like creating two dozen accounts just to post the same thing in places I'll likely never go again.


First off, most of the people responding either forgot or are unaware of the 2002 revamp. So, um, keep it in mind. There are gripes about the look, how they think she looks sexualized now and how she apparently lost weight, but what I really want to talk about are the complaints based on the article in the Times. Mostly, in how the article states that she's traded in Custard for a cellphone and is no longer going for gumdrops, among other things.
Now, a lot of people are freaking out about this, but I'm not really worried, mostly because I don't really put a lot of stock in what the article says. Basically, I take any kind of article like this with a grain of salt because one thing I've gleaned from reading promo articles over the years is that what a promo says and what actually happens are often two very different things. PR pushers will say what they have to in order to make their product sound good and not have any vocal minorities rising up against them. So all the comments about "fruit forward" and "no gumdrops" (when was she ever into gumdrops to begin with? No one's mentioned that in their irate comments) is just legalese, really. As for the cellphone, that's just them trying to make her seem trendy and relevant.
Furthermore, the article claims that the Care Bears "are getting" revamped, and people are complaining "Oh, what will happen?!" when, as we already know, the revamp happened last year. Just another reason I'm not too worried about anything the article says.

Personally, I like the way she looks. Yes, she looks different from the original, but even the original Strawberry Shortcake got long hair towards the end of her run, so I don't see what the problem is there. She actually reminds me a lot of Giselle from the animated portion of Enchanted. And I like the little nods to the original, like the diamond pattern on her shirt and her green striped socks. And that huge strawberry hat! And I especially like that there's not going to be all the rampant blushed cheeks of the 2002 version.
But as I've had a documented love/hate relationship with the 2002 revamp, I'm trying to withhold my judgment until I see more of this revamp. After all, I liked the look of the 2002 version (still do, really), but the animated stories and lackluster voice acting left me in despair (although they got a little(!) better as the series went on). I have no clue how the stories will play out, but if Hasbro uses the same voice actors that they've used, or managed to sneak a few from DIC's storehouse, then I at least have hopes for that. Seriously, I can forgive almost anything if the voice acting is good enough.
I do have one thing I'd love to see happen. Plum Puddin' needs to be a boy again. With glasses, please.

On another note, I found an article that mentions a bit about the new SSC mythos. Going back to the original series roots, Strawberry now lives in Berry Bitty City, in the berry patch. Sounds cute, but we'll see.

Random news about AG Properties

In my quest for information from this year's licensing expo, I've found out a number of things. For instance, as of next year, Hasbro will be representing Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake again, not AGP. While Hasbro is keeping the AiCaL look, SSC is getting a new revamp, with a few characters not making the transition (looks like Ginger Snap may be gone ;_;)
This interview with Josef Mandelbaum reveals that Sushi Pack will be getting a 6x8 section in their stores, but I don't know what stores he means. Must be Carlton Cards. We also get a little closer to Grizzle's backstory:

This year, we added an outcast Care Bear called Grizzle who is a safe villain—it’s probably the best way to describe him. He is the Care Bear wannabe [emphasis mine] and he is upset because he’s always wanted to be a Care Bear and is always trying to take the belly badges away from the Care Bears. He’s never successful and the other bears tell him he just needs a big hug

I don't know, either that doesn't mesh with what we've seen, or it does but it's horribly cliched. I mean, it's the whole "I hate you because I'm really jealous of you" story. Is that really necessary? Your thoughts?
By the way, if you look really, really closely at the image in the first article I linked to, guess what you'll see in the background? Sushi Pack plushes! Only Kani and Ikura are visible, and just barely.

AG Kidzone updated!

In the Sushi Pack section there's a new game and two new video clips (the second one is very Tako/Maguro shippy ^_^) . The Care Bears section has a couple of new coloring pages, including Funshine and Grumpy door hangers.
Also, I mentioned this on The Green Donut a while ago, but the Parents' section finally has a Sushi Pack page, although it only has downloads at the moment (I'm hoping Teaching Moments will be added in this fall). There's also a Sushi Pack subheading in the FAQ, revealing that the music was produced by Phofo, and that products are coming "soon." (There are other questions, but they're fairly common knowledge

Just some random Sushi Pack stuff

I've been doing a little searching around, and picked up a few Sushi Pack-related pieces of info.
Two new episode titles are out, and I'm especially interested in the one titled "Starring Ikura." Sounds good for some overinflated egos. Possible lesson: be modest? don't sell out? Then again, with Sushi Pack, you really can't tell what an episode is going to be about just from the title. I mean, just look at the ones I've blogged. Or "When Will Ben be Zen?" I'm going to blog that one when it reruns, but seriously, from the title alone you would have no clue that it's about the Pack trying to cheer Ben up because a fake official is trying to shut down The Green Donut (the name of the bakery they live in, fyi).

Also, according to World Screen, DVDs will be coming --- in fall 2009 -_- I want screenshots sooner than that! The official quote:

Throughout 2008, a variety of Sushi Pack social expressions will be on shelves at retailers. In the fall, Carlton stores will carry an exclusive Sushi Pack specialty program at all of its stores. A Sushi Pack publishing program from Random House and DVDs from Fox Home Video are also scheduled to be released in Fall 2009.

What the heck are social expressions? I'm guessing greeting cards, but that's the first time I've seen them called that. And what is this mysterious specialty program, eh? I don't want to wait until the fall to find out. By the fall, I may not even be near a Carlton Cards.
No word on merchandise yet, but I did find an image of figurines (I want the Tako one!) from this blog, which also has some very weird early concept images.

Speaking of concept images, this blog has some images of personal vehicles (including Titanium Chef's motorcycle. Just more proof of his awesomeness), plus concept art from two upcoming episodes, "Sushi Roll Model" and "From the Planet Citrus."

Lastly, here's an article about the creative team behind the show, Studio Espinosa.