Custard is a recurring pet character in the Strawberry Shortcake franchise. She is always Strawberry Shortcake's furry, sweet, and cute pink cat.
General Information[]
1980s[]
Custard is Strawberry Shortcake's pet who's fairly lazy and sleeps often. She talked in the episode Strawberry Shortcake: Pets on Parade, when chatting with Souffle the skunk, but this is the only time she does so.
2003[]
Custard gained a notable change in character and personality, being upgraded to a part of the main cast. Custard can actually speak and regularly holds conversation with the human characters, and will sometimes translate Pupcake's barks since he can't speak. Custard has a sibling-like relationship with Pupcake, often getting annoyed by Pupcake's antics but still loving him as her family in the end, though she could do without him constantly pouncing on her.
Custard has a rather sarcastic and sassy personality with a hint of nihilism, and will express her (usually negative) opinion on the current situation when she has the chance. She loves Strawberry very much, and likes to spend days with her whenever she isn't busy. Custard isn't a fan of things that are different from her, especially people, but will warm up to them after getting to know them more, and she slowly lets go of this close-minded attitude across the seasons.
Berry Bitty Adventures[]
Custard has a drastically reduced role in this series, no longer a main cast member. She is once more a regular cat who cannot talk, and she doesn't show much of a personality aside from being friendly and playful, and some normal cat behaviors like sleeping and rubbing against anything she likes. She sometimes points out things Strawberry misses out on.
She doesn't appear as much as in the 2003 series, only appearing occasionally in Seasons 1-2, in two episodes of Season 3, and very briefly at the end of a Season 4 episode.
Berry in the Big City[]
Custard is once again Strawberry's only pet for the first time in nearly 40 years. She moved with her owner from Berryville to Big Apple City. Custard often accompanies Strawberry with her job at the Berryworks, and can be seen sleeping on the countertop. Unlike her previous incarnation, she has a much bigger role, appearing in dozens of episodes each season, and is effectively a supporting cast member in her own right with even her own focus episodes. Custard is sort of the leader of the other Berryworks pets, often taking charge when the situation calls for it, such as when they needed to fend off the Peculiar Purple Pieman's attempts to steal one of Strawberry Shortcake's recipe cards that she held dear due to it containing some words of advice from her late Grandberry Jam.
While Custard is not a speaking character, she is still sapient like other animals in the series. She can communicate with the other Berryworks pets despite none being the same species. She can perfectly perform human activities like play board games, do TikTaco dances, skateboard, and have tea parties. Her paws are also able to grab things despite not having thumbs.
Custard's personality is sort of an amalgamation of her predecessors. She sleeps a lot and is sometimes lazy like her 1980s incarnation, has a bit of a sarcastic edge to her like 2003, but is still fairly playful and friendly like in Berry Bitty Adventures. Aside from that, Custard has a somewhat skittish and nervous aspect to her, often getting startled easily. She sometimes jumps to conclusions rather quickly and can be embarrassed upon finding out the truth, like when she assumed Strawberry forgot about her birthday despite Strawberry hinting at what she planned for Custard's party...tomorrow, when her birthday actually was. She still loves her owner above all else and will go out of her way to help Strawberry when needed, like gathering ingredients across Big Apple City.
Appearance[]
1980s[]
Custard, like all the other animals in the television specials, looks like a stuffed animal to match their owners' ragdoll-like appearances. She is a light pink cat with a white polka-dot pattern and a darker pink nose.
2003[]
Custard now appears more like a regular cat than a stuffed animal. She's much more fluffy in appearance. She has light pink fur like her original appearance but ditches the white polka-dots for a darker pink stripe pattern, and has a white muzzle and belly. She has green eyes and a pink nose. Custard wears a green-and-white striped collar tied in a bow at the front with a strawberry-shaped tag.
Berry Bitty Adventures[]
Custard has a bit of a composited appearance of her 1980s and 2003 design. She retains a similar design from her predecessor, with light-pink fur, a white muzzle, green eyes, and a pink nose, but she no longer has a white belly. She now features the white polka-dot pattern from her 1980s design rather than stripes, and her fur is much smoother and no longer fluffy. Custard's collar is red, but still has the green-and-white striped bow on the front with a strawberry-shaped tag from 2003.
Berry in the Big City[]
Custard received a drastic design change. She is a slender cat and appears to be a much different breed from her prior incarnations. She still has green eyes. Her fur is hot-pink rather than light-pink. Her ears are dark pink along with the end of her tail. Her belly, muzzle, and paws are white. While she no longer has the polka-dot pattern, she has five white spots on her back. Her nose is dark pink and is heart-shaped. Her whiskers are pink.
Trivia[]
General[]
- Custard is one of the few pets to appear across the entire franchise, being in every major cartoon. The other notable examples are Pupcake and the Berry Birds.
1980s[]
- In the Pets on Parade special, she briefly speaks to converse with Souffle Skunk. She never speaks at any point before or after this, and it was likely done for the viewer's convenience to understand what was happening.
2003[]
- This is the only incarnation of Custard who can regularly talk. While her 1980s incarnation did speak in Pets on Parade, it only happened in that special, and there's no indication of the ability to talk to the human characters.
- She is the only incarnation to have a striped fur pattern rather than white spots.
Berry Bitty Adventures[]
- TBA
Berry in the Big City[]
- She is the first incarnation of the character to share a voice actor with her owner, with Ana Sani voicing both her and Strawberry Shortcake.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Unused concept art strawberry shortcake as little people (2).jpg (261 KB)")
