Mean Berries is the 6th episode of the first season of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City. It premiered on October 30th, 2021.
Summary[]
A jealous Raspberry Tart buys all of Strawberry Shortcake’s baked goods and resells them using her own packaging.
Plot[]
A crowd is seen at Strawberry's food truck as Strawberry bakes more country pie for them, and a customer compliments the food.
Cutaway: Strawberry excitedly talks about how everything has been going "flantastic" for her business in the Berryworks, noting that everyberry loves her authentic country baking.
The crowd gathered around the Extraordinary Berry parts, revealing two girls standing in the back, glaring at the truck. The girl with wavy raspberry hair does a mocking impression of Strawberry, calling her a simple country berry who makes simple pastries for simple people, her tone going from mocking to anger. The plain girl with purple hair unemotively adds that Strawberry dresses too "matchy-matchy" (referring to the numerous strawberry-themed items in her outfit). The wavy-haired girl looks at her compatriot with an irritated expression, and the purple girl defensively points out that she does. The wavy-haired girl exclaims that she doesn't care about how Strawberry dresses, she cares about Strawberry stealing all of her customers. She adjusts her headband, planning to show Strawberry how things work in Big Apple City.
Strawberry closes her oven, when she's startled by the wavy-haired girl saying "hi". She puts on a friendly facade, introducing herself and her friend to Strawberry as her neighbors in the Berryworks. The girl tells Strawberry her name is Raspberry Tart and points at where her truck is. She then offhandedly introduces her friend as Sour Grapes. Strawberry is shocked at Raspberry's truck, and compliments its pristine look. Raspberry tells her it's nothing compared to Strawberry's theme, barely hiding her contempt, and notes that she's the fresh new berry on the block. Strawberry thanks her and asks the two what can she get for them, holding up some strawberry pie, strudel, and pain au strawberre. Raspberry hands Strawberry her credit card and tells her she'll take everything that she has left in stock. Strawberry, in surprise, asks her again if she really wants to buy everything.
Cutaway: Strawberry excitedly dances and hums that she's managed to sell out all her pastries in a singsong-y tone.
Raspberry winks at Sour Grapes while Strawberry hurries to package all the food in her truck. Raspberry loudly (and fakely) tells Strawberry that she hopes her country theme won't get old, causing Strawberry to pause and ask her what she means by that. Raspberry explains that in Big Apple City, you have to keep things fresh or else customers will get tired and move on. She tells her that the country stuff is cute today, but if starts to get stale... Sour Grapes grabs the rest of the boxes, finishing Raspberry's sentence with "bye-bye, berry". This causes Strawberry to become sad, as she stands in front of her food truck.
Strawberry's friends walk up to her, and Orange Blossom asks her what's wrong. Strawberry tells Orange that she sold out of everything, to which Orange tells her that's awesome. Strawberry sadly says that it's awesome today, but tomorrow it's "bye-bye, berry". Lemon Meringue puts on her goggles and inspects Strawberry, who grabs Lemon by her overalls and shakes her, panicking about her "country berry vibe" getting old and causing everyberry to get tired of her baking, Strawberry drops Lemon and pulls her beanie over her eyes. Blueberry Muffin reassures her that the universe brought her to Big Apple City for a reason, and asks why would she think that. Lime Chiffon looks at Raspberry's truck and gasps, immediately figuring out what happened as she tells her friends to look. At the truck, Raspberry gives a kid some of Strawberry's treats, now repackaged, while Sour stands on a stack of hay wearing a cowboy hat with a stick of wheat in her hand. Sour encourages everyberry to head down to the Raspberry Supreme bakery truck for "authentic country treats", before delivering a flat "yee-haw" and putting the straw in her mouth.
Orange angrily adjusts her headband, incredulous at what Raspberry is doing, grabbing Strawberry's hand and leading her over to Raspberry's cart. Lime approaches Raspberry's cart and interrogates her about what she did. Raspberry feigns ignorance, telling Lime that berries just like her authentic treats more than Strawberry's. Strawberry snaps out of her sad state and angrily tells Raspberry those are her treats, Raspberry just bought them all and stole her vibe. Raspberry fakes shock at the accusation, telling Strawberry her pastries just have strawberries, while hers have strawberries and raspberries and are wrapped in a bow. Raspberry confidently whispers to Strawberry that she's proven her point, that anyberry could do what she did, and everyberry could care less as long as they get their treats.
Just then, a customer gets Strawberry's attention and asks her if the treats are authentic, since Strawberry comes from the countryside herself. Strawberry smugly tells the customer that the berry who made them (referring to herself) definitely knows what she's doing, but comments that there are too many raspberries (referring to Raspberry). She then jumps onto the haystack and promotes her own baking in a Southern accent, taking Sour's hat and telling the customers to go to the Extraordinary Berry for actual authentic country treats, offering up some "every berry country coffee cake". All the customers cheer and head back to Strawberry's food truck.
Cutaway: Strawberry confesses Raspberry made her feel like being herself wasn't enough, but then she realized what was happening when Raspberry tried to steal what was unique to Strawberry for her own business.
Strawberry and Raspberry watch everyberry walking back to the Extraordinary Berry, and a tumbleweed going past Raspberry's truck. She walks up to Raspberry and confidently tells her that she can try imitating Strawberry all she wants, tossing the cowboy hat at Raspberry, but there's only one authentic Berryville baker in Big Apple City, and she's not going anywhere. Strawberry hands the pastry the customer gave to her earlier to Raspberry, and tells her "bye-bye, berry" as a mocking echo of what she said to her earlier, before skipping back to her truck to serve her customers.
Sour Grapes walks up to Raspberry, who angrily declares that she's going to squash Strawberry, while squishing the treat in her hand for emphasis, splattering the filling on Sour's face. After a brief pause, Raspberry angrily orders Sour to get her a napkin.
Cast[]
- Ana Sani as Strawberry Shortcake, Customer #1
- Tabitha St. Germain as Raspberry Tart
- Meg Roe as Sour Grapes
- Diana Kaarina as Blueberry Muffin, Customer #2
- Andrea Libman as Lemon Meringue
- Margarita Valderrama as Lime Chiffon
- Bahia Watson as Orange Blossom
Non-Voiced Appearance:[]
- Mr. Mangosteen
- Mrs. Crumbcake
- Honeydew Sorbet
- Grandma Buttermilk Beignet
- Hippy Berry
- Peanut Butter Crisp
- Deliveryboy
- Salesberry
Trivia[]
- Several things about Raspberry Tart are established:
- This episode makes it clear that Raspberry Tart's name change has been reverted for Berry in the Big City, after the 2003 Series and Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures changed it to "Raspberry Torte".
- The reasoning behind Raspberry's hatred of Strawberry is that she's angry Strawberry has become the more popular baker at the Berryworks. Her motive was unclear before this episode's premiere due to Ghost of Cupcakes Past airing out of order to coincide with Halloween, which ended up being the first appearance of Raspberry. This episode, however, is her official debut.
- Raspberry is incredibly wealthy, as evidenced when she buys all of Strawberry's baked treats.
- Raspberry's cart name is also revealed as the "Raspberry Supreme".
- This episode marks Raspberry and Sour Grapes' first speaking roles.
- While it isn't explicitly stated, Raspberry and Strawberry demonstrate some parallels with one another.
- Raspberry grew up in a rich, upper-class lifestyle in the city, while Strawberry grew up in the small humble town of Berryville located in the countryside.
- Her and Strawberry's designs reflect each other. Both wear dresses/skirts with a jacket and long leggings/socks. Both have pinkish colored hair. Both have some sort of face spot (freckles for Strawberry, a mole for Raspberry). Their designs also reflect their backgrounds. Strawberry's is more rustic and homely, reflecting her country bumpkin origins. Raspberry is more urban and modern, reflecting her upbringing in Big Apple City.
- They both run bakery trucks with a similar basic design, which also reflect each other. Strawberry's truck has several "country" elements, such as the garden roof, awning decorations, and being a hand-me-down from a family member. Raspberry's truck is very sleek, with sharper edges and prominent signage featuring a raspberry on the roof and the right side of the truck, compared to the Extraordinary Berry's subtler strawberry theming.
- In the original episode release, the ending scene with Raspberry Tart and Sour Grapes is shown fully. In future releases of the episode on YouTube and Netflix, a strawberry iris-out is added, which ends after Raspberry crushes a pastry in her hands, with the final line occurring during the black screen.
- Lemon has no speaking lines this episode, though she does make an audible "hmmm" noise when inspecting Strawberry, which is why Andrea Libman is still credited in the episode.
- Strawberry Shortcake's "pain au strawberre" that she briefly showed off is a variation of the French pastry "pain au chocolat", a croissant filled with chocolate. Strawberry's version is the same thing, but with strawberry filling in place of chocolate.
- Blueberry Muffin briefly mentions "The Universe" when she's comforting Strawberry, telling her that it sent her to Big Apple City for a reason. Later episodes would establish that she believes herself to be friends with The Universe and that it's always looking out for her. Those same episodes would also show that there might be some truth to her claims.
Errors[]
- The same boy buying Raspberry's treats is handed the same food two times, one is when Lime points out the problem to Strawberry and the second when Lime approaches her.
Gallery[]
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Transcript[]
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Video[]
