Fruitleg Alley is the third episode of the second season of Berry In The Big City. It premiered on July 2nd, 2022.
Summary[]
Strawberry Shortcake is in need of soursops but it’s out of season! There’s only one place in the city that could have it: the infamous Fruitleg Alley.
Plot[]
Strawberry Shortcake approaches Orange Blossom and Raspberry Tart and asks them if they have any soursops. Orange expresses a disliking of the fruit, calling it "that weird prickly fruit". The three hear mysterious guitar strumming. Strawberry continues, telling her friends that it may look prickly, but it'll taste delicious in the soursop sponge cake she wants to bake. The mysterious guitar strumming is heard again. Raspberry tells Strawberry that the fruit is out of season, and that she won't be able to find it in the city. The three hear the guitar strumming again and they look over to the right, Raspberry and Orange now annoyed by the guitar strumming. Orange asks Huckleberry Pie what he's doing, and Huck tells them that he saw some prickly fruits while doing a gig in Fruitleg Alley, strumming his guitar for dramatic emphasis.
Orange is surprised about Huck mentioning Fruitleg Alley, and Strawberry asks her what is Fruitleg Alley. Orange explains that it's a secret market that sells impossible to find ingredients, including out-of-season fruit. Raspberry adds that the market is run buy the sneakiest berries around, telling Strawberry that they'll sell her a pie and then steal the filling. Raspberry calls the place bad news, as Huck walks up to the girls.
Cutaway: Orange notes that Strawberry hasn't lived in the city as long as she and Raspberry have.
Cutaway: Raspberry adds that Strawberry thinks that everyberry is as nice as she is.
Cutaway: Strawberry thinks Fruitleg Alley sounds adorable. Raspberry and Orange's cutaways interject, both girls declaring that they're going with Strawberry so she doesn't get scammed.
In a shady part of Big Apple City, Huck knocks on a large door in-between two boarded-up buildings. A girl opens the speakeasy and asks for the password. Huck greets the girl, Caramela, and she immediately opens the door, groaning at the fact he keeps using her name-a. Huck apologizes and introduces Strawberry, Orange, and Raspberry to her, Caramela Éclair. He begins telling the girls about Caramela's dad, but she immediately shushes him, before asking the girls what they want and if they can pay. Orange can barely get a word about before Strawberry begins rambling about how she wanted to make a sponge cake until Orange interrupts her, bluntly telling Caramela they want soursops and can pay. Caramela looks around and gestures for the girls to enter Fruitleg Alley. She then slams the door on Huckleberry, who brushes it off and says she's nice as he begins tuning his guitar.
The three girls follow Caramela through the marketstalls in Fruitleg Alley, full of buyers and sellers making deals with one another, and shady folk watching them pass by. Strawberry is awestruck at the marketplace, and is then accosted by a shady man who asks her if she wants to buy a new eggbeater, opening his trenchcoat to show off some "golden" baking utensils. Strawberry politely declines, as she already has her Lucky Spoon, holding it up for everyberry to see. The Fruitleggers begin admiring the spoon, and Orange immediately shoves it back into Strawberry's satchel, as Raspberry does the "I'm watching you" gesture to the Fruitleggers as they press onward. Raspberry tells Strawberry that these berries will swindle them any way they can, but Strawberry brushes it off, pointing to one who's simply selling melons. The Fruitlegger and customer then accidentally break it in half, revealing it to be hollow as Orange notes. Strawberry then points to an ordinary cake, and Raspberry informs her that it's being frosted with toothpaste. Strawberry finally begins connecting the dots, and tells her friends that she thinks that the Fruitleggers might not be trustworthy. Raspberry and Orange facepalm at this late realization, but continue following Caramela.
Caramela Éclair approaches a desk at the end of the alleyway as she introduces the Crumbfather of Fruitleg Alley, Caramel Tartufo, who is also her dad. He tells the girls that his daughter informed him that they were looking for soursops, noting that it's very hard to obtain as a Fruitlegger sets a plate of banana bread on his desk. He tells them that luckily a batch of the fruit recently came in from Banana Beach, as Caramela places a basket of soursops on his desk, but the fruit will be costly. Strawberry can barely get a word out before Orange interrupts, telling the Crumbfather that her friend won't pay a nickel over market value, and Raspberry adds that they didn't come her to get cheated. Caramel Tartufo takes this as a sign of disrespect, but will respond after he takes a moment to sample some banana bread made from his mama's recipe. Caramel takes a bite of the bread, gags, and spits it out, angrily yelling that it's not like his mama's fluffy banana bread. He yells that until a baker gets it right, Fruitleg Alley will be closed. Caramela puts away the soursops and yells for everyberry to get out, slamming her fist on the desk. This causes the bread to flip over to Strawberry, who takes a bite out of it. She immediately identifies the problem as overmixed batter, and tells the Caramels that she can fix it. Caramel asks why she would do this for him, and Strawberry tells him that she's just trying to bake the world a better place, one treat at a time. Caramela Éclair and Caramel Tartufo are confused by her statement.
Outside, at the Extraordinary Berry, Strawberry Shortcake finishes baking a new loaf of banana bread, serving Caramel a slice. He tries it and immediately begins smiling with joy. He gratefully tells Strawberry that she's done him a kindness, and the bread tastes exactly like how his mama used to make it, giving them the soursops as thanks. He finishes the slice, and tells the girls that they're also allowed in Fruitleg Alley anytime as his special guests. Caramela hands Strawberry the soursops, and Strawberry begins tells her friends the moral of the episode: that berries always do the right thing if you're kind to them back. However, she only gets partway through her sentence before she notices that the truck had been stripped for parts by the Fruitleggers. Caramela yells at the Fruitleggers that Strawberry's a guest, and to put her stuff back
Cutaway: Caramela Éclair admits that she and her father definitely would have cheated Strawberry if she didn't win her dad over.
As the Fruitleggers fix the Extraordinary Berry back up, Caramela tells Raspberry and Orange to keep an eye on Strawberry, who's currently giving muffins to the Fruitleggers, noting that she can be way too trusting.
Cast[]
- Ana Sani as Strawberry Shortcake
- Bahia Watson as Orange Blossom
- Tabitha St. Germain as Raspberry Tart, Caramela Éclair
- Brian Drummond as Caramel Tartufo, Shady Man Who Tries to Sell Strawberry an Eggbeater (uncredited)
- Vincent Tong as Huckleberry Pie
- All as Shady Fruitleg Alley Vendors (uncredited)
Non-Voiced Appearance[]
- Peanut Butter Crisp
- Spicy Crust (silhouette)
- Old Man
- Caramel Tartufo’s Mama (mentioned)
Trivia[]
- This episode introduces a new location, Fruitleg Alley, which is located in the shadier side of Big Apple City.
- Etymology: The titular location's name is a pun on "fruit" and "bootleg," which means "to make, transport and/or sell an illegal version or copy of a copyrighted product."
- From the small interactions between Caramela and Huckleberry, it is implied they've known each other for a while. Caramela recognizes Huck the moment he speaks, and they're apparently close enough that she lets him call her by name (though not out loud). He also has regular access to Fruitleg Alley.
- This is the first episode to depict multiple characters doing a cutaway simultaneously, as Orange and Raspberry's cutaways interject with Strawberry's as they declare they're going with her to Fruitleg Alley.
- Fruitleg Alley is the first episode in the entire franchise to reference real-world criminals, as the denizens of Fruitleg Alley are based on the mafia.
- This episode introduces a new type of background character with the shady vendors of Fruitleg Alley. This type of character features a mustached and bearded variant. The mustached shady vendors are also reused for the butler character models introduced later in the season.
- Raspberry Tart receives her first cutaway segment where she talks to the viewer. Her background is dark pink with a raspberry pattern. She is the seventh member of the main cast to get a cutaway, after Strawberry, Lemon, Orange, Lime, Blueberry, and Huckleberry (in that order).
- Overall, she is the ninth character to receive a cutaway, including the previously mentioned Berry Besties, Aunt Praline, and Cheesecake.
- Caramela is the third non-main character in the series to do a cutaway segment where she talks to the viewer. Her background is orangish-brown. Previous non-main characters who received a cutaway segment include Aunt Praline and Cheesecake.
- Overall, she is the tenth character to receive a cutaway.
- Soursops are fruit native to South America and the Caribbean, though are also grown in Southeast Asia. They are known for their pineapple-like scent, taste like a combination of strawberries and apples with a hint of sour undertones, and have a texture reminiscent of bananas. It is commonly used for juice and smoothies, but are also eaten raw,[1]
Continuity[]
- Banana Beach, a location outside of Big Apple City, is mentioned by Caramel Tartufo when selling the Soursops to the girls. The location was first brought up by Johnnycake Cobbler in Johnnycake Cobbler's Sensational Sweetening Spritz.
- Strawberry Shortcake's overly trusting nature is addressed in this episode, and noted to border on complete naivety. This aspect of Strawberry has previously been shown in episodes like Fright Fall and Waiting for Genoise, where she blindly trusted whatever Raspberry Tart told her even if it's an obvious lie.
References[]
- Caramel Tartufo is based heavily off of Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather, a trilogy of mobster films directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Caramel's design, demeanor, and mumbly voice are all directly inspired by Marlon Brando's performance of the character in the films.
- Caramela Éclair's first name is based off Carmela Corleone, a character from The Godfather films. However, Caramela is Caramel's daughter, while Carmela is Vito's wife. Her character might also be partially based off of Vito's daughter, Constanzia "Connie" Corleone.
- Caramela's character is based on the archetype of "mafia princesses[2]", the daughters of high-ranking mafia officials.
Errors[]
- When a shady seller approaches Strawberry and asks her if she wants to buy an eggbeater, none of the golden utensils in his coat are eggbeaters. The utensils are actually a rubber spatula, regular spatula, mixing spoon, whisk, and ladle. Given the shadiness of Fruitleg Alley, it's possible this was intentional.
- The individual release of the episode on YouTube mispells the title as "Fruiteleg Alley"
- In the Netflix subtitles, there is a typo in one of the Fruitleggers' sentences, specifically the one who says "You want a watch?", mispelled as "You wabt a watch?"
Video[]
Gallery[]
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