Pets to the Rescue! is the fifth episode in airing order of Berry In The Big City Season 2, and the sixteenth episode in official order. It premiered on July 16th, 2022.
Summary[]
The Purple Pie Man plots to steal Strawberry Shortcake’s prize recipe but the pets won’t let that happen!
Plot[]
The episode begins with Strawberry Shortcake selling jelly donuts to her customers at the Extraordinary Berry. When her cat Custard yawns, Strawberry Shortcake fawns over her, briefly pondering what it would be like to be a pet without a care in the world, but decides that being a busy berry is a good thing, as everyone is loving Grandberry Jam's famous triple-berry jelly donut recipe. Strawberry kisses Grandberry Jam's recipe card, and thanks her grandmother. She then admits she would feel lost without that special card as she sets it off to the side.
Little does Strawberry realize that the Peculiar Purple Pieman had been eavesdropping the entire time, using a comically long ear trumpet to listen in on her. The Pieman immediately hatches a scheme to steal the recipe card. Sour Grapes, eating some of Strawberry's jelly donuts, tries to talk her uncle out of the plan, pointing out that he should just bake something for his own business. The Pieman just ignores her, as he continues plotting to send Strawberry into a self-doubt spiral, and then demands that Sour Grapes, as his protégé, help him out in stealing the card. Sour Grapes refuses at first, believing Strawberry doesn’t deserve such a thing, so the Pieman tries to guilt-trip his niece by claiming that Strawberry Shortcake didn't come to Sour's surprise party (which Sour Grapes doesn't even remember). Reluctantly, Sour Grapes agrees to help the Pieman enact his plans.
The Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes head off to enact their scheme, but unbeknownst to them, Parfait the parrot was listening in on their plans. Parfait immediately flies off to warn the other pets. The pets hear his call and gather at the courtyard, where he tells them about the Pieman's plotting. Custard looks around and spots Pieman sneaking atop the Extraordinary Berry with a fishing rod. Sour Grapes distracts Strawberry by pretending to be a customer (covering her face with a newspaper and putting on an English accent) asking about her jelly donuts, while Pieman prepares to steal the card with the fishing rod. Custard immediately leaps into action, grabbing Frappe and rushing towards the truck. Frappe uses his tongue to grab the fishing line and pull it away, causing The Pieman to lose his balance and fall off the truck. Upon seeing this, Sour Grapes hastily claims she's allergic to donuts as she goes to retrieve her uncle, despite Strawberry having just finished packaging the donuts. Custard and Frappé high-five at their success, though Frappe uses his tongue to do it, disgusting Custard.
Later in the day, Custard continues to stand guard over the recipe card. She hears a buzzing noise, looking up to see The Peculiar Purple Pieman's next plan: attaching himself to one of his delivery drones and having Sour Grapes fly it over to the truck, complementing his genius all the while. Custard whistles, signalling for Parfait to grab her in his talons and fly her over to the drone. She swipes at it with her claw, severing a propeller and causing the drone to go haywire. The Pieman flies frantically all over the Berryworks until he crashes into the camera. Custard and Parfait high-five (well, high paw and wing) over their success.
Even later in the day, a mustached “man” in a purple suit and tie visits Strawberry Shortcake's truck, complementing her for winning the Berryworks Sweepstakes and telling her to go out front to collect the prize, handing her an envelope. Strawberry Shortcake is excited, but recalls she didn't even remember entering a sweepstakes. She rushes outside to claim her prize, unaware that it was yet another ruse so the Peculiar Purple Pieman can rob her of Grandberry's special card.
The Peculiar Purple Pieman sneaks into the Extraordinary Berry, and spots the card next to Custard. Right before he could grab it, Custard awakens and looks around. The Pieman barely manages to avoid her gaze and makes another attempt at the card, but Custard reawakens once again. Now suspicious, she begins patrolling the inside of the truck, though the Pieman manages to hide up near the ceiling. The Pieman ends up losing his grip and falling to the floor, but still manages to snag the card anyway, blowing raspberry to Custard as he flees. Custard meows a warning to the other pets that the Pieman got his hands on Grandberry's card.
Cheesecake blocks the Pieman's way in his attempts to stop him, only to be taunted by the Pieman for being a small mouse. Cheesecake responds to these taunts by running up the Pieman's pants, causing the latter to stumble around in his frantic attempts to excise her from his trousers. Meanwhile, Pupcake sets up a cake in the Pieman's path and stomps on Frappe, causing him to unleash his tongue and forming a tripwire. To finish it off, Custard pounces at Pieman's rear, fangs and claws bared. The ensuing painful attack causes Pieman to trip over Frappe's tongue and fly into the cake, giving Parfait the opportunity to retrieve Grandberry's card from Pieman's grasp. The Purple Pieman screams in rage over his plan's failure. Back at the truck, the alleged man in the suit watches The Pieman throwing his tantrum, and declares that "he" is "done for today". “He” sheds "his" mustache, revealing "himself" to actually be Sour Grapes, who leaves.
Shortly after, Strawberry Shortcake returns to her food truck, having figured out she wasn’t the winner of a sweepstakes but still unaware that it was a ruse, believing that the “man” just mixed her up with another berry. She does compliment that the “man's” great mustache, still oblivious of “his” true identity. Meanwhile, an exhausted Custard flops onto the countertop and hands Strawberry her card. Strawberry thanks Custard, and then reads off what is on the card, which turns out to just be words of encouragement from Grandberry Jam.
Strawberry finishes reading the card as she looks at the photo taped to the card's back, of her and her grandmother embraced in a hug. Realizing that Strawberry was actually speaking of sentimental value regarding the card, and only being metaphorical about being lost without it, Custard tiredly meows as she facepalms. Strawberry, unaware of the events that transpired that day, wonders what her cat is so exhausted about, as from her perspective Custard was just relaxing all day. Custard stares into the camera as the episode ends.
Cast[]
- Ana Sani as Strawberry Shortcake, Custard
- Tabitha St. Germain Pupcake, Parfait, Cheesecake
- Stock Audio Effects as Frappe
- Ian Hanlin as The Peculiar Purple Pieman
- Meg Roe as Sour Grapes
Non-Voiced Appearance[]
- Orange Blossom
- Grandberry Jam (photo, mentioned)
- Mr. Mangosteen
- Grandma Buttermilk Beignet
- Peanut Butter Crisp
- Berry Mary
- Hippy Berry
- Salesberries
- Deliveryboy
- Studio Executive
- Customer #2
Trivia[]
- This is the second pet-focused episode in Berry In The Big City. The first was "It's My Purr-ty".
- This is the first time Parfait, Frappe and Cheesecake appear without Lime Chiffon, Lemon Meringue and Blueberry Muffin.
Continuity[]
- Strawberry Shortcake cherishing her Grandberry Jam's words of advice occurs once again.
- The Peculiar Purple Pieman utilizes one of his delivery drones from Snow-Aisis in his second attempt to steal Strawberry's recipe card.
- Sour Grapes not wanting to hurt Strawberry once again shows she isn't entirely on Pieman's side, like how she went against his orders so she could help Strawberry steal the tokens in Mission Unfrostable. Though in this episode, Sour ends up going along with Pieman's scheme due to his emotional manipulation. It is implied she knows what he's doing, but later episodes will reveal why she kept following him despite this.
- Parfait eavesdropping on Pieman's plotting is a callback to A Berryworks Mystery, where Lime Chiffon mentioned that he loves to eavesdrop.
References to Past Series[]
- Strawberry Shortcake's Grandberry Jam is designed to resemble an elderly 1980s Strawberry Shortcake.
Video[]
Gallery[]
Click here to see the gallery of the episode