Berry In The Big City is the two-part premiere of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City. It premiered on September 18th, 2021.
Summary[]
Strawberry Shortcake says goodbye to her hometown and moves in with her Aunt Praline in Big Apple City. It’s time to follow her baking dreams! She is ready to start baking, but her food truck is in bad shape. If only she had some friends to help her out!
Plot[]
Part 1[]
A bus is seen driving away from Berryville, as Strawberry Shortcake starts to explain why she left Berryville to pursue her dream of becoming the best baker, until the squirming Old Man sitting next to her gets her attention. Strawberry sheepishly asks what the Old Man said to her again, to which he asks if he could scoot past her to get to the restroom. Strawberry and Custard move out of the way to let the man through.
Cutaway: Strawberry talks about how excited she is about following her dreams to an all-new place at her all-new home, as she brings up that any aspiring baker looking to get discovered and find success knows there's only one place to go:
Strawberry excitedly looks out the window at Big Apple City as she finishes her sentence, holding Custard up to the window to see the city. She begins to describe "The City That's Always Cooking", calling it "magical", "magnificent" ...and "mighty crowded", as she and Custard try to squeeze their way through a crowd of berries at the bus station until they hear a familiar voice, as a group of berries disperses to reveal her Aunt Praline. Strawberry runs up to Praline and hugs her, while also accidentally squeezing Custard in the hug.
Cutaway: Strawberry introduces Aunt Praline, calling her a "super-super cool aunt". Strawberry establishes that after telling Aunt Praline she wanted to move to Big Apple City to pursue her baking dream, Aunt Praline invited her to stay at her apartment, and would help Strawberry in any way she could to help her succeed.
As Aunt Praline drives back to the apartment, Strawberry notices several billboards showing the biggest names in baking: Crabapple Jam, Kiki KeyLime, and the Peculiar Purple Pieman. Strawberry realizes all of them started their careers in Big Apple City, which Aunt Praline confirms, adding that soon another berry will follow suit, as both of them say "Strawberry Shortcake" in unison, and Strawberry declares she can't wait to get started.
Strawberry begins to sing a heartfelt song about starting fresh in a new place...until Praline interrupts her, advising Strawberry to skip the song, as there's not enough time to do so. Aunt Praline brings up that every day, fresh-faced berries arrive at Big Apple City, wanting to become the next biggest name in baking. She tells Strawberry that to be the best, she has to be smarter, faster, focused and to keep an eye on the prize, right as an oncoming car honks at her for drifting into the wrong side of the road, Praline just barely swerving back to her lane as the driver angrily yells at her as he passes by. Strawberry repeats the "focused" part of Praline's speech, while Custard clings to her head, still shaken from the near-collision.
At Aunt Praline's apartment, Aunt Praline continues giving advice, telling Strawberry that she has a greater knowledge of how to get started in the city than most. Praline brings up that not many berries know that the best place to begin their career is The Berryworks, as Strawberry tries to stop Custard from knocking a vase down from a fireplace. Strawberry asks Praline to repeat what she said, and Praline tosses her a fridge magnet of the Berryworks arch, describing the location as a major hot spot in Big Apple City for its shops, restaurants and being where bakers get discovered.
Aunt Praline tucks Strawberry in for the night, as she tells her niece that she'll get her start at the Berryworks with her own food truck. Strawberry tells her that it sounds flantastic once she gets settled into the city, but Praline interrupts her before she finishes her sentence, telling Strawberry that she'll have to start tomorrow. Strawberry repeats "tomorrow" confused, and Aunt Praline confirms, "tomorrow". Strawberry tries to dissuade this, as she's barely gotten to see the city, and definitely doesn't have a food truck, but Praline just tells Strawberry that she has to just dive in, and reassures Strawberry that she'll take care of the food truck part. Praline tells Strawberry to go to bed as tomorrow's a big day, turning off the lights and leaving. Strawberry lies down in bed, visibly nervous.
Cutaway: Strawberry awkwardly admits that she didn't expect her dream to take off that fast, but takes Praline's word that she has to dive in. Strawberry psyches herself up, and says she's excited to see the food truck.
Strawberry can only deliver a flat "what" in deadpan disbelief at the food truck, the extremely worn down, dirty, and brown food truck. Aunt Praline proudly shows off the truck, explaining it was the old food truck she ran in her younger days in the city, "The Praline Dream". Strawberry and Custard look at each other, unsure of how to respond. Aunt Praline admits that food trucks weren't her thing, alluding to an unknown event that made her realize this, but tells Strawberry that now she can use the truck and make her dreams come true, the awning collapsing right as she finishes her sentence. Strawberry hesitates, but Praline simply grabs her by the arm, Strawberry grabbing Custard in return, and helps her into the truck. Praline declares their next stop to be the Berryworks, but the truck door ends up falling clean off when she closes it. Aunt Praline admits the truck might need some fixing, but figures it at least has character. She drives the truck off, leaving a huge cloud of dust/smoke behind.
Once they arrive at the Berryworks, Strawberry gets out and stares at the building in awe, but snaps out of it when Aunt Praline wishes her good luck and puts on a helmet. Strawberry, incredulous, asks Praline if she's really leaving already. Praline explains that Mayor Molasses is announcing a new Sparkberry factory, and his incompetence keeps him from being able to even find the stage without her, as she gets on a scooter. Praline tells Strawberry she's proud of her and to text her later, waving goodbye as she skates off.
Strawberry, recovering from her shocked state, confidently tells Custard that she's got this, and pats the hood of the Praline Dream. The truck immediately breaks down further, the front bumper falls clean off, the truck shudders and makes a creaking noise, and then the tires simultaneously deflate. Strawberry puts on a smile but admits that's not a good sign.
Part 2[]
Cutaway: Strawberry recaps the events of the previous episode, saying it was nice of Aunt Praline to lend her old food truck so Strawberry could pursue her baking dreams, but the truck needed a little more work than her aunt realized.
Strawberry stares at the truck, as the hood immediately pops and the front bumper falls off, startling Custard into Strawberry's hands. Strawberry tries to reassure Custard (and herself) that they can handle this, when she's interrupted by the loud exclamation of a brown-haired boy holding a clipboard, staring at the truck in disgust, Strawberry begins to introduce herself, but the boy just stops her. He tells Strawberry he isn't doing "peppy and cheerful" early in the morning, and orders her to get that truck off of Berryworks property before someberry mistakes the building for Big Apple City's new garbage dump. Strawberry explains that it's her food truck as she leans against the old wooden counter, which immediately snaps in half. Strawberry admits it needs some work, but before she could further explain the boy stops her once again. He tells Strawberry that they're at the Berryworks, it's trendy and chic, and it's his job to keep it that way. The boy kicks the broken counter out of the way, telling Strawberry the truck doesn't belong there, and neither does she.
Cutaway: Devastated, Strawberry feels it's the worst day ever for her.
Strawberry pulls her beanie over her head as she sits near her truck, sad and stressed out, when someberry gets Strawberry's attention. She looks over and sees a girl leaning against the side of her truck, who tells Strawberry she'll gladly take the truck off her hands. The girl introduces herself as Lemon Meringue, that she loves junk, and considers the Praline Dream to be some quality junk. Strawberry tells Lemon she needs that "junk", correcting herself and saying "truck", as it's going to be her new bakery. Another girl approaches her, having overheard the two, asking if she's gonna be competition. Strawberry nervously tries to deny this, when the girl reassures her she was just messing around, and she actually loves competition, as much as Lemon loves junk. The other girl introduces herself as Orange Blossom, and Strawberry introduces herself to Orange. Orange tells Strawberry it's nice to meet her, calling her "Shortcakes", and guesses she's "fresh of the bus". Strawberry confirms, explaining she got to the city yesterday.
Orange welcomes Strawberry to Big Apple City, and tells her that she'll find that most of the berries here will be pretty friendly. Right as she says this, another girls runs up to the group, excitedly saying she heard there's a brand new berry at the Berryworks. The girl introduces herself as Lime Chiffon, and tells Strawberry to come to her if she has a question about pretty much anything, as she's pretty much an expert on everything. One last girl walks up to Strawberry and sniffs her, deciding she smells friendly and has a good feeling about her.
Orange explains to Strawberry that all of them run shops at the Berryworks. Orange herself runs the Citrus Slice smoothie cart, where the most energy-fueled smoothies in town are made. Orange introduces the last girl as Blueberry Muffin and says she runs the Dreamery Creamery ice cream cart, Blueberry brings up the featured flavor of the month, Raindrop Raisin Drizzle, which tastes like how a forest smells after a thunderstorm (but with raisins). Strawberry awkwardly says that it's definitely unique. Lime Chiffon interrupts to tell Strawberry she and Lemon Meringue operate the LemonLime Time juice cart, but before they can actually tell her what they sell, Strawberry interrupts her with a hug as she cries. Lemon asks if Strawberry's okay, and she apologizes, explaining to them that Big Apple City's been overwhelming and that they're all so nice to her, especially after that boy was so mean to her earlier. Lime Chiffon groans, asking if she's talking about Bread Pudding, the assistant manager of the Berryworks. She tells Strawberry to just ignore him, like everyberry else does, to which all the other girls nod in agreement. Strawberry angrily recounts Bread calling her truck "garbage", but Lemon admits he isn't exactly wrong about that statement. Blueberry says the truck does have good energy as she goes to hug it, and Orange admits that adding baked goods to the Berryworks would be good for business. Lemon fixes the front bumper, deciding if she can't take it apart she might as well put it together. Strawberry asks the girls if they really are going to help her, which Lime confirms, as they consider her a new friend.
Cutaway: Overjoyed, Strawberry excitedly says it's gonna be the best day ever!
A montage of the new Berry Besties repairing the truck occurs. The montage shows Strawberry and Blueberry repainting the truck, the latter smearing paint on her hands and face and painting with those rather than a brush, which the former nervously laughs at. Lime lays down rows of strawberry bushes on the truck's roof, Orange cleans the counter, where Strawberry places down a sack of flour. Strawberry then hands Lemon a wrench, which she uses to install the new sparkberry engine, the power running through the outer tubes of Strawberry's new-and-improved truck, now parked inside the Berryworks next to the other girls' carts. Orange and the girls formally welcome Strawberry to the Berryworks. Bread Pudding, walking past the group, notices the new truck, tripping and falling to the ground. Strawberry walks up to Bread and extends her hand, re-introducing herself. She shows off her new food truck, The Extraordinary Berry, and tells Bread that while she is new to Big Apple City and the Berryworks, she knows it's exactly where she belongs, the other girls standing behind her in support.
Bread Pudding brushes away Strawberry's hand, getting up himself to inspect the truck. After noting the nicer colors, cuter name, and the garden roof, he reluctantly admits it meets Berryworks standards, but still declares that he's keeping his eyes on Strawberry, doing the "I'm watching you" gesture for emphasis. Bread then accidentally pokes himself in the eyes doing the gesture and immediately walks away as his eyes tear up. The new Berry Besties laugh and do a group hug, marking a fresh new start for Strawberry Shortcake.
Cast[]
Both Parts[]
- Ana Sani as Strawberry Shortcake
Part 1[]
- Ana Sani as Aunt Praline, Custard
- Chirag Naik as Old Man
Part 2[]
- Bahia Watson as Orange Blossom
- Andrea Libman as Lemon Meringue
- Margarita Valderrama as Lime Chiffon
- Diana Kaarina as Blueberry Muffin
- Chirag Naik as Bread Pudding
Non-Voiced Appearance[]
- Kiki KeyLime (billboard)
- The Peculiar Purple Pieman (billboard)
- Crabapple Jam (billboard)
- Mr. Mangosteen
- Bobby Bananabee
- Berry Mary
- Mrs. Crumbcake
- Hippy Berry
- Genoise la Creme
- Peanut Butter Crisp
- Salesberry
- Customer #2
- Mayor Molasses (mentioned)
Song[]
- No Ordinary Berry (first 11 words)
Trivia[]
- This series, like its predecessors, has made some changes to the characters again.
- Strawberry is much more energetic and less calm than her predecessors, and is more prone to worrying.
- Lemon is now a tomboy mechanic as opposed to her prim and proper fashionista personality of previous incarnations.
- Lime is no longer a dancer, and is more intellectual and loves to read.
- Orange is now more sporty and braver than her shyer and less outgoing past incarnations.
- Blueberry is now more boho chic, ditzy and spiritual, rather a bookworm like her past two incarnations, harkening more to the original ditzy Blueberry of the 1980s.
- The episode title shares the same name as the series, Berry in the Big City, refering to the series itself and Strawberry moving to Big Apple City, which makes her the "berry in the big city".
- The Peculiar Purple Pieman is established to exist in the series as a major celebrity, but wouldn't make his proper debut until the final scene of Bake Off, the Season 1 finale.
- This episode and series also introduces the first reoccurring male character since the 1980s with Bread Pudding.
- This series also introduces Strawberry's first adult relative, Aunt Praline.
- This is the first time since the 1980s where Lime Chiffon plays a prominent role, as she gets to be a main cast member in the series.
- It is established that characters in the episode are aware of the musical nature of the series, with Aunt Praline even interrupting Strawberry’s song to tell her to save it for later.
- It was unknown what Lemon and Lime's cart is supposed to sell due to them being interrupted, until later episodes established that they sell juice.
- People are referred to as "berries" in this series, similar to how My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic tended to utilize "pony" in referring to others, such as "everypony" instead of "everybody".
- One version of these episodes is edited to be slightly shorter, includes additional sound effects, and adds a camera frame around the cutaway segments, as if Strawberry actually was recording a vlog about her adventures.
References to Past Series[]
- Strawberry’s new food truck, the Extraordinary Berry, is a reference to the 2003 series theme song, which featured the line “She's so buh-buh-berry extraordi-di-dinary”.
- The premise of the series itself is one to a recurring plot in the Strawberry Shortcake franchise, when Strawberry would travel to Big Apple City. Though unlike past instances, Strawberry's moving into Big Apple City to live there, rather than simply visiting for a brief time.
- The first two legacy franchise characters Strawberry meets in Big Apple City are Lemon Meringue and Orange Blossom, who were also the first two new friends she met in the 1980s special "Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City", though the order in which she meets them is reversed.
- Strawberry originally being from the countryside is a reference to her 1980s and 2003 incarnations, who likewise lived in the Strawberryland countryside.
- The Berryworks itself is carried over from Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures, though rather than being a place where Berrykins work to power the city, it's a mall-like structure/food truck lot.
Errors[]
- Although the truck door fell off when Aunt Praline tried to close it and drove off, it reappears unbroken once they reached the Berryworks. It’s possible Aunt Praline decided to go back and reattach it.
- Another inconsistency is when Strawberry repaints the truck red, no bit of red can be seen on the finished truck. Though it can be assumed that it was used to mix with the brighter pink paint to make the more darker pink on the truck.
Video[]
Gallery[]
Click here to see the gallery of the episode.
Transcript[]
Click here to see the transcript of the episode.