5 Big Apple City song 1 - Intro
Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City was the second of six special produced tv movies. It came out a year after the original during 1981.
This special was written by Romeo Muller, produced by Muller and Buzz Potamkin, and directed by Hal Silvermintz
Summary
Strawberry Shortcake goes on a trip to Big Apple City t o take part in a baking contest. But her journey may be in jeopardy when the Peculiar Purple Pieman decides to eliminate her, as his only competition. With the help of her new friends will Strawberry be able to make it to the contest in time and beat the Pieman?
Plot
Mr. Sun welcomes the viewers as the camera pans over to Strawberry Shortcake's home. Strawberry is up bright and early, like usual and has been busy putting up new wallpaper when a loud whistle suddenly causes her to fall off the ladder and onto the floor. She gets up and goes to find Escargot at the door with a special delivery for her. It is a very important letter and she notices that it is six weeks late, which is explained by the fact he is a snail and can only go so fast.
Strawberry then tells him she was selected to be in a baking contest and its being held in Big Apple City. The prize for winning will be a wonderful gazebo, which Strawberry imagines her berry friends and herself playing with. But the contest is taking place today and she laments that she will not be able to make it there in time. But a surprise befalls her as Custard brings a ready, pink suitcase to the door.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sun points out that she was one of two contestants. The other, the evil Purple Pieman. Who at that moment had just dropped the letter and flees from his home towards Big Apple City.
Strawberry quickly goes over a small checklist to make sure she has done all of her chores up to this point. Like washing her face, cleaning up, plane reservations, locked her door, and many other things. She prepares to leave while the theme song plays. All of her berry friends trail behind her to come and see her off, and when they reach the plane, it is revealed to be one large butterfly.
Sad to be leaving her friends, Strawberry says goodbye to them all while getting onto the butterfly. She fastens her seat-belt to leave, but before they can go, the Purple Pieman puts a giant net on top of them!
Strawberry thought he reformed but he tells her his "evil concious" wouldn't let him. He then dashes off to Big Apple City in an odd metal teapot. While worried, the Butterfly assures Strawberry that he is very strong and if he thinks happy thoughts then he can become even stronger, allowing them to burst out of the net and fly off for Big Apple City.
Upon arrival, Strawberry mentions she made a reservation but the man at the front desk tells her they don't have one for her. She tells him she made one, and asks where she'll sleep while she is in Big Apple City. The man tells her that they will not have anything for at least a week and in tears the girl is forced to leave. The man then pulls off his disquise, revealing that he is really the Peculiar Purple Pieman.
Strawberry continues to cry until she comes across Sentimental Park. She examines the many pretty flowers surrounding herself, but hears someone asking her to move since she was in the middle of painting. The strange girl introduces herself as Orange Blossom, then Strawberry introduces herself after asking her if she is an artist. She explains why she was there before moving to the side, then she spots the painting. She brings up how it looks nothing like what the scenery is. Orange Blossom explains that since she didn't have her paint she couldn't paint the sea shore last week, so she kept it in her memory. Next week when she goes to the mountains she will be painting the flowers. With that in mind, Strawberry decides that she likes Orange Blossom and they sing a song about their new friendship.
As they reach the nearby pond, Orange informs Strawberry of her home, a place called Spinach Village where many other artists live. She offers Strawberry a place to stay while she is here in the city, and she takes up the offer. However, they struggle to get there after they reach a berry busy street. They wait, and wait, and wait some more but the light refuses to change for them. Secretly the Peculiar Purple Pieman comes out to reveal that he sabotaged all of the cities traffic lights, because he will do whatever he can to make sure Strawberry leaves.
It is then a mexican mole pops out of the ground and asks the girls where he is at. After they fill him in, he has no idea of what to do now since none of his friends or relatives live there. It is then Orange Blossom gets an idea. She explains it to the mole and together the trio dig a big hole for them to fit inside and travel undergroun to reach Spinach Village. The Purple Pieman realizes he has severly messed up when a person carrying a whole bunch of balloons comes by. He takes them and begins to float upward while making another plot to sabotage Strawberry.
Upon arrival, Orange takes the other two and begins to show them around Spinach Village. She brings her to the first resident, Lemon Meringue. However she is too busy at the time and informs the trio that she will be out after she finishes primping. So in this time, Orange explains that Lemon is a model. After so many more knockings, Lemon opens only after she fakes being her mirror reflection to make sure she looks nice. Thinking that Strawberry is a fan, Lemon offers her a picture and brings up how her mother, brother, and aunt Edna all have a set. Before she can go on though, Orange interupts and pushes Strawberry to the next home belonging to T.N. Honey.
Orange introduces Strawberry to T.N. Honey, a girl from London England. She explains that she is a scientist and they go on their way to meet Apricot, who owns the very last house. Strawberry attempts to speak to Apricot, but she is told that Apricot only knows a few words, but she is very smart for someone so young and she knows a lot of BIG words. She also gets to meet Apricot's pet bunny after.
Strawberry wishes that all of her new friends could come to watch her during the bake off, and when they are joined by everyone, Orange summons Horseradis for a quick lift. Upon reaching the location they meet Mr. Coco Nutwork, a one man film crew. He runs into another room to turn the "On Air" sign and the recording begins. He runs out of the booth to greet the viewers at home while holding up a recording camera to Strawberry and the Purple Pieman. He also holds up an Applause sign to get the audience members clapping before announcing the staring judge, himself. So he runs off stage and quickly yanks on a jacket, not even realizing that its still on the hanging rack as he runs back on stage.
He tells the contestants to check their ovens first, but to Strawberry's surprise the inside of her oven is covered in ice. Coco Nutwork says they will need a scientist to fix this problem, which Purple Pieman seriously doubts. But to his surprise, T.N. Honey gets up to take a look at it. By the time she finishes though, he has already made most of his cookies and put them onto his metal pan. It is then Strawberry realizes that someone tampered with her ingrediant as he mocks her. Instead of milk she has Chalk, instead of butter she was given axel-grease, instead of flour she was given plaster, and instead of Strawberries she was given bubblegum!
Tomale and the rest get up and they quickly run to the supermarket to fetch all of the right items, and although it takes awh ile they are able to get back in time for her to quickly get to work. Seeing this as a threat, Purple Pieman is quick to hypnotize Coco Nutwork to make him hate her dessert. Coco Nutwork refuses to taste the shortcake and claims the Pieman wins, then he runs off of the stage to dress up as a woman to announce the Gazebo prize.
While Strawberry is sad and her friends are well aware of the Pieman cheating, she tells them it doesn't matter. Lemon points out that Coco Nutwork hadn't even try the cookies yet, and realizing she is right he takes a bite out of one. He deems it to be very yucky and quickly accepts Strawberry's shortcake after she offers it to him. He enjoys it berry much and decides that Strawberry has won. Everyone cheers, along with Mr. Sun. It is then that Coco Nutwork offers Strawberry her own television show, and while she is quite delighted by this, she refuses because she would miss her home too much. To her surprise though, her new friends want to come home to Strawberryland with her. But Mr. Coco Nutwork feels sad because he wants to come too. Strawberry points out that his job is here however, until Coco Nutwork realizes he can just pass the job onto someone else. He gives it to the Peculiar Purple Pieman, who does not want it at all, and quickly everyone returns to Strawberryland while singing a song as the special comes to an end...
Cast
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Blueberry Muffin
- Apple Dumplin'
- Apricot
- Mr. Sun
- T. N. Honey
- Coco Nutwork
- Escargot
- Orange Blossom
- Lemon Meringue
- Peculiar Purple Pieman
- Tomale
- Horseradish
- Huckleberry Pie
- Flitter-Bit
- Raspberry Tart
- Plum Puddin'
Quotes
- Coco Nutwork: Call a doctor! Call an ambulance! Call the marines!
- Tomale: Call a mole!
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- Mr. Sun: It's that misanthropic fathead with the skinny physique.
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- Strawberry: Are you an artist?
- Orange: Uh huh.
- Strawberry: Are you famous?
- Orange: My name's Orange Blossom. Ever heard of me?
- Strawberry: Nope.
- Orange: Hmm... Then I'm not famous!
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Trivia
- Many fans deem this movie to have the worst animation out of all the specials.
- Big Apple City is based off of New York, while Times Pear is based off of Times Square. The mentioned "spinach village" is based off of Greenwich Village.
- Kolhrabi is a word for German turnip. So German Turnip cookies were made.
- Notice as Strawberry cries while leaving the hotel the back part of her skirt changes color.
- This is Plum Puddin's last special appearance as a male. He will return, now as a female two specials later.
- Starting with this special, the Peculiar Purple Pieman remains an antagonist through the rest of the series.
- At points through the movie, Lemon's shirt under her collar, or Apricot's hair would be miscolored.
