Tropes In The True Story of Strawberry Shortcake

All Tropes In The True Story of Strawberry Shortcake

Adaptational Karma

 * Self-inflicted example. The Brambleberry Fairy is quite depressed seeing the results of her malevolent work and regrets what she did.

Adaptation Name Change

 * "Sleeping Beauty":
 * The Sleeping Beauty is called "Princess Strawberry Rose", probably because she and Strawberry Shortcake herself look similar.
 * The Prince is called "Prince Huckleberry".
 * Maleficent the fairy is called the "Brambleberry Fairy".
 * "Berry Brick Road": The Munchkins are renamed the "Berrykins", taking their new name from a combination of their old one and "berry". Quite humorously, spritelike creatures with the same name have appeared in the 1980s series.

Adaptational Nice Guy/Gal

 * Ginger Snap, Orange Blossom, and Blueberry Muffin accidentally apply this to Cinderella's wicked step-family, until Angel Cake defies it.

Adapted Out

 * In the book version of "Sleeping Beauty", the Berry Fairies consisted of Gingerberry Fairy (Ginger Snap), Angelberry Fairy (Angel Cake), Orangeberry Fairy (Orange Blossom), Rainbowberry Fairy (Rainbow Sherbert) and Appleberry Fairy (Apple Dumplin'). In the episode version, Angelberry Fairy was absent due to Angel portraying the Brambleberry Fairy instead of Blueberry Muffin like in the book; because of this, her role as a Berry Fairy was replaced with new character Tangerineberry Fairy (Tangerina Torta).

All Of The Other Reindeer

 * Randolph is brutally discriminated by everyone (except his parents and love interest Halo) for not just the red glow in his body, but also for not being in league with the Nazis.

The Aloner

 * Coco Calypso and Banana Candy, at first.

Alpha Bitch

 * Peppermint Fizz tends to be the mean, bossy one in the first seasons, but she outgrows it.
 * Angel Cake develops into this in the final season
 * Lime Light is introduced as an egotistical movie star.
 * In "Back in the Saddle", Lemon Meringue takes on the role as the snooty popular one at the dude ranch. She and Banana Candy give Plum Puddin' a hard time for her clumsiness and say rude things behind her back much to Power Ent's annoyance.

And I Must Scream

 * The Tin Woodsgirl, just like the original, gets immobilized. Fortunately, Strawberry Shortcake lubricates her joints with the can of oil that she found nearby, freeing her from her immobilized state.

Arc Words

 * The phrase, "Growing/Getting better everyday/all the time." could be seen as this.

Artistic License – Physics

 * Two instances in "Angel Cake in the Outfield":
 * Despite her apparent distance from them following her outburst, Angel Cake still hears her friends.
 * Afterwards, the kids somehow manage to send their ball bouncing into the river despite being far from it.

Ask a Stupid Question

 * In "Horse of a Different Color," when Honey Pie Pony encounters the kids trapped in the middle of a river:
 * Honey Pie: My word! What are you all doing out there?
 * Huck: Not much.
 * Honey Pie: Don't go anywhere!
 * Huck: We weren't planning on it!
 * Fry: Do you even think we gon' go somewhere dude? Not in a situation like this!

Attack Reflector

 * In "Around the Berry Big World" Pink Glaze Donut reflects a porcupine's quill attack.
 * "Berry Brick Road" has this where the Wicked Witch of the West fires a spell at the heroes, but the Scarecrow gets an idea where the Tin Woodsman reflects the spell with his own body. It works, and Taken for Granite ensues where the Wicked Witch and her flying monkey get trapped in stone.

Bad Boss

 * The Wicked Witch of the West mistreats the Berrykins in her first appearance in Berry Brick Road.

Beach Episode

 * The Mystery of Seaberry Shore and The Legend of The Lost Treasure

Because You Were Nice to Me

 * Happens in "Everybody Dance" to Sour Grapes. She disguises herself as a dance instructor to keep the kids busy so she and the other villains can take over the world, but she enjoys teaching them so much and their dancing is so extraordinary she cannot bring herself to do it, and with Strawberry's encouragement, she begins a change of heart.

Becoming the Mask

 * Sour Grapes briefly in "Everybody Dance", when she enjoys Strawberry and her friends' dancing so much that she can't bring herself to betray them.

Beleaguered Assistant

 * Cola Chameleon to Peppermint Fizz
 * Sour Grapes I, II, Sweet Grapes, Raisin Cane, Licorice Whip, Captain Cackle, and Foreman Poke to the Purple Pieman, and Raven to Licorice Whip. These put-upon sidekicks are more sensible than their bosses but are made to go along with their schemes.
 * Custard tends to feel she is in this position for Strawberry Shortcake.
 * Polly N. Saturated averts this, because Cranberry Clover views them as an equal.

Berserk Button

 * Do not insult and/or injure Blueberry Muffin by any means. If Cranberry Clover finds out you did, he won't hesitate to hurl an insult at you. Angel Cake learns this the hard way in "Lights... Camera."
 * Peppermint Fizz snaps at the villains in "The Sweet Dreams Movie."
 * Angel Cake just about loses it in when she thinks about the minors of Porcupine Peak being killed in "A Weeping Angel."

Big Brother Instinct

 * Sour Grapes wishes that all the male villains followed this trope for her.

Big "NO!"

 * Followed by a Rapid-Fire "No!" when Huckleberry is offered to play Prince Charming in, "The Play's The Thing". He changed his mind when they offered to bake him some pies.
 * Foreman Poke has this while the villains super weapons and equipment used to rule the world literally explode, securing their defeat.

Blush Sticker

 * The characters on the show have permanent blush stickers, except for the animals and villains.

Bowdlerise

 * In Strawberry's variation of "Sleeping Beauty", instead of the antagonist casting a spell where the princess pricks her finger and dies, she will just disappear forever.

Broken Aesop

 * Probably several episodes, but two particularly blatant examples quickly come to mind:
 * Win Some, Lose Some: Yes, Strawberry, Cheaters Never Prosper. Especially if your definition of "cheating" doesn't include deliberately withholding a competitor until the final event. A final event which she and the others have to be reminded of after the fact! In their defense, though, most of the events were too dangerous for a one-year-old like Apple Dumplin' to participate in.
 * The Good Mayor: It really goes without saying that a pest infestation which could cause a mass plague AND the apocalypse is NOT AT ALL the time to start asking nicely unless it helps with the situation. Unlike the original, the bugs are burnt by Almond Cookie, and Foreman Poke, who released them to pave the way for global catastrophe, falls into the river when the log is pushed in.

Brother–Sister Team

 * The Pieman and Sour Grapes are a villainous version.

Cain and Abel

 * Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes, particularly highlighted in multiple episodes. Sour Grapes (as the Wicked Witch of the West) gets a temporary switch to Cain in the Berry Brick Road episodes with Plum Puddin' (as Glinda the Good Witch) as her Abel.

Canon Foreigner

 * Countless new characters were made for the purpose of extension.

Cheaters Never Prosper

 * Peppermint learns this in "Win Some, Lose Some" following her Pyrrhic Victory.
 * The earlier episode "Peppermint's Pet Peeve" has a moment where she is accused of cheating by some of the other kids, who chew Fizz out for it. This causes Fizz to lose.

Christmas Carolers

 * Strawberry runs into some while shopping for presents in "Berry Merry Christmas".

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome

 * Dregs, who was always with Sour Grapes in the '80s, appears in only one episode here never to be seen again.

Cinderella Plot

 * In "The Play's the Thing", everyone makes fun of Strawberry's raggedy raincoat. Then, they put on a Cinderella play and learn about how it's the inside that makes you beautiful, not what you wear. Strawberry plays Cinderella. Blueberry Muffin plays the stepmother, but is recast as the Fairy Godmother. Orange Blossom and Ginger Snap play the stepsisters. Angel Cake plays the Fairy Godmother but is recast as the Wicked Stepmother (thanks to Cranberry Clover). Huckleberry Pie plays the Prince.

Cry Into Chest

 * Apple Dumplin does this to Cranberry Milkshake in Recovery, while Angel Cake cries into her mother's chest in A Weeping Angel.

Cuddle Bug

 * Baby Strawberry would always do this to Gruffy.
 * Cranberry Clover and Blueberry Muffin are berry affectionate toward each other.
 * Nixon, expecting to shake hooves with Randolph after he comes back, is nuzzled by his son.

Death Is a Sad Thing

 * Near the end of How It All Began, Cranberry Milkshake helps Strawberry as she grieves over Gruffy's passing. In the Fate of All Strawberryland, Strawberry weeps silently following King Sugar Cube's death.

The Diaper Change

 * Anytime Gruffy needs to change Baby Strawberry and Cranberry Milkshake, with the help of God's angels of course (albeit offscreen).
 * When Baby Ginger Snap needs hers changed in "Baby Takes the Cake" in Apple Dumplin's Imagine Spot, Apple first tells her to do it, then realizing it's not going to happen, does it herself offscreen.
 * Apple: Please, Baby Ginger Snap, don't ever do that again.

Didn't Think This Through

 * The Brambleberry Fairy planted brambleberries around her house to protect her stuff. This also created a delivery dead-zone, so she couldn't get the invitation that the Page was trying to deliver her.

Dislikes the New Guy

 * Peppermint toward Rainbow in "The Costume Party" due to seeing her as "different" than everyone else.

Distant Duet

 * "The Best Pet Yet" from "Peppermint's Pet Peeve", as Strawberry and the gang are getting their pets ready for the pet show.

Downer Ending

 * Subverted in the first segment of "Berry Big Journeys", where the kids miss their chance to see a flower that blooms once every decade but learn that all that matters is that they had fun.

Easily Forgiven

 * In "Win Some, Lose Some," Peppermint Fizz is easily forgiven by Strawberry Shortcake for cheating in the games. Of course, it does help that Strawberry was never really mad at her, just sad at her failure to understand that the important part of playing games is having fun. Generally true for other cases where someone does something wrong as well.
 * Defied hard by Cranberry Clover in "Piece of Cake." After Blueberry Muffin is insulted one too many times by Angel Cake, Cranberry Clover ends his friendship with Angel.
 * Angel Cake's mother Mrs. Christ knows that Angel Cake wanted to get her feelings out, and understands Cranberry Clover's grudge against her daughter, and decides to give him a chance to put it to rest, which he accepts.
 * After Randolph comes home in "Lights... Camera..." Nixon forgives his son for running away, knowing he did so out of guilt after the events of "Down On The Farm".

Expressive Ears

 * Honey Pie Pony has these, and the other equines. Pupcake has them too.

Facepalm

 * Grown-up Apple Dumplin', after first seeing Strawberry as a baby and after the baby versions of Strawberry and her friends refuse to take a nap in "Baby Takes the Cake."
 * Pink Glaze Donut does then when Angel Cake pins Blueberry Muffin on hiding the scripts (Lights...Camera...)

Five Stages of Grief

 * Peppermint hits all five beats throughout "The Costume Party" during Rainbow Sherbet's arrival: she's unwelcome over her because she's different (Denial), lashes out at Strawberry and her friends for such which hurts Rainbow's feelings (Anger), her actions eventually cause Rainbow to consider moving away (Bargaining), is upset when she doesn't get what she wants when the girls play a costume party prank where everything's the same (Depression), and finally accepts Rainbow for what she is and becomes a good friend (Acceptance).

Forced Sleep

 * The Brambleberry Fairy ends up putting Princess Strawberry Rose to sleep thanks to the Apple Fairy.

Four-Girl Ensemble

 * Ever noticed how many episodes star four of the girls? Who the four girls are varies, but Strawberry Shortcake herself is always among the group.

Gadgeteer Genius

 * Ginger Snap is always working on some handy contraption. Blackberry Bun has also made devices.

Gender Flip

 * The Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and Cowardly Lion have their roles filled by Ginger Snap, Peppermint Fizz, and Orange Blossom.

Girliness Upgrade

 * Inverted with Strawberry and Raspberry. They were girlier in the '80s version but are more tomboyish here.
 * Played straight with the Season 4 redesigns. Almost everyone has a more feminine-looking design. Overlaps with Used to Be a Tomboy, to a degree.

Girlish Pigtails

 * Ginger Snap has these.
 * Angel Cake, before the Season 4 redesign.

Gone Horribly Right

 * See Didn't Think This Through.

Green Aesop

 * A line in the song "Friendship Grows" reminds us to "treat the good Earth with respect".
 * The entire plot of "Where the Gem-Berries Glow."

Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold

 * Angel Cake and Lemon Meringue are both kind-hearted blondes, although Angel Cake takes a level in jerkass in the final season. Peppermint Fizz evolves into one later.

Happy Birthday to You!

 * A Berry Happy Birthday, performed at the end of Meet Strawberry Shortcake and briefly reprised and used as a score in Supreme Sixteenth.

Heel–Face Turn

 * Licorice Whip's assistant, Raven, in The Festival Of The Fillies. Licorice Whip himself goes through one in Horror of the Horses.
 * Randolph risks his bond with his parents to help Strawberry in "Down On The Farm"
 * Foreman Poke takes six episodes (Pie Man's Fury-The Good Lord's Salvation)
 * Most villains in the series except the Pieman and Sour Grapes turn good. Those two turned good in "Lights... Camera..."
 * Sugar Cube, despite not being a villain, goes through this during his final bittersweet moments with Strawberry, revealing that the empire's now hers before his death in "The Fate of Strawberryland"

Heroic BSoD

 * Cinderella suffers this when her wicked stepmother (Angel Cake) tears the dress that Cinderella picked so she could go to the ball. Fortunately, the Fairy Godmother (Blueberry Muffin) helps out.
 * Strawberry Shortcake gets one in "A Festival of Friends" when she concludes that the party is hopeless after Angel Cake ruins her cake (whose remains form a river that flows out of her factory) on accident.
 * Strawberry Shortcake has another one in The Sweet Dreams Movie after Sandman is captured by Lord Purple and the Pie Man.

"The Hero Sucks" Song

 * "Not Like Me" from "The Costume Party" is sung by Peppermint Fizz, dissing Rainbow Sherbet.

High-Pressure Emotion

 * Cranberry Clover, twice.
 * In "Piece of Cake," right before he ends his friendship with Angel Cake.
 * In "Lights...Camera," complete with teakettle whistle.

Ineffectual Loner

 * Peppermint Fizz.
 * Then there's Banana Candy, although in actuality she dislikes being one and only does it to keep Strawberry and company stuck in her town so she's not alone.
 * Then Raspberry Torte nearly turned into one in the episode "Mind Your Manners".
 * Coco Calypso.

Incredible Shrinking Man

 * Strawberry and Ginger Snap have to shrink in order to get to the Berry Fairy Fields.

It's All About Me

 * Angel has this on occasion, most notable in "Angel Cake in the Outfield". Sometimes she can be bossier than Peppermint.
 * Peppermint originally had this in her early appearances but outgrew them as of her redesign.
 * Lime Light. She even has a whole song about it.

Jabba Table Manners

 * Raspberry Torte has these in "Mind Your Manners" at first. Thanks to Strawberry Shortcake, she overcomes this flaw.

Jerkass Ball

 * Angel Cake ends up on both ends of this trope. The first episode where she had this, "Angel Cake in the Outfield", has her suffer bouts of It's All About Me and storm off when she fails. In "The Play's The Thing", she takes offense to how Blueberry Muffin, Ginger Snap, and Orange Blossom applied Adaptational Nice Guy to their characters and gives them this to get the story back on track, though an angry Cranberry Clover tells her to switch characters with Blueberry Muffin.

Knight Templar Parent

 * Professor Grapes is this for Rapunzel in A Princess Named Rap.

Minion with an F in Evil

 * In one episode, Strawberry Shortcake and her friends are putting on a play of Cinderella. Strawberry as Cinderella cries when the evil step-relatives say she can't go to the ball. Blueberry Muffin (the stepmother) and Ginger Snap and Orange Blossom (the stepsisters) feel bad and say she can go after all until Angel Cake (the fairy godmother) gets the story back on track.

Mirror Character

 * Raspberry Torte and Sour Grapes. Both are pessimists by nature, both are quite loyal to one person (Lemon Meringue and Purple Pieman, respectively), and both had the same abandoned dream.

Motor Mouth

 * Ginger Snap has a penchant for fast-talking.

My God, What Have I Done?

 * Peppermint Fizz at first celebrates her victory following the games in "Win Some, Lose Some", but it ends up a Pyrrhic Victory when she sees Strawberry Shortcake giving Apple Dumplin' a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, which ends up making Peppermint Fizz come clean and call herself out.
 * Angel Cake has this when it is revealed that she severely worsened the already gruesome battle raging on in Porcupine Peak while she was Devil Crud in "A Weeping Angel"
 * Randolph seems to not regret running away, but when he sees the girls approaching the cart in "Lights... Camera..." he and his friends stampede to not only stop Strawberry and her friends, but to also save his dad (who is pulling the cart), and stop the Pie Man from kidnapping Blackberry Bun.

Negative Continuity

 * In the first episode "Meet Strawberry Shortcake," Apple Dumplin' is tasked with mixing the pot while making her birthday cake. However, in "Baby Takes The Cake," Strawberry and her friends tell her that she is too little to help them bake.

New Jobs As The Plot Demands

 * This is used to great comic effect in "Strawberry's Big Journey." When the group meets Banana Candy, she is working as a mechanic. They ask if there's somewhere that they can get food and she directs them to a local cafe and offers them a taxi... which turns out to be driven by her. When they get to the cafe, Banana Candy is making the meal, leading them to wonder just how the car is going to get fixed.
 * Banana Candy: Small towns like this, you need a few jobs to make ends meet.

Never My Fault

 * The Brambleberry Fairy blames her exclusion from the party on everyone else when it was really her own Idiot Ball (the Brambleberry fence and ignorance of the invitation) that resulted in her exclusion. This gets toned down later on when she realizes what this made her become and starts to regret what she did. Prince Huckleberry tells her that she needs to listen to get the full message, cementing her Heel–Face Turn.
 * Nixon reveals that the villains' defeat in "Down On The Farm" was not caused by Randolph, who believed he caused it, given why he ran away at the end of the episode.

Non-Human Sidekick

 * Many of the pets.

Not Now, Kiddo

 * Apple Dumplin' gets this sometimes.

Ocular Gushers

 * In "Baby Takes the Cake," all of the babies in Apple Dumplin's Imagine Spot in which she's an adult wail and cry these when she gets angry and tells them that they can't help her. She then starts crying these herself and, seeing this, they stop and calm down.
 * In "A Weeping Angel," Angel Cake has this when after realizing the chaos she caused, these somehow erupt as she bawls into her pillow.

Oh, Crap!

 * Peppermint Fizz gets one when her competitors find that her lizard was just lip-syncing instead of singing much to their ire in "Peppermint's Pet Peeve".
 * The entire gang gets this when they get the idea that an abomination (which they call "the Blueberry Beast") is occupying a house. Turns out, it's just Blueberry Muffin doing her things at home, as Strawberry Shortcake finds out the next day.
 * Strawberry gets this in "Around The Berry Big World" when she realizes that the ship that two persons offered for her and Peppermint Fizz's trip back to Strawberry Land isn't going in the right direction. (Strawberry watched the stars at night.) Fizz doubts it... until Strawberry realizes that the land that they are approaching does not match Central Strawberry Land at all. Fortunately, one of their friends who lives there helps them get back. The Porcupine Peak Army gets this when Pink Glaze Donut leads an ambush to help secure the battle with ten minutes left.
 * The Pie Man, Sour Grapes I, and Lord Purple before the sheep trample them in Down On The Farm. Randolph also gets this when he is spotted helping Custard and Pupcake leading the animals back to Carmel's Farm.
 * The Purple Pie Man realizing that his father, Adolf Hitler was revived in Pie Man's Fury.
 * All of Porcupine Peak as an absolutely furious Angel Cake (In her Devil Crud alter ego) sets foot in the wasteland.
 * The Wicked Witch of the West gets this when the Tin Woodsman reflects her spell back in her direction with his own body and she (along with the monkey who was flying her) turns to stone as a result.
 * Satan just before his death.

Once per Episode

 * At least two songs are sung almost every episode.

One, Two, Skip a Few

 * Not quite a straight example, but in the "Not Too Little" song from "Baby Takes the Cake," Apple Dumplin' sings that she can count to ten.
 * Apple: 1, 5, 9, 6, 10!

Overly Long Name

 * The Purple Pie Man's full name is Adolphus Steven Hitler Junior The Peculiar Purple Piemanne of The Exile Wastelands of Nazi Porcupine Peak of The Fourth German Reich

Our Fairies Are Different

 * The Berry Fairies.

Paper-Thin Disguise

 * "Everybody Dance" has Sour Grapes in disguise as a dance instructor named "Rita Rutabaga", which she uses to take advantage of Strawberry and her friends' love of dancing and distract them so the Purple Pieman can overthrow God.
 * "Around the Berry Big World" has the four Porcupine Peak Leaders in a paper-thin disguise as a ship crew, offering to take Strawberry Shortcake and Peppermint Fizz home to Strawberryland, but actually out to sabotage them in hopes they win the war.
 * Played with in "Down on the Farm." Strawberry Shortcake, Pupcake, and Custard disguise themselves as sheep and hide among the sheep of Caramel Corn's farm to discover who's been stealing her animals. Caramel Corn finds their disguises less than convincing, but Strawberry says that by the time it's dark they won't notice anything. When the Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes come to take the sheep, Sour Grapes asks if they should take the "funny-looking" ones as well. Pie Man, being a jerk, says that he doesn't care what they look like.

The Perfectionist

 * Despite her Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold personality, Angel Cake has this flaw. She has a bad habit of calling out those who aren't perfect. Contrast Huckleberry Pie, who's a bit messy.

Playground Song

 * In "Strawberry's Big Journey," Orange Blossom leads several rounds of "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt." Angel is irritated by such.
 * The True Story version of "Down On The Farm" has the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" playing as a montage shows us what goes down on Carmel's farm.

Public Domain Soundtrack

 * Almost the music uses classical songs with a bit of "L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2: Farandole", "Night on Bald Mountain", "The Nutcracker Suite", "William Tell Overture", "Flight of the Bumblebee", "In the Hall of the Mountain King", "Ride of the Valkyries", "Ode to Joy", "Hungarian Dance No. 5", "Violin Concerto in E Minor", "Swan Lake Suite", "New World Symphony", "The Rite of Spring", "Solveig's Song", "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2", and even "Korobeiniki".

Puppy Love

 * Strawberry Shortcake and Huckleberry Pie
 * Blueberry Muffin and Cranberry Clover, starting in "Cranberry Clover's First Love".
 * Fruit Punch and Sugar Cube.

Raised by Wolves

 * With the deceased parents unable to take care of Strawberry and Cranberry, Gruffy, being the wise beast he is, takes up the responsibility of caring for the young ones.
 * A mammoth mule by the name of Sènor Mula is said to have trained Annie Oatmeal to be successful with her ranch.

Related in the Adaptation

 * Angel Cake's father is Jesus and her grandfather is God. Her mother also appears.