An original Strawberry Shortcake poster.
Strawberry Shortcake is a licensed character owned by American Greetings, originally used in greeting cards and expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products. The Strawberry Shortcake properties also include a toy line of the character's friends and pets.
The Strawberry Shortcake line has their own fruity/dessert-themed name to match their clothing, and they each had a dessert or fruit-named pet. Like the Strawberry Shortcake doll, all the other characters' dolls had hair scented to match their dessert theme. The characters live and play in a magical world known as Strawberryland.
The beginning[]
Main article: 1980s Television Specials
Strawberry Shortcake and her pet cat Custard was originally designed in 1977 by Muriel Fahrion during her time as a greeting card illustrator at American Greetings' Juvenile & Humorous card department.
After the idea was presented to Bernie Loomis of General Mills and became a licensing entity, Muriel then designed thirty-two more characters for Those Characters From Cleveland. Cindy Moyer Patton and Janet Jones designed the other later characters of the classic Strawberry Shortcake line. Lyn Edwards was the editor of the line and along with brainstorm group developed the personality profiles, the story line and philosophy. The first doll was a rag doll directed by Muriel Fahrion and created by Susan Trentel, Fahrion's sister.
During the 1980s, Strawberry Shortcake became a huge fad. At the time, there were several related products, such as sticker albums, clothes, a video game for the Atari 2600, and several other products. Several TV specials were made featuring the characters, one each year between 1980 and 1985, when the fad had apparently waned. Kenner produced no new dolls or toys thereafter.
1991 Update[]
Main article: THQ Line
In 1991, THQ tried reviving the franchise by producing an updated line of Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Strawberry and five of her classic friends each got a makeover, with new clothes, hair, and eyes. The changes were not extreme but they did contrast the outdated designs of the 1980's However, the line enjoyed at best a modest success, lasting just the one year. This would be the ending of an era for the next 11 years.
2003 Revival Series[]
Main article: 2003 Series
In early 2003, the franchise was revived again, this time with a revamped look by a different designer. Also, for the first time ever, a television series with new DVD and VHS (and in certain markets, Video CD) releases was made, with soundtracks for the episodes being put out on CDs at certain intervals, along with many strong licensing deals. Bandai (along with KellyToy) was granted the rights to manufacturing the dolls and toys. DiC Entertainment was granted rights in producing the TV series, who sub-licensed the production of videos, DVDs and Video CDs of the series to 20th Century Fox Home Videos (who subsequently licenses the production of the video outside the US to various other licensees). For the first time in almost two decades, new videogames were launched, produced by The Game Factory for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Educational CD-ROMs for the PC were also produced. This revival continued into the late 2000s, with the most recent activity being the release of a CGI-animated feature film into the US market as well as games based on the feature film for various different gaming platforms. In 2004 to pair with the video "Ice Cream Island", the franchise also introduced fillies. Each character got an individualized filly but rarely were they sold with their actual owner. They were sold separately from the doll except for Honey Pie Pony and Strawberry Shortcake.
The tagline of the series was "Growing better all the time."
In 2016, the Strawberry Shortcake YouTube Channel would upload episodes of the series, though it slowly fizzled out. In 2022, episodes of the series would be uploaded once more, now branded as the "Classic Series", likely to distinguish itself from its successors.
2006 update[]
In 2006, Playmates Toys picked up the rights to make Strawberry Shortcake figures. The line is named "A World Of Friends". The doll Frosty Puff, Crepes Suzette, and Tea Blossom were new to this line, but, although a good deal of shuffling and re-distribution was made concerning the pets of the re-launched characters, very few of the new dolls were actually merchandised with pets. The line was received with mixed reactions from the series' fans. All characters were given long hair, and a focus was brought upon bright hair colors like in the 80s. This means Blueberry's brown hair became bright blue, Seaberry went from blonde to silvery blue, and Lemon had neon yellow hair instead of white like in the animation.
This line would see the addition of villain characters such as the Purple Pieman. Despite the updates in appearance, the characters' personalities within the TV series were generally retained, along with the retaining the same theme song and the same basic voice cast. Thus, in some ways the 2006 update is considered a simple refresh of the 2003 line, rather than a complete reboot of the franchise.
2009 Series[]
Main article: Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures
In 2009 Strawberry Shortcake got a drastic new design. This would be the most successful update out of the other three merchandise and television broadcasting wise, even though the show and movies of the 2003 era were better acclaimed. This was the first time that the strawberry shortcake franchised focused on the fruit part rather than the dessert part. This generation of Strawberry Shortcake also is the first to have the girls run and own real business. They appeared like teens, but did juvenile activities. Hasbro chose 5 of the original girls to be Strawberry Shortcake's pals in this series and even included Huckleberry Pie to appear in season three and four. There was less focus on pets and animals, and they used adult well known voice actors, instead of children from local theatre like in the 2003 series. This series was criticized for the lack of diversity (only two non-white characters lived in Berry Bitty City) compared to the 2003 television series, and the white washing of Orange Blossom. Fans also disliked that every character was very feminine and similar in personality to each other- in comparison to the 2003 series, which had kids of all different types and interests. It took the series until 2015 to introduce a tomboy-like character, Sour Grapes. This series exclusively uses a 3D CGI animation style, however lots of 2D artwork was circulated for merchandise and promotion purposes.
In 2014, Berry Bitty Adventures episodes would also be uploaded on the official Strawberry Shortcake YouTube Channel, and would be the primary source of content until Berry in the Big City began, and the channel began uploading more episodes of the 2003 series.
In 2016, a comic series by IDW Publishing would be released, taking place after the events of the series. The comics saw the introduction of the Peculiar Purple Pieman into the continuity, now a hipster baker named Steve Piemanne who becomes Strawberry's rival. The series also saw the return of Raisin Cane, who became a recurring antagonist and worked alongside Piemanne. The series comprised of 9 issues (starting with Issue #0 and ending with #8), ending it, and the Berry Bitty Adventures series, with Strawberry triumphing against Piemanne in a competition settling their rivalry for good, along with a small side story of Strawberry throwing a party with all of her friends and wishing Lemon Meringue a happy birthday.
In 2018, a short animated series released on the official YouTube Channel. It consisted of five episodes, all of which adapted stories from the IDW comics. The cast was severely shrunken down, featuring only seven total characters. The stories themselves were heavily condensed and altered, often having to change many scenes to work with the limited cast and trying to fit them into roles they originally didn't play.
2016 Scrapped Reboot[]
In 2016, a fourth reboot was announced, bringing Strawberry Shortcake back to the world of TV in three seasons and 39 half-hour episodes. After extremely negative reception to the designs, the series ended up being completely scrapped.
From what could be gathered from the limited amount of content the reboot has, it would've taken place in a small garden-like setting, similar to Berry Bitty Adventures, with all the characters portrayed as miniature. The main cast would've comprised of Strawberry Shortcake, Orange Blossom, Lemon Meringue, Lime Chiffon, and Blueberry Muffin. Berrykins also would remain present in the series. Strawberry herself had magical powers, able to cause plants to grow.
2021 Series[]
Main article: Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City
In 2021, a new series for Strawberry Shortcake began in September of that year, titled Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City. The series would be set in Big Apple City, as Strawberry Shortcake moves there from her small hometown of Berryville to pursue a baking career. The show retained the core five characters from the scrapped 2016 reboot, as well as certain design elements. The setting is drastically different, taking place in a realistic modern-day setting, with the magical elements of prior series largely being downplayed. Rather than full-length episodes around 22 minutes, Berry in the Big City had 4-minute episodes that released weekly on YouTube, first on the main Strawberry Shortcake Channel, before transitioning to the dedicated Berry in the Big City Channel in 2023. In November of 2023, the series also received four 3D specials on Netflix that would each release throughout the following year. The series is much more comedy-oriented than prior incarnations, though it also took the time to focus on the characters themselves and developing them. The series also made frequent references to its past incarnations, primarily the 1980s and 2003 generations.
Berry in the Big City reintroduced many past characters that were left out of Berry Bitty Adventures, such as Crepes Suzette, Lime Chiffon, and Peppermint Fizz. The characters were much more diverse in body types, ethnicity, and personality when compared to Berry Bitty Adventures. The series also introduced another prominent male character in Bread Pudding, who would become part of the main cast alongside Huckleberry Pie, leaving the latter no longer the only boy among Strawberry's friends. Berry in the Big City also introduced LGBTQ+ characters into the franchise, marking the first instance of canon gay, sapphic, transgender, and nonbinary characters in the franchise. The series also included disabled characters, such as Blueberry Muffin being dyslexic and a background character being a wheelchair user, when prior series at most featured characters with glasses.
The main series is 2D animated, with an artstyle similar to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, along with sharing much of their voice talent, and being produced by Wildbrain (formerly known as DHX Media), a company that worked on Friendship is Magic during its run. The 3D specials are, well, 3D animated similar to the scrapped reboot. Berry in the Big City also has two stories released in an auditory medium, collaborating with the Girl Tales Podcast to produce two exclusive stories. In 2024, the Strawberry Shortcake YouTube Channel would begin to release YouTube Shorts featuring original animation with the Berry in the Big City characters.