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File:Shortcake x3 4269.jpg

From left to right: 1980, 2003, 2009


Strawberry Shortcake started life as a greeting card character in the early 1980s, but soon spawned a line of popular dolls and other merchandise, accompanied by six TV specials released annualy from 1980 to 1985. In these specials she and her friends lived in Strawberryland, raising berries and taking care of the occasional villainy concocted by The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak.

In 2003, she came back again, this time with a series of Direct to Video specials, all of which were subsequently split up into a TV series. It also spawned two movies, regular soundtrack releases, and games. In this incarnation, she still lived in Strawberryland, but her friends lived in their own lands, and for a while there were no villains, just life lessons to be learned.

The franchise got another reboot in 2009, with Strawberry living in Berry Bitty City, and no villains in sight (at least not at this time...). This franchise has so far spawned a 2010 TV series (which is not available in some parts of Asia due to the cable providers not wanting to carry Boomerang), three movies, and a iPhone game that is only available in the US.

Now has a CharacterSheet. It would be berry, berry appreciated if you contribute to it.


Tropes Found in Two or More Versions:[]

  • Added Alliterative Appeal - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak
  • Alternate Continuity
  • An Aesop
  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife - Pink cats, blue/green dogs, blue mice, purple and white lambs, and the list goes on and on.
  • Anti-Hero - Raspberry Tart/Torte in the '80s and 2003 series, though more pronounced in the latter, and Peppermint Fizz in the 2003 series.
  • Anti-Villain - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak in the first '80s television special, Raisin Cane in the 1986 comic book, and every antagonist in the 2003 series. In regards to the latter, Sour Grapes is a prime example of this trope, though this is subverted for her on some rare occasions.
  • Art Evolution - And how! The characters have undergone four major design revisions since the franchise was launched in the early 80s. Seven if you count the little-seen hybrids and evolutions that popped up between the revisions.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness - Subverted in the '80s series and in the early seasons of the 2003 series, but started appearing as of episodes created after the 2007 redesign, and played straight in the 2009 series.
  • Bechdel Test - All versions pass with flying colors.
  • Bragging Theme Tune - 2003 and 2009.
  • Breakout Villain: The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak.
  • Character Depth - All over the place depending on the individual characters and the different versions, but not without an impressive array of deep characters (especially when one considers its genre).
  • Character Development
  • Character Title
  • Cheerful Child
  • Christmas Special:
    • 2003: Berry Merry Christmas
    • 2009: Three of them(!) - The three TV episodes that make up The Glimmerberry Ball Movie.
  • Continuity Reboot - Once in 2003 and again in 2009.
  • Cool Horse - Maple Stirrup in the 1980s version, Honey Pie Pony (and the other "Strawberryland Fillies") in the 2003 version.
  • Curtains Match the Window - Often. There are plenty of exceptions, such as (most of) the villains and (most) side characters. Averted by many of the 2003 protagonists. Strawberry herself is a subversion: Strawberry wears red and pink clothes while her eyes are brown in the '80s and 2003, and green in 2009. Still, there are many cases of Curtains Match the Window in all versions.
  • Dastardly Whiplash: The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak.
  • Deadpan Snarker - Custard in 2003, Peppermint in 2003, Raspberry and Grapes in the '80s and 2003.
  • Disney Acid Sequence - The "Berry Talk" song in The World of Strawberry Shortcake. Also, much of the songs in the 2003/2007 continuity (which is produced by Di C - pretty says it all).
  • Edible Theme Naming - The Ur example.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses - The Berry Princess in the 80's, the Fable Remakes in the 2003 series, and Princess Berrykin in the 2009 version.
  • Feather Boa Constrictor - Sour Grapes wears her pet snake like this.
  • Festival Episode
  • Free-Range Children
  • Gender Flip: Plum Puddin' is infamous for getting hit with this. His original incarnation and his incarnation from Berry in the Big City are male characters, but in the 2003 cartoon and Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures and each and every media that is based on them, the character is turned into a girl, with the only remnant of the male sex being a slight masculine personality (The 2003 version likes to ride horses, while the Berry Bitty Adventures version has sporty traits.), but both are overshadowed by the feminine sex and the fact that the Berry Bitty Adventures version likes dancing.
    • The 2003 and Berry Bitty Adventures Plum Puddin's were really based on a girl from 1984 that called herself Plum Puddin' and took the original's place and name for the rest of the series. How this girl came to light has yet to be revealed, but one explanation is that she was a replacement (whether she is a friend or a robot is unknown), while a more disturbing one is that Plum Puddin' got his sex changed.
  • Genki Girl - Though she is grown, Sour Grapes is certainly (in)famous for being this.
  • Getting "Booze" Past the Radar - The second 1980s special is a literal example of this trope, as it somehow manages to get away with an alcohol reference in its theme song ("What a day/Hip Hooray/She's got a special letter and she's on her way/Bouncy as a bubble of champagne..."). The 2003 version is more straight example, in which there is a character named "Watermelon Kiss". A "watermelon kiss" is also an alcoholic drink.
    • Mint Tulip from the '80s. Her name was partially a pun on mint julep, another alcoholic drink.
  • Green Eyed Red Head - Strawberry had black eyes in her previous versions, and got brown eyes when she appeared in the 2003 cartoons. The 2009 and later versions show her having green eyes. Downplayed: she has pink hair.
  • Girliness Upgrade - Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures stuffs the "tomboy" archetype into the fridge, but tomboys eventually snuck their way in during the later episodes.
  • Good Feels Good
  • Hair Colors
  • Harmless Villain - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. During his first plan, however, the guy manages to damage the valley that the kids were living in.
  • Hartman Hips - Sour Grapes.
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Pie Man and Grapes.
    • 1980s specials: The Pieman. He had a Heel Face Turn at the end of The World of Strawberry Shortcake, but by the following year's Big Apple City, he reverted to his old ways due to his "evil conscience", as he explains to the frustrated Strawberry.
    • 2003/2007 series: Grapes, Grapes, Grapes. Until the last episodes of the series, see below
  • Hidden Depths
  • The Ingenue - Strawberry Shortcake.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes - Only the first two specials from the 80's have been released on DVD, with no plans to release the rest.
    • Subverted with Season 4 of the 2003/2007 series. Season 4 was not brought in by Kewlopolis and the DVD release of the 2003/2007 series became erratic shortly after the rights transferred from Playmates and Di C to Hasbro and Moonscoop, which had many fans worrying that the releases will grind to a halt before all episodes could be pushed out on DVD. However, one thing that did not happen was the 2003/2007 releases grinding to a halt, and in March 2012, almost 5 years later, the last unreleased pair of episodes went out on DVD. And the Fandom Rejoiced.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover - Strawberry's usual pet is Custard the cat.
  • Licensed Games: And how!
    • 1980s: Strawberry Shortcake's Musical Match-Ups for the Atari 2600
    • 2003/2007: Tons of them - Four titles (including one GBA Video cartridge and one Europe-exclusive title) for the Game Boy Advance, two titles for the Nintendo DS, and a title for the Play Station 2, which was ported over to the PC and then not released outside Europe. And then there's the Plug-and-play dance mat. Also, three PC titles (including said Europe-only port of the Play Station 2 Sweet Dreams Game).
      • Edutainment Games: Amazing Cookie Party and Berry Best Friends (two of the aforementioned PC titles) are this.
    • 2009: The game for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, which is currently only available in North America.
  • Lilliputians - The 1980s and 2009 Strawberry and friends are tiny people living in a berry patch.
    • Implied in the former, played straight in the latter.
  • Literal Minded - The Peculiar Purple Pieman, and with the exception of the three examples listed below, it's usually subtle. It's also not consistent, so while it is used for humor and/or drama of plot when it does occur, his literal mindedness was realistically written.
    • Is a chocolate mousse a moose? Do berries actually grow right before ones eyes in Strawberryland? Is literally stealing dreams a logical course of action?
    • Sour Grapes is a bit literally minded herself, but so much less so than her male counterpart. Truth in Television, as women are generally more skilled at understanding metaphors.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters
    • Appears to be averted in the "Berry Bitty Adventures" incarnation (at least for the moment); there are only six characters, including Strawberry, and they are all characters that have existed since the 1980s version.
  • MacGuffin - Too many to list.
  • Meaningful Name - Everybody, and a lot of characters also have multiple meanings to their names.
  • Meganekko - The 1980s Plum Puddin' as a female, and the 2003 Plum Puddin'.
  • Merchandise-Driven - Yes--all this is to sell scented dolls!
  • No Antagonist: Much of the 2003 episodes (many viewers just don't see Peppermint Fizz as an antagonist) except The Festival of Fillies, up until the reintroduction of the Pie-Man and Sour Grapes. Played straight again with the 2009 CGI series.
  • No Export for You:
    • The 2003 series: A somewhat convoluted version - Ice Cream Island Riding Camp for the Game Boy Advance and the PC port of The Sweet Dreams Game for the Play Station 2 got an Europe-only release. Also, Play Station 2 version of the Sweet Dreams Game never got an NTSC/J release in Asia despite the show's popularity in the region.
    • The 2009 series: The iPhone app is exclusive to only the US. Also, the 2009 series is this to Malaysia, since the show, like Care Bears: Adventures in Care-A-Lot, ended up on Boomerang, which is not available in Malaysia. And it doesn't help that the video clips and full episodes on The Hub's website are region locked and cannot be accessed from outside the US.
  • The One Guy - Huckleberry Pie, most of the time. (The first two 1980s specials had another male character in Plum Puddin', but he didn't have a corresponding doll. The character was reintroduced as a female in 1984, and finally got represented as a toy this way.)
  • Pimped-Out Dress - Much of The Merch during the 2000's series.
  • Plucky Girl
  • The Power of Friendship
  • Premiseville - Strawberryland and Berry Bitty City.
  • Red Headed Heroine
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent - Sour Grapes' pet is a snake named Dregs; the turtle exception applies to the good guys.
  • Rose-Haired Girl
  • Rousseau Was Right
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something
  • Sailor Earth - Food themed names, eh? That's limitless.
  • Screwed by the Network - As mentioned above, CBS/Kewlopolis dropped the show after Season 3 and did not air season 4 following the master license switches and courtroom battles between Moonscoop, Cookie Jar and Di C.
  • Season Fluidity
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism - It's idealist.
  • Smart People Speak the Queen's English - Both T.N. Honey from the first series and Mr. Longface Caterpillar from the 2009 series fit this trope. The twins Lem and Ada seem to avert it, though, as they are no more intelligent or stupid than the other characters.
    • Honey Pie Pony from the 2003 series also has a British accent, and is also quite street smart. However, she's the only pony on the show who could talk, and she does have Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping moments too.
  • Snarky Non-Human Sidekick - Custard to Strawberry Shortcake in the 2003 incarnation.
  • Something Person - Pie Man/Pieman. (Official material has his name written both ways, so the way it is written out does not matter.)
  • Sour Grapes - Obviously, for the obvious and for the other villains.
  • Species Surname
  • Spell My Name with an "S" - When Raspberry "Tart" was reintroduced in the 2003 incarnation, her name was changed to Raspberry "Torte" (also used in the 2009 version). There are various fan theories on the reason for this change, with the most likely being the unfortunate connotations the term "tart" has garnered.
    • AGC and Hasbro has released a 30th Anniversary doll set, with Raspberry's last name restored to Tart in that version. Given that it's targeted at adults who're nolstagic tho...
  • Spell My Name with a "The" - Subverted with The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. While he is a villain who speaks of himself using his full name (and following up with his song and dance), he couldn't care less that everyone else calls him by shorter versions of his name.
  • Spinoff Babies - The "Berry Baby" merchandise in the 1980s version, and the "Strawberry Shortcake Baby" line of the 2003 version.
  • Spraying The Scent On Strawberries- In Strawberry Shortcake Meets The Berrykins, The Berry Princess and her Berrykins are in charge of giving the berries of Strawberryland their scent.
    • In Spring For Strawberry Shortcake, Old Man Winter and the young girl Spring are responsible for bringing their respective seasons to Strawberryland.
    • "When The Berry Fairy Came to Stay" reveals that the Berry Fairies are responsible for giving the Strawberryland berries their size and color.
  • Spring Is Late: In a book from the 1980s, Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End, and the 2003 DVD Spring For Strawberry Shortcake.
  • Strawberry Shorthand - Do we even have to explain it?
  • Sugar Bowl - Only Rainbow Brite and the Care Bears are as known for this, at least in the U.S. (The U.K. theatrical release of The Care Bears Movie ran Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins as a pre-movie bonus; both were Nelvana productions.)
  • Supreme Chef - Strawberry Shortcake.
  • Talking Animal
  • Team Mom - Strawberry Shortcake. In some of the 2003 episodes, Honey Pie Pony.
    • Starting with her first heel face turn in the episode Dancin' In Disguise, Sour Grapes when not in the role of villain essentially replaced Honey Pie Pony regarding this position with the main cast.
  • That Reminds Me of a Song
    • The theme song to the first 1980s special sort of qualifies. (and even then, this doesn't happen in the others).
    • Played straight twice an episode, every episode with the 2003 series (that's played straight four times in every special).
  • Title Theme Tune - 2003 and 2009 version.
  • True Meaning of Christmas
    • In the 2003 continuity: The Berry Merry Christmas special - Strawberry finds that the gifts are all ruined by water damage. Her friends then gather around cheer her up and they sing a song enforcing the meaning of Christmas and such, then Santa comes around and drop off good, undamaged versions of the gifts she bought without any of them noticing.
    • In the 2009 continuity: The Glimmerberry Ball movie - After her friends have a falling-out, Strawberry has to remind them that the Glimmerberry Gathering celebrates the community, friends helping friends.
  • Turn the Other Cheek - Strawberry, especially in the 2003 series.
  • Vague Age
  • Verbal Tic - Berry Talk. Especially strong in the 1980's version, but shows up to some degree in all three versions.
    • When the Pie Man mentions himself, he always says it as dramatically as possible, then follows with a quick song and dance. According to the movie he even includes this in his signature.
    • Begging your pardon, but Angel Cake's unfailing politeness provides her with her own tic in 1982's Pets on Parade, thank you. She constantly incorporates the phrases "begging your pardon", "please", "ma'am", and/or "thank you" into her speeches, thank you please.
  • White Haired Pretty Man - He may be a miserable old crumb, but he plays this trope pretty darn straight (adding to the humor).
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair
  • You Meddling Kids

Tropes Found in the 1980s Version:

Cquote1

 Sour Grapes: With the world's greatest cookbook, I'll be famous! I can see it now, "Sour Grapes on the Merv Muffin Show!" Then, "Hollywood Pears..."

The Peculiar Purple Pieman: Aren't you forgetting someone?

Sour Grapes: Of course not, Purpy. I could never forget my purple partner in crime. My warm, wonderfully wicked, nasty but charming... pet snake, Dregs.

Cquote2
  • Benevolent Genie - In the first special, Strawberry Shortcake wishes that she can take down the Peculiar Purple Pieman. Mr. Sun uses his powers to bring some trees to life, sending them to do the dirty work.
  • Big Applesauce - Big Apple City, the eponymous place in the second special, Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City, is a transparent N.Y.C. analogue, complete with Greenwich Spinach Village. Moreover, on the album Strawberry Shortcake Live, she sings a cover version of "New York, New York". (As David Letterman joked years later in a "Dave's Record Collection" segment, "I think this is the real reason the city can't sleep.")
  • Character Name and the Noun Phrase - "Strawberry Shortcake and the Baby Without a Name."
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Huckleberry Pie vanishes in Strawberry Shortcake and the Baby without a Name, and Peach Blush takes his place for the rest of the cartoon series. Plum Puddin' vanished earlier, and a girl took his place and name later; she would become the next Plum Puddin' in the 2003 series.
  • Clear My Name - Strawberry is framed for taking a bribe in Pets on Parade.
  • Cloudcuckoolander - Blueberry Muffin, especially in the first special.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment - Strawberry occasionally threatens the Peculiar Purple Pieman with "berry talk", which he can't stand (this was how she cleared her name in Pets on Parade). In fact, in Housewarming Surprise, Strawberry teaches his pet birds a song full of berry talk, knowing it would annoy him enough to make him return a bunch of recipes he stole from her.
  • Disney Death - The Berry Princess in Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins seems to have been destroyed by the smog cloud that she was trying to destroy. A short time later, she is revealed to have survived the ordeal. The smog cloud also seems to be choking Mr. Sun, but we later see him just fine.
  • Eldritch Abomination - This series presents a downplayed, benign variant: the Sun is a sentient being called Mr. Sun. His role is to fill the same role as the regular sun, but unlike the real celestial object, he is capable of helping out.
  • The Face of the Sun - Mr. Sun, who serves as the Narrator and interacts with Strawberry and the others. This is especially pronounced in the first special The World of Strawberry Shortcake, in which he provides a Deus Ex Machina "magic wish" when the kids need to rescue Apple Dumplin' from the Pieman's palace. It's worth noting that in the first three specials he was voiced by the scriptwriter, Romeo Muller (best known for his work with Rankin/Bass Productions).
  • Failed a Spot Check - You'd think that Lem and Ada only need their headwear and hairstyles to be told apart, but it seems like Sugar Woofer is necessary, too...
  • A Friend in Need - The new friends Strawberry meets in Big Apple City bend over backwards during the bake-off to counteract everything the Pieman does to sabotage her: T.N. Honey fixes her oven (which he had turned into a refrigerator), everyone makes a lightning-fast run to the supermarket to get the proper ingredients for her shortcake (he had replaced milk with chalk water, etc.), and finally they call the hypnotized judge out for announcing the Pieman had won when he hadn't tasted either of the finished products (especially notable as Strawberry was perfectly willing to accept defeat).
  • Forgotten Birthday - Strawberry's birthday undergoes the surprise party treatment in the first special, though (unusually for this trope) it isn't the focus of the whole story, but an opportunity for the Pieman to hatch his plot.
  • Gadgeteer Genius - T.N. Honey is an expert with machines, which she exploits to help Strawberry Shortcake during the baking competition in Big Apple City.
  • Gaslighting: In Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City, Strawberry Shortcake reserves a spot in the hostel for when she arrives in the titular metropolis that hosts the baking contest, but the receptionist tells Strawberry Shortcake that she made no such reservation upon "checking" his catalogue. Surprise! He's the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak!
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold - The Berry Princess. (Note that while blonde characters appear in every version of Strawberry Shortcake, this is the only character who symbolizes this trope.)
  • Half-Identical Twins - Lem and Ada.
  • Hello, Nurse! - The Berry Princess has this effect on The Peculiar Purple Pieman.
  • If I Were A Rich Chick - Sour Grapes, especially in Baby Without a Name.
  • Lethal Chef - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. This is a big plot point in Big Apple City, in which he and Strawberry are pitted against each other in a Bake-Off — since he knows he can't honestly win, he comes up with plan after plan to keep things from getting to that point.
  • Loners Are Evil - The Peculiar Purple Pieman is an evil being who lives alone (aside from the Berry Birds).
  • Long Hair Is Feminine - In the special where they first meet the berry princess, she rewards the main characters with longer hair.
  • Love Triangle - The Betty and Veronica version, except that the guy is a villain. Sour Grapes is exceptionally jealous of the Purple Pieman's affections for the Berry Princess.
  • Make a Wish - The climax of The World of Strawberry Shortcake hinges on The Face of the Sun granting her a "magic wish" as her birthday present.
  • Name of Cain - Raisin Cane, niece of Sour Grapes, causes trouble, though she has an arguably better moral compass.
  • No Name Given - Twice.
    • The skunk in Pets on Parade — he thinks his name is Yowee A. Skunk based on what people say when they see him. When he is adopted by Angel Cake at the end, she gives him the name "Souffle" instead.
    • Baby Needs-a-Name in Baby Without a Name. She doesn't get one on-screen, and this was deliberate, as the idea was that the toy version's owner could name her whatever they liked.
  • Product Promotion Parade - At least four times — and this isn't counting new outfits for the characters!
    • The trip to Spinach Village in Big Apple City.
    • The titular parade in Pets on Parade.
    • The slideshow in Housewarming Surprise.
    • The Berry Princess introducing the title characters in Meets the Berrykins.
  • Riddle for the Ages - Two examples:
    • Plum Puddin' was The Smart Guy for Strawberry Shortcake's gang. His sex was at first male, but for the last two specials, there is a girl Plum Puddin' who shows up and takes his place, and ever since then, the male Plum Puddin' was effectively no more (until the 2021 series). Where did this girl Plum Puddin' come from? Is she a creation of his? A relative? Or did Plum Puddin' get his sex switched? Or was the male Plum Puddin' a fake identity?
      • The first two theories have some credit, since in the 1980's, sci-fi shows were common and fully-functional robots have been made, in support of the first theory, while relatives may look similar as for the second theory. However, the fact that the Strawberry Shortcake series was meant to be fantasy detracts from the first.
      • The third theory is the most disturbing, since having your sex changed would not be comfortable.
      • For the final theory, some girls have worn trousers. But... if male Plum Puddin' was a fake identity that she created, why did she stop wearing trousers!? Did she want to prove that she was a girl?
    • At the same time, Peach Blush popped up and Huckleberry Pie vanished, with no trace of his fate. (He was brought back in a later version, so he didn't stay gone for long.)
  • Shiny Midnight Black - Sour Grapes, whose hair was black with purple streaks and undertones.
  • Smelly Skunk - The poor little skunk in Pets on Parade who's just arrived in Strawberryland doesn't have any friends, and it's implied that it's because of belief in this trope. But he isn't depicted as actually smelling bad, and at the end of the story he is adopted without hesitation by Strawberry's new friend Angel Cake.
  • Stock British Phrases - Used liberally by T.N. Honey and Lem and Ada.
  • Sugar Apocalypse: When the Pie-Man's magical watering can flooded Strawberryland in the 80's special. Doubles as Nightmare Fuel to many viewers.
  • The Renaissance Age of Animation
  • Toyless Toyline Character - T.N. Honey (Big Apple City) and some of the Berrykins. The original Plum Puddin' did not get his own toy, but his replacement did.
    • Raisin Cane, though fans make customs of her with Almond Tea bases.
  • Twin Banter - Lem and Ada to a small extent.

Tropes Found in the 2003/2007 Version:

  • Adult Child - Sour Grapes. Well, she never had a doll when she was a child.
    • Of note is that she can just as easily act like the adult she is.
  • The Aloner - Coco Calypso and Banana Candy.
  • Alpha Bitch: Peppermint Fizz was this in the first seasons, but she outgrows it. Angel Cake develops into this in the final season, and Lime Light is introduced as this. Lemon Meringue is an alpha bitch in one episode of the final season.
  • And I Must Scream - When the Tin Woodsman is first seen, he has been immobilised, so Strawberry Shortcake mistakenly thinks that he is a statue. Fortunately, the Tin Woodsman is freed from his condition when she finds an oiling can and sprays his joints with oil (courtesy of Pupcake).
  • Annoying Patient - Honey Pie Pony in Get Well Adventure.
  • Art Shift - You'd think they'd keep Pupcake's eyepatch location, The characters' hair color, and other noticeable (and less-noticable) details consistent between the merchandise, books and TV series...
  • Attack Reflector - The Wicked Witch of the West gets petrified by her own spell courtesy of the Tin Woodsman bouncing it back when the Scarecrow made him do so.
  • Beach Episode - Beach DVD, rather: The Seaberry Beach Party is two episodes and a bonus video.
  • Becoming the Mask - Sour Grapes in Dancin' in Disguise starts going through the Heel Face Revolving Door before finally settling on a Heel Face Turn because of this.
  • Beleaguered Assistant - Cola Chameleon to Peppermint Fizz, Sour Grapes to the Purple Pieman and Raven to Licorice Whip. Custard tends to feel she is in this position for Strawberry Shortcake, and she is right about that at times.
  • Big Brother Instinct - Sour Grapes wishes that the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak followed this trope for her. He does, to a small extent, but clearly not as much as she would like for him to. Strawberry Shortcake is a straighter example, though her case is more like "Big Sister Instinct,"
  • Butt Monkey - Custard whenever Pupcake tackles her.
  • Brainy Brunette - Blueberry Muffin and Ginger Snap.
  • Brother-Sister Team - An unconventional version. These are the two central villains who always fail in disgrace.
  • Cain and Abel - Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes, particularly highlighted in Dancin' in Disguise also known as Let's Dance.
    • Sour Grapes (specifically, Sour Grapes as the Wicked Witch of the West) gets a temporary switch to Cain in the Berry Brick Road episodes. Plum Puddin' (as Glinda the Good Witch) is her Abel.
  • Canon Foreigner: Ginger Snap, Peppermint Fizz, Rainbow Sherbet, Coco Calypso, and many others. Inverted in that unlike the later Cherry Jam character from the 2009 franchise, these characers also appeared in the toyline.
  • Demoted to Extra: Honey Pie Pony's final appearance was among the audience in It Takes Talent / Playing To Beat The Band, with no lines and no plot. She was then shoved onto the bus.
  • Dummied Out: The NTSC/UC version of The Sweet Dreams Game for the Play Station 2 has the entire How A Garden Grows song from the movie in the game data, but it was never used in-game for reasons unknown.
  • Edited for Syndication - The first four specials are available in, aside from the 45-minute unedited version licensed to local home video producers, either 22-minute edits (in which the special loses half their songs and story content) or split into 2-parter episodes (in which a big glaring "To Be Continued" appears at the end of the first part) from the syndication office. Additionally, the DVD releases of subsequent episodes includes an additional prologue, bridge, epilogue and an additional music video that adds scenes to join two episodes together.
  • Fable Remake - Four episodes are this. (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, The Wizard of Oz)
  • Four-Girl Ensemble - Ever noticed how many episodes star four of the girls? Who the four girls are varies, but Strawberry Shortcake herself is always amongst the group.
  • Four is Death - Angel Cake becomes more of a jerk during the fourth season.
  • Gadgeteer Genius - Ginger Snap.
  • Gender Flip - The original Plum Puddin' was a male, but this one is introduced as a female, perhaps based on his "replacement" from 1984.
  • Genre Savvy - Sour Grapes.
  • Green Aesop - A line in the song "Friendship Grows" reminds us to "treat the good Earth with respect".
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Angel Cake is a blonde who generally helps the rest of the gang. However, her Season 4 self downplays this as she takes a level in jerkass.
  • Have a Gay Old Time - Hello Berry Merry Christmas!
  • Heel Face Turn - Licorice Whip's assistant, Raven, in The Festival Of The Fillies. Licorice Whip himself goes through one in the European-release-only Game Boy Advance game Ice Cream Island Riding Camp which seals his transformation. Margalo... Ok, lets just say, that most villains in the series except Pie Man and Sour Grapes. Those two turned in the final episode of Season 4, Lights... Camera..., assuming Playhouse Disney Asia's line-up is canon, thus wrapping up the 2003/2007 series on a high note.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The Wicked Witch of the West tries to "put a quick freeze" on the gang. She gets hit instead when the Tin Woodsman bounces the laser that she fired right back at her, something she apparently didn't take into account!
  • Ineffectual Loner - Peppermint Fizz. Then there's Banana Candy[1], although in actual fact she dislikes being one and only does it to keep Strawberry and company stuck in her town so she's not alone. Then Raspberry Torte nearly turned into one in the episode "Mind Your Manners".
    • Coco Calypso also counts.
  • Incredible Shrinking Man - Strawberry and Ginger Snap have to shrink in order to get to the Berry Fairy Fields.
  • The Kiddie Ride - Officially, averted, hence it's not in the index. However, that didn't stop some of the more enterprising from trying.
  • Knight Templar Parent - Professor Grapes is this for Rapunzel in A Princess Named Rap.
  • Mind Screw - Angel Cake was always dramatic. However, puberty hit her... a little too viciously during Season 4.
  • Minion with an F In Evil: In one episode, Strawberry Shortcake and her friends are putting on a play of Cinderella. Strawberry as Cinderella cries when the evil step-relatives say she can't go to the ball. Blueberry Muffin (the stepmother) and Ginger Snap and Orange Blossom (the stepsisters) feel bad and say she can go after all until Angel Cake (the fairy godmother) gets the story back on track.
  • Motor Mouth - Ginger Snap.
  • The Name Is Bond, James Bond - Banana Candy introduces herself this way in Strawberry's Big Journey.
  • Non-Human Sidekick - Custard.
  • Non Lethal Bottomless Pits - In the Sweet Dreams Game for the Play Station 2, accidentally falling into a cliff or river will result in Strawberry saying "Oh, no!" while the screen goes through a wipe. The game then resumes with the player character standing just right next to the point the fall happened.
  • Not a Morning Person - Stated yet debatable. In Queen For A Day:
Cquote1

 The Peculiar Purple Pieman: Ms. Grapes, what time do you get up in the morning?

Sour Grapes: No earlier... than noon.

Cquote2
    • However, not long before said episode, Grapes was awake by early morning. Most likely, she jolted her brother awake with her shrieking. She was also awake early in the mornings (and late into nights and mornings) for what could have been as long as a month's time in a later episode, Down On The Farm. Justified by the explanation that she may sleep in on her days off, which are... probably frequent, in a bad way, all things considered. (You would be sourly depressed, too, if you were too genre savvy for your lot in life and consequently not allowed to use your talents. Makes sense that she would sleep away her days when possible.)
    • Also, Custard. She's just not a morning cat.
  • Not So Different - Raspberry Torte, the young jaded tomboy, and Sour Grapes, a bitter and feminine woman, touched on this in The Sweet Dreams Movie. Both are pessimists by nature, both are quite loyal to one person (Lemon Meringue and Purple Pieman, respectively), and both had the same abandoned dream. The younger established her role as Anti-Hero and the elder as Anti-Villain, roles they continued afterward.
  • Our Fairies Are Different - The Berry Fairies
  • Out-of-character Moment - Since she is a tomboy, you would expect that Raspberry Torte would show up at the tea party wearing something like a tuxedo, but instead she appears in a dress.
  • Passionate Sports Girl: Raspberry Torte is shown to be this. She loves playing sports and exercise. The house that she lives in has a gym.
  • Put on a Bus - Honey Pie Pony moved to Ice Cream Island in the 2007 redesign, right after being demoted to extra for a set of episodes.
  • Remember The New Girl - Peppermint Fizz makes her first appearance in "Peppermint's Pet Peeve" (from the "Best Pets Yet" DVD) without any formal introduction, and treats her as though she had always been one of Strawberry's friends.
  • Revenge Before Reason - Purple Pieman never had dreams. For this, and for his literal thinking causing him to actually try to literally snatch Strawberry Shortcake's dream away from her, he storms the Land of Dreams, deceives its inhabitants, basically boots out the Sandman, takes over the dream factory, holds the main Dream Builder hostage in a cage dangling over a black hole to blackmail the other dream factory workers, announces that dreams will no longer be shipped out, and then mentions that he never dreamed. After all of this, he continues ruining everything for the Land of Dreams, but he sure finished up a lot of revenge before explaining himself.
  • Rich Bitch - Sea Beast and Lime Light. Margalo borders this. All reform.
  • Rounded Character - Mainly Sour Grapes. She gets the most screen time for it, although other characters lean into this trope. Come 2007, Angel Cake is sort of a mind screwy subversion of this.
  • Running Gag - Custard getting continually pounced and surprisingly uninjured by Pupcake throughout the 2003 series and in the movie.
  • Slice of Life - The first three seasons and a few episodes of Season 4 that does not star the Pie-Man and Sour Grapes, which caught the attention of the Education Programming Connoisseur Periphery Demographic.
  • Short Run in Peru - Season 4 aired in Europe two months before it aired in Asia. For the fate of the show in the US, see Keep Circulating the Tapes and Screwed by the Network.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Frosty Puff comes from Niceland. The planet's North Pole counts as well. During the episodes Spring for Strawberry Shortcake and Meet Apricot, Strawberry Shortcake's home becomes this, too.
  • Taken for Granite - The Wicked Witch of the West tries to freeze Strawberry Shortcake with her magic... but gets placed on the receiving end anyway.
  • The Other Darrin - Huckleberry Pie and Custard's voice actors were replaced after the first season. The former because the voice actor had passed away in an accident, the latter for the more conventional reason of being no longer interested in playing the part.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement - Strawberry in The Sweet Dreams Movie.
  • That's No Moon: When the Tin Woodsman is first seen, Strawberry Shortcake thinks he is a statue. However, when the Tin Woodsman tries to move his body, the Scarecrow realises that something else is at play here.
Cquote1
"I don't think it's a statue..."
—The Scarecrow, regarding the Woodsman upon seeing him trying to move.
Cquote2
  • There Are No Adults - While the occasional adult shows up (usually as a villain), none of the main characters have parents.
  • Tomboy - While there is a fair helping of tomboys, Raspberry Torte is the biggest example. You wouldn't know it to see the 2009 remake.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl - The close friendship between Raspberry Torte and Lemon Meringue.
  • Unexplained Recovery - The Wicked Witch of the West gets petrified by a spell that she launched in the first segment. The second segment sees her alive without explanation. Maybe that spell was temporary?
  • Visionary Villain - The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak. This being targeted to a certain age group, he is still a Harmless Villain and suffers the consequences thereof.
  • What Happened To The Mouse? - More like "What Happened To The Snake?," but Dregs, who was always with Sour Grapes in the '80s, appears in only one episode here never to be seen again. While Honey Pie Pony moved to Ice Cream Island, the disappearance of Dregs is never explained. Fans theorize that he abandoned Grapes out of fear.
    • For that matter, all of the characters pets disappeared, with the exception of Custard and Pupcake after the 2007 redesign.
  • Whole-Plot Reference - Around the Berry Big World is Around the World in 80 Days.
  • Wicked Witch - Well, you can't have Wizard of Oz episodes without one.

Tropes Found in the 2009 Version:

  • All CGI Cartoon - Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures
  • Ambiguously Brown - One of the complaints against the new version of Orange Blossom.
  • Canon Foreigner: Cherry Jam was not featured in prior generations.[2]
  • Celebrity Is Overrated - Cherry Jam feels this way.
  • Contractual Genre Blindness: When Strawberry meets Cherry Jam for the first time, she apparently doesn't recognize her. The problem however, is that Cherry was wearing the same outfit as in the "music video" seen earlier in the episode. This makes it clear that it was only done in order to move the story along. One would think Strawberry would have recognized her immediately...
  • Decided by One Vote - The results of the Berryfest Princess election.
  • The Ditz - Lemon Meringue
  • Fantasy Helmet Enforcement - Pupcake is wearing a helmet while riding in Strawberry's scooter.
  • Glass-Shattering Sound - Katiebug and Sadiebug manage to break Lemon Meringue's mirror with their singing.
  • Hair-Raising Hare, mildly - in "Sky's the Limit!", the girls are at one point threatened by a herd of stampeding bunnies.
  • The Hyena - Plum Pudding
  • "Friend or Idol?" Decision
  • Metaphor Is My Middle Name - In "The Berry Best You Can Bee," Sadiebug claims "Nice" is her middle name, but Katiebug interjects that it's really "Ladybird."
  • Minimalist Cast
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping - Cherry Jam's southern drawl seems to come and go.
  • Pet Baby Wild Animal - Tad from "Fish Out of Water."
  • Pimped-Out Dress - In the episode "On Ice", one of the girls was making dresses for a spring Fashion Show. When there was a cold snap, she made the dresses fur-trimmed.
  • Princesses Rule - Princess Berrykin, ruler of the Berrykins.
  • Road Sign Reversal - A non-racing version occurs in one episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures. While trying to deliver a package, Strawberry encounters a sign that tells her the way to go, only for a breeze to flip the markers, knocking off the one she needs.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness - Mr. Longface Caterpillar, usually translated into regular speech by Blueberry Muffin.
  • Sky Surfing - The girls ride the tops of daisies to fly in the air.
  • The Smart Guy - Blueberry Muffin
  • Sweet and Sour Grapes - In "Berryfest Princess," Strawberry is rewarded for feeding the wanderberry that she was expected to bring back for the feast to a sick bird by finding a new one growing right outside her own house.
  • Wasn't That Fun? - In the movie "Sky's the Limit!", the girls survive a crazy ride down a hill on a leaf, whereupon Blueberry Muffin is the first to admit how much fun it was.
  • We Sell Everything - In "A Berry Grand Opening," the Berrykins ask for something "sparkling" and "orange," and Orange Blossom pulls out everything from a glittery vase to a tablecloth to Orange Brand laundry detergent (to get your clothes sparkly clean).
  • You Mean "Xmas" - First Frost.

Tropes found in the 2021 version:

  • Accidental Murder: The Cake-inator, much to some customers' chagrin, had intentionally bungled said customers' orders due to her inability to comprehend placing extra ingredients or removing some ingredients. When Strawberry Shortcake reveals that her treats should be made with love and not perfect, the Cake-inator dies and explodes because she cannot understand what Strawberry Shortcake calls "the Strawberry Shortcake touch."
  • Adaptational Heroism: Despite being an ally of the Peculiar Purple Pieman in her first incarnation and more of a jerk in later incarnations, Raisin Cane is the voice of reason for the Berry Fairies band. Raisin Cane flips out before she, Cherry Jam, Peppermint, and Sherry Bobbleberry perform when Sherry Bobbleberry disses her and the other two members during the episode "Find Your Voice."
  • Adaptational Jerkass: While Raisin Cane inverts this, Sherry Bobbleberry has become a Mean Boss who disses the band. Sherry is portrayed as the most prominent figure in her band's posters (if not the only one), and she mistreats the other Berry Fairies, and when Raisin Cane calls her out, Sherry just quits.
  • Adaptation Species Change: Sherry Bobbleberry was a fairy in the 2003 series. This version is a regular Berryfolk.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Although they were friends in the first generation, Raspberry Tart is portrayed as an Alpha Bitch who is disgusted that Strawberry Shortcake had been so successful. This enmity is dropped later, where Tart changes her ways after a bake-off.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Despite being confident in her singing during the events of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures, in this generation, Cherry Jam starts to worry about making mistakes. Fortunately, she performs great after being motivated.
  • Age Lift: Just like with previous generations, the characters had their ages changed.
  • Always Someone Better: Raspberry Tart believes that she is the "queen bee" of the Berryworks. She was the original best seller, but Strawberry Shortcake knocked her down a peg when she moved in and opened a stand, to the point where Tart wanted to (at first) get her booted.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Lemon Drop can be this, as he shows up to the Berry Bounty Bolt race with a turkey costume, which his daughter Lemon Zest finds to her dismay when she sees him.
  • Anatomy Anomaly: While the characters typically have square teeth, Blueberry Muffin is portrayed with sharp teeth like those of a shark during the episode "Berry Bounty Bolt" when, prior to the titular race, her brother steals the pillow that she was meditating on. This is most likely done on purpose to portray how much he enraged her with that nasty stunt.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Blueberry Muffin has a serene façade, but her brother is said façade's weakness. She loses it with his first line, which insulted the ice cream flavours made by her and prompts her to tell their mother to make him stop. Orange Blossom is reasonably shocked. In another episode, he gets his hands on Blueberry Muffin's meditation pillow, causing her to fall over, so she chases him and gets into a tug-of-war over her pillow.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: During the episode "Johnnycake Cobbler's Sensational Sweetening Spritz," the titular villain is defeated due to his failure to answer Strawberry Shortcake's questions about Berryville, where she spent a large part of her childhood.
  • Ash Face: Strawberry Shortcake gets this when she tries to reason with the Cake-inator that treats have to be made with love, not necessarily perfectly, but this kills the Cake-inator, causing the latter to explode and cover Strawberry Shortcake in ash.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Lemon Tort is more concerned with whether or not her gadgets are cool than their usefulness. She gives the cart that she works at the ability to hover and fire powerful lemonade blasts from a hose, and a customer gets blasted by the latter in an attempt to get lemonade. Orange Blossom tries to get her to tone that down, causing the latter to storm off.
  • Berserk Button: Blueberry Muffin is usually berry calm, but her serene façade has one weakness: her brother, who belittled her ice cream flavours (To be fair, the little guy had a point.) during one episode and stole her meditation cushion out from under her while she and her mother (who remained oblivious to the ensuing tug-of-war) were meditating in another.
  • Big Bad: This generation's main antagonist role has been passed between characters:
    • Raspberry Tart was the villain for the first season, but she later changes for the better.
    • The Peculiar Purple Pieman reclaims his villain role for the second season, and unlike Raspberry Tart, who redeems herself, he is shown being chased from the Berryworks and still acts like a jerk after his downfall.
    • Crabapple Jam takes this role for the third season, as her goal is to destroy Strawberry Shortcake's business, as the Peculiar Purple Pieman had tried to prior to his own downfall.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Crabapple Jam becomes the villain of the third season. She acts as a sweet old lady, but secretly plots to destroy Strawberry Shortcake's business.
  • Black and Nerdy: This Orange Blossom loves the Tangerine Smash comic book franchise, with her Halloween costume during the second Halloween Episode (Scary-oke) being made after that franchise's protagonist. She also loves the franchise's movie that plays during one episode which pits her versus a toxic streamer.
  • Blatant Lies: Lime Chiffon believes that Blueberry Muffin was lying with the Berryworks' origins in "A Berryworks Mystery." It gets to the point where Chiffon outright blows her stack! "Mystery says...!"
  • Broken Pedestal: Strawberry Shortcake at first looked up to the Peculiar Purple Pieman, but her opinions took a 180-degree turn when the Pieman revealed his true colours. He is the only Berryfolk that gets any sort of enmity from her.
  • Canon Foreigner: The Berryworks' bossy food critic, Bread Pudding, makes his debut here.
  • Cardiovascular Love: During the second episode (counting the two-parter starting episode as a single episode), Strawberry Shortcake reveals her positive review that the new oven is working great (complete with hearts around her head) (although she was intimidated with the new oven's design at first). Cut to her saying this:
Cquote1

Lemon really came through for me! I was worried she'd get carried away and cause some kind of disaster! But I guess I should've trusted her...

Cquote2
  • Caustic Critic:
    • Bread Pudding is a bossy food critic who cannot be pleased easily. His caustic side was toned down later, but he still tries to keep things trendy.
    • The toxic streamer who acts as the main antagonist of "Let's Go to the Movies" criticises the Tangerine Smash movie at the berry start!! It's quite clear that his opinions were based more on the protagonist's sex than anything else.
  • Character Alignment:
    • Lawful Good: Strawberry Shortcake and Lime Chiffon fit this bill.
      • Strawberry Shortcake wants to "bake the world a better place" (make the world a better place). She can get a little nuts sometimes, but she is a sweet girl through and through.
      • Lime Chiffon is a smart girl who has lawful traits. She, however, is as good as Strawberry Shortcake herself is.
    • Neutral Good: Custard is a good-hearted cat. She can be snarky at times (despite being unable to speak), but she is a reliable friend to have.
    • Chaotic Good: Blueberry Muffin and Lemon Zest are this due to their nutty natures despite wanting to do good.
    • Lawful Neutral: Lime Tart is a perfectionist who hates chaos. Bread Pudding wants the Berryworks to be trendy, landing him squarely in this alignment. The Cake-inator also counts since she makes things perfect and to the letter.
    • True Neutral: Mr. Mangosteen just does his job. Many side characters count, too.
    • Chaotic Neutral: One of the regular customers who has Puppy Dog Eyes and is a little girl shows her destructive side. She just wants to have fun, but she is too young to understand that this would get her in trouble if she got caught. She shows her sweet side when the aforementioned grandmother is around.
    • Lawful Evil: Strawberry Shortcake meets a doppëlganger who fits this bill during her nightmare in "Strawberry Nightmare." Said doppëlganger monopolised the Berryworks as she ditched her friends and crushed said friends' dreams and plagiarised off them. Crabapple Jam is also shown to be this when she takes over the Berryworks during Season 3.
    • Neutral Evil: Johnnycake Cobbler is likely to belong to this alignment due to his unethical practices, if not outright Lawful Evil.
    • Chaotic Evil: Crabapple Jam's twin kids fit this bill due to their unhinged personalities and the fact that they take great glee in ruining the protagonists' plans.
  • Country Mouse: Strawberry Shortcake came from the rural city Berryville for this version of the franchise. Due to this, she knows a lot about that place, leading to Johnnycake Cobbler's downfall.
  • Covered in Gunge: During the episode "The Big Foam Disaster!," Strawberry Shortcake gets covered in the pink confectionary goo that was actually the food mix that she requested Orange Blossom to stir while she was away getting strawberries. This is because while Shortcake was doing her errands, the Pieman caused a chain reaction with his littering, and Lime Chiffon was forced to zap the food mix instead of a lime that she was aiming for when Lemon Zest accidentally trampled her due to slipping on a Banana Peel, and Strawberry Shortcake had just managed to come back during the climax of the mess.
  • Creepy Child:
    • A new baby girl who has been created for the show and has Puppy Dog Eyes is a more lighthearted take. Her antics are destructive for the Berryworks, but she is a likeable kid. Strawberry Shortcake finds out the hard way that she is babysitting a superactive kid in Adventures in Berrysitting.
    • Cheese Strudel and Cherry Streusel fit this bill quite a lot. Their goal is to help Crabapple Jam ruin Strawberry Shortcake's business, and they can pop up in random spots in ways that defy logic, as shown when Strawberry Shortcake opened her refrigerator and they managed to camp out in there without freezing their buns or suffocating!
  • Creepy Crossdresser:
    • Crossed with Totem Pole Trench during the series' sixth episode, "Ghost of Cupcakes Past." Raspberry Tart plans on impersonating a ghost after she finds out that Strawberry Shortcake hates and fears ghosts, but due to him being taller, Raspberry Tart has Sour Grapes and Bread Pudding help her. Strawberry Shortcake is fooled until she finds that "Jay" was Raspberry Tart the whole time after Blueberry Muffin pops up to take some cupcakes from her and give them to him, causing him to singe himself and fall apart.
    • During another episode, a man visits Strawberry Shortcake, telling her that she won a prize. This is all a trick so the Peculiar Purple Pieman can get his hands on a special card that she got from her grandmother. The man later rips off his moustache when the Peculiar Purple Pieman is defeated, revealing that Sour Grapes was in disguise. Downplayed, however, considering Sour is not really that bad.
  • Deus Ex Machina: In Peculiar Purple Partner, Lemon Zest reveals that she had snuck recording equipment into Strawberry Shortcake's food truck, recording why the Peculiar Purple Pieman wanted to ruin Shortcake's life in a non-video game equivalent to Boss Arena Idiocy. This results in his downfall and Strawberry Shortcake gets her food truck back.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: Several mishaps appear to be contrived throughout this generation:
    • "Lemon's Explosive Oven:" Lemon Zest makes the titular oven seem powerful, but it overloads and explodes. For extra irony, it happened after Strawberry Shortcake revealed how pleased she was that Lemon came through for her.
    • In Peculiar Purple Partner, the Peculiar Purple Pieman claims that he is sorry for his antics. Strawberry Shortcake rightfully has her doubts, but he promises that she can have everything that she wanted if they work together. Later, the Pieman fires her, but her friends band together to keep her in the Berryworks, engineering his downfall.
    • Season 3 opens with Crabapple Jam taking the Berryworks and trying to ruin business for the protagonists, resulting in a Downer Beginning.
    • Crabapple Jam's creepy twin kids are prone to suddenly pop up in random spots to hinder the protagonists' plans in the third season.
  • Diabolus Ex Nihilo: The main antagonist of "Let's Go to the Movies" has never had his backstory revealed. All we know is that he just showed up to ruin the Tangerine Smash movie.
  • Dirty Coward:
    • Lemon Tort sprays a customer when she gets an order for lemonade, and Orange Blossom tells her to turn it down. Lemon Tort flies into a rage from this and storms off because she finds her genius to be "totally underapreciated around the berryworks."
    • During the episode "Berry Competitive," Lemon Zest quits when she gets jinxed by Blossom being too competitive. Logically, she should've demanded Orange Blossom to not be so cocky.
    • Raisin Cane gives Sherry Bobbleberry the "The Reason You Suck" Speech for mistreating the band. You would expect that Sherry would realise how much of a butt she has been, but Sherry instead quits, forcing her (now ex-) bandmates to pass the torch to Cherry Jam.
    • The toxic streamer that disrupts the theatre experience flees when Orange Blossom points out how rude he is.
  • Downer Beginning:
    • Strawberry's Bad Day begins with Strawberry Shortcake getting hit with mishap after mishap. Strawberry Shortcake is quite reasonably depressed by the time she returns to the apartment where she and her aunt live, and gets cheered up when she and her aunt do some fun things.
    • Season 3. See the third point for the Diabolus Ex Machina trope: Crabapple Jam takes over the Berryworks to ruin the protagonists' businesses.
  • Downer Ending: The 2003 series subverted this trope with "Berry Big Journeys"'s first segment, but this is the first series to have this type of ending. Examples include:
    • The first segment of Berry Bounty Banquet concludes with the apartment that Strawberry Shortcake lives in with her aunt getting destroyed by her so-called "Lucky Spoon."
    • The first segment of Peculiar Purple Partner concludes when Strawberry Shortcake gets fired by the Peculiar Purple Pieman for something she (at least to the viewer, implying that something is sus here) did not do. Strawberry Shortcake's friends convince her to continue working in the Berryworks.
  • Fat Bastard: The main villain of the "Let's Go to the Movies" has quite the large girth.
  • Foreshadowing: There are two hints about something being sus when Strawberry Shortcake goes to work with the Peculiar Purple Pieman at the end of the first segment of Peculiar Purple Pieman only to be fired when she shows up. First, the Pieman did not even shift his gaze from his newspaper with his claim that she had a stain on one sleeve. Secondly, he did not even wait for her defense.
  • Gadgeteer Genius/Wrench Wench: Lemon Drop's tomboyish daughter, Lemon Zest. Lemon Tort downplays this due to her crazed nature and lack of thought process.
  • Gender Flip: Plum Puddin' gets his masculine gender back.
  • Girliness Upgrade: Zig-zagged this time.
    • Blueberry Muffin was a tomboy bookworm for her earlier incarnations. This version is a girly bohemian.
    • For a downplayed example, Sour Grapes became more girly unlike her Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures self, though not quite as girly as her first two incarnations. She is more of an Emo girl who possesses a Sugar and Ice Personality, and we typically see her wearing a skirt.
    • Inversions:
      • Strawberry Shortcake became energetic for this generation. She is still largely feminine, but her personality now incorporates some tomboy traits.
      • Orange Blossom was quite girly for Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures, but she became a nerdy athlete tomboy here.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Lemon Zest makes the Cake-inator to help Strawberry Shortcake out in the episode "Robot Strawberry!?," but this results in the real deal being ousted.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong:
    • Raspberry Tart plans on impersonating the dead Jay Quincy Cupcake with the other Mean Berries to scare Strawberry Shortcake when she finds out about the latter's phasmaphobia in "Ghost of Cupcakes Past." Things fall apart when girly boho chic Blueberry Muffin gives "Jay" a hot cupcake. "Jay" burns his hand and then reveals that he was really a Totem Pole Trench as the stacked-up Mean Berries lose their balance as a result.
    • Strawberry Shortcake tries to reason with the Cake-inator during the episode "Robot Strawberry!?" after she catches onto the mistakes made by the latter. This kills the Cake-inator.
  • Granola Girl: The titular character of "Granola Crunch" fits this bill. She tries to save a community park from being bulldozed by the Peculiar Purple Pieman.
  • Green Around the Gills: During the episode The Case of the Missing Spoon, Strawberry Shortcake is disgusted when the Peculiar Purple Pieman clips his toenails; her cheeks turn green to convey her opinions.
  • Has Two Mommies: More like "Has Two Daddies." Lime Chiffon is shown with two fathers. Dr. Lime Pops is most likely her true father, while Fluffy Chiffon seems to have taken her mother's place.
  • Heroic Blue Screen of Death: Strawberry Shortcake gets this a few times.
    • The episode "Mean Berries" marks the first time our heroine gets hit with this. Strawberry Shortcake sells all of her stuff which nearly results in her expulsion. Her friends lift her spirits up.
    • During the episode "Robot Strawberry!?," our heroine gets replaced by her robot copy, who went too far. She is remotivated when some persons who got treats from the copy express disappointment that their orders have been warped.
    • During the episode "Peculiar Purple Partner," Strawberry Shortcake gets hit with this when she gets fired for not looking presentable.
  • In Name Only: Lemon Zest introduces herself as "Lemon Meringue" when she and Strawberry Shortcake meet up... even though the Lemon Meringues of previous generations were fashion girls!!
  • Irony: A former ally of the Peculiar Purple Pieman becomes the voice of reason for the Berry Fairies for this generation.
  • Jerkass: The main villain of "Let's Go to the Movies."
  • Kick the Dog:
    • During the episode Berry Bounty Bolt, Blueberry Muffin is seen meditating with her mother. Her brother then swipes the cushion that she was meditating on, causing her to fall to the floor a few second after she appears on-screen. She runs after him to retrieve the stolen pillow.
    • The first half of Peculiar Purple Partner finishes badly due to this. The Peculiar Purple Pieman boots Strawberry Shortcake for not looking presentable despite not once looking up from his newspaper.
  • Made of Iron: Cheese Strudel and Cherry Strusel manage to survive without freezing their buns off or asphyxiation when they camp out on Strawberry Shortcake's fridge during one episode in an attempt to keep tabs on her. This would've murdered them in reality.
  • Mean Boss: This generation reformats Sherry Bobbleberry into this. She mistreats her bandmates and calls them garbage pre-performance.
  • Meganekko: This time, Plum Puddin' does not count due to his masculine gender, but Blueberry Muffin's mother does.
  • Missing Mom: Of the main characters, Huckleberry Pie, Lemon Zest, Strawberry Shortcake, and Lime Chiffon have no on-screen mother. Lime Chiffon takes it a step further by having a second father instead of a mother.
  • Monster of the Week: Some episodes have individual antagonists like the following examples:
    • "Johnnycake Cobbler's Sensational Sweetening Spritz:" Johnnycake Cobbler sells a spray that supposedly makes your treats better, but his spray is actually faulty.
    • "Let's Go to the Movies:" A toxic streamer with a wide girth loves to trash the Tangerine Smash movie due to his hatred of female heroes. Orange Blossom stops him.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Orange Blossom feels sorry when she realises that her competitiveness is what jinxed her and Lemon Zest in "Berry Competitive." She later makes amends and the two become friends again.
  • Odango Hair: Orange Blossom gets her afro puffs back. Raisin Cane has her hair in buns.
  • Odd Friendship: Lemon Tort tends to be quite the rambunctious fellow, while Lime Tart is a perfectionist. Despite this, they managed to become friends.
  • Oh Crap: Strawberry Shortcake gets this thrice.
    • During her first moment, Strawberry Shortcake kept her truck open for the night in "Ghost of Cupcakes Past." Then, she spots Jay Quincy Cupcake's ghost heading towards her. Granted, it's a Totem Pole Trench, but still!
    • Moment 2 happens with Strawberry Shortcake trying to reason with the Cake-inator, who explodes.
    • When the Peculiar Purple Pieman springs his trap to conclude the first segment of Peculiar Purple Partner, Strawberry Shortcake is understandably horrified.
  • Out of Character: Blueberry Muffin is known for her calm nature for this generations, so the first time she snaps, she shocks everyone around her. In her defense, her brother insulted her.
  • Race Lift:
  • Rage Breaking Point:
    • Blueberry Muffin visits both ends of this trope. In "A Berryworks Mystery," Lime Chiffon snaps when Blueberry Muffin grinds the latter's gears with too many "legends" of the Berryworks' origin, whereas Blueberry Muffin herself ends up the one who gets enraged by her brother's stunts.
    • Raisin Cane flips out and comes to her band-mates' defense when Sherry Bobbleberry disses them prior to the performance.
  • Sanity Slippage: Strawberry Shortcake can berry quickly lose her cool when she gets stressed out to the point of going nuts if Traffic Jam is anything to go by.
  • Scary Teeth: Blueberry Muffin is portrayed with shark teeth when her brother steals the cushion that she was meditating on. As said in Anatomy Anomaly, most scenes portray her with square teeth by comparison.
  • Show Within a Show: Orange Blossom loves the Tangerine Smash comic books, which have never been printed in real life.
  • Spanner in the Works: The Totem Pole Trench trick that Raspberry Tart decided to pull with the other Mean Berries in "Ghost of Cupcakes Past" ends up failing with Blueberry Muffin suddenly popping up. Muffin is quite excited that she finally decided to meet Jay Quincy Cupcake, so she gives "him" a cupcake that Strawberry Shortcake had just baked. Jay burns "his" hand and then falls over, revealing that he was in fact the Mean Berries.
  • Surprise Creepy: The face that Blueberry Muffin makes when she chases her brother before getting into a fight over the pillow that she was meditating on before she was ambushed by him puts shark teeth in Muffin's mouth to show how angry she is.
  • Terrible Trio: During the first season, Raspberry Tart, Sour Grapes, and Bread Pudding formed the Mean Berries trio. This group disbanded when they reformed. Crabapple Jam, Cheese Strudel, and Cherry Streusel form the next terrible trio.
  • The Cameo: While she fails to properly appear, Ginger Snap is featured in her design from the 2003 cartoon in Strawberry's Bad Day.
  • The Dividual: Cheese Strudel and Cherry Struesel share many characteristics such as their drive to hinder the protagonists' plans.
  • The Perfectionist: The Cake-inator claims to be this, but she can also make errors, such as adding berries that Huckleberry Pie did not want on his pie, not adding the touch of cinnamon that one kid wanted on her fritter, and not putting on extra sugar that another customer wanted on her own food.
  • The Reveal: Lemon Zest has her real name revealed by her father during the second segment of "Berry Bounty Banquet."
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: "Robot Strawbery!?" has this In-Universe: The kid with Puppy Dog Eyes likes having some cinnamon on her fritter, while Huckleberry likes to get pies without berries, and a woman wants extra sugar on her food. The Cake-inator ignores this.
  • Totem Pole Trench: During the episode "Ghost of Cupcakes Past," the Mean Berries pull this stunt so Strawberry Shortcake would quit in fear.
  • Vocal Dissonance: In the scene where she runts towards Lemon Zest to give a gift, Strawberry Shortcake has a deep-sounding voice.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Strawberry Shortcake is shown to hate ghosts during the episode "Ghost of Cupcakes Past." The mean berries use her phasmaphobia to their advantage.
  • Wingding Eyes: Strawberry Shortcake gets hearts for pupils during the scene where Lemon Zest cleans her truck of gifts that she apparently didn't want and the former runs towards her with another gift during the episode "Will You Be My Lemontine?," much to the latter's horror.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The Cake-inator dies and explodes when she hears about the "Strawberry Shortcake touch" in "Robot Strawberry!?," which for some reason causes her systems to overload.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Strawberry Shortcake motivates Cherry Jam to sing during the events of "Find Your Voice."
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: This trope gets applied fully to the main cast this time. Strawberry Shortcake and Blueberry Muffin keep their hair colours from the previous generation (pink and blue, respectively). Orange Blossom has her hair colour changed from black/dark brown to orange. Lime Chiffon is a downplayed example, having green and brown hair. Huckleperry Pie now has dark blue hair. Raisin Cane now has purple hair, while Cherry Jam and Raspberry Tart have magenta hair. Peppermint has both red and green hair.
  • You Mean "Xmas": The holidays have been given slight reskins for multiple episodes. Valentine's Day is called Sweetie Pie's Day, Halloween is called Frightfall, Thanksgiving is called the Berry Bounty Banquet, and Christmas is called Winter Swirl.
  1. this incarnation's version of Banana Twirl from the previous franchise
  2. Unlike the new characters created for the 2003/2007 version, she was created just for the TV show.
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