Broken Base: Did the series break when A) They started making material past the 1980s stuff, B) they introduced villains and generally re-tooled the 2003 series, C) demoted Honey Pie Pony and the existing Fillies to extras, then introduced new, bland Fillies with no personality in the former's places a few months later, D.) reboot the franchise again in 2009 and made the new show CGI, or E.) it never broke at all?
Character Perception Evolution: You would never believe it, but the characters weren't at all accepted during its debut years, with many artists considering the franchise and Strawberry as its representative as a sign of corporate constructed franchises becoming the norm. Given the benefit of time and longevity, most people have accepted it as a franchise by the end of the 20th century.
Common Knowledge: Fans of the series will say Strawberry Shortcake's older designs had curly hair, which is often used as criticism against future incarnations for lacking that trait. However, it should be noted that Strawberry did not actually have curly hair (aside from the short-lived and fairly obscure 1991 revival which received no animated media). Strawberry's original design featured yarn-like red hair, similar to a rag doll, while her 2003 reboot design merely had messy orange hair. Neither of which were curly, as so many fans are led to believe.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: It had and has a strong following in Mexico among both first-generation fans and girls who watch the remake, where it is called "Rosita Fresita". It may have even contributed to the slang "fresa" [strawberry] being synonymous with posh and over cute, or "Valley Girl". It also has a berry, berry strong following in South and South East Asia, specifically in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and The Philippines. Even to this day merchandise of the 2003 series (specifically, Baby Strawberry Shortcake products) are still being made and sold in the mentioned countries, in addition to 2009 series clothes, stationery and body care products.
Hilarious in Hindsight: With his tall, wiry build, Dick Dastardly mustache, Thin Chin of Sin and affinity for the color purple, the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine (especially in the 1980s version) looks eerily like a prototype for Waluigi.
Strawberry herself, as she's shown to be close with nearly every character in the franchise.
Due to Huckleberry Pie generally being The One Guy, he gets shipped with a lot of the girls, especially Strawberry, Orange Blossom, Ginger Snap, Blueberry Muffin, and Cherry Jam. He's also shipped with the male character of Bread Pudding.
LGBT Fanbase: Plum Pudding has a fanbase amongst trans people for her gender retcon. She was originally male before later being turned into a female character.
Due to the work of a troll who pretended to be a relative of someone working for DiC Entertainment, some in the Strawberry Shortcake fandom are convinced that Nothing Lasts Forever is a song from an unaired 2003 SSC episode when it's in fact from an episode of PB&J Otter titled "Hope Castle". PB&J Otter itself is a show that had already been cancelled two years before the SSC relaunch. Even after the fact was royally jossed with Disney Asia airing the remaining episodes and every single episode coming out on DVD (and later on, Disney+), some of the fandom still chose to believe it was.
Likewise, The Cuppycake Song and You're My Honeybunch were not from any of the 80s specials, they were by Amy Castle. And no, they're not unused songs from the 2003 series either. If you believe they were, you've been suckered by said troll.
Almost everyone, especially the 1980s or 2003 version.
The 2009 series started to go moe again after they revised Strawberry to go without her hat in some of the merchandise.
Periphery Demographic: It's not just kids who watch the TV series and specials, and collect the toys. However, special mention go out to the early episodes of the 2003 continuity for not only attracting the adult collectors but Slice of Life fans as well.
Sailor Earth: Due to the near-endless list of pastries, candies, and fruit in existence, there's no shortage of fan characters based on these sweets, usually inspired by the 1980s and 2003 series in design.
Trans Audience Interpretation: Plum Pudding was originally created as a boy, but was changed to a girl later in the 80s after a period of her being missing. Thus, a lot of the fan base headcanons her to be a trans girl.
Plum Puddin' was a boy in the first 80s specials, then goes missing, then returns to Strawberryland as a girl for the final specials.
Almond Tea, although unlike Plum Puddin', she had always been a girl.
Also in the '80s, Souffle the Skunk is called by both male and female pronouns. Souffle's voice actress often played male characters, to further the confusion.
In the 2003 remake, possibly as a homage to the '80s Plum, Plum Puddin' is assigned to a horse who is referred to by male and female pronouns.
Woolseyism: Since most of the desserts that the characters are named after aren't eaten outside of the US and Britain, some foreign versions of the cartoons and toys change the characters' names to desserts that are more familiar to their country but still based on the same fruit. For example, Strawberry Shortcake is called Charlotte aux Fraises in France. Other countries decide to retain the Alliterative Name, such as Germany, where she is called Emily Erdbeer.
The 1980s series
Awesome Music: The World of Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City and Strawberry Shortcake: Pets on Parade feature music by Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. You might know them better as Flo (Volman) and Eddie (Kaylan), of The Turtles, The Mothers Of Invention and Down and Dirty Duck fame. Both even said that in a day were labels barely cared about children's music, they wanted something that could break the mould and be liked by fans of their old projects.
Genius Bonus: The Purple Pieman's competing recipe in the Big Apple City bake-off is one for "kohlrabi cookies" — kohlrabi is a variety of cabbage. No wonder the results are bad!
Heartwarming in Hindsight: In the first special Plum Pudding is male, then is absent in the next special, and in the third special she's female and has been female ever since. Out-of-universe it was Kenner deciding the character should be a girl, but in-universe it reads as a very early example of trans acceptance.
Les Yay: When Strawberry befriends Orange Blossom in the second special, the two are swinging on swings together, praising each other's skills, sharing every interest they have, holding hands, and ending with walking down the street together while singing how "we're a we, and we're friends."
Paranoia Fuel: The first special will get children to think twice when strangers come up to them and try to sell them anything. Not that it's a bad thing of course.
Retroactive Recognition: Strawberry's voice actress is Russi Taylor, who would later become famous for (among many, many other characters) voicing Huey, Dewey and Louie, and would be the official voice actress for Minnie Mouse from 1986 until her passing in 2019 (Strawberry's voice basically is Minnie Mouse).
Viewer Gender Confusion: Due to Almond Tea's original outfit having short hair and pants, she was commonly mistaken for a boy. A later 'party' variant put her in a frilly dress.
The 2003-2007 series
Accidental Innuendo: In the song "I love Custard" from the episode Here Comes Pupcake. The title of the song itself is a little cringe-worthy as-is, but the absolute gold has to be the line I could eatmyCustardwitha spoon, sung by Strawberry Shortcake.
Awesome Music: To the point that there are soundtrack releases.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: While the songs in each episode are related to the story and moral, "Strawberry Girl in a Strawberry World" from "Meet Strawberry Shortcake" is the last song in the episode and has nothing to do with the story and seems to just be added so the episode has four songs in it. It even takes place after the story of Apple Dumplin's birthday has ended.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Ginger Snap is probably one of the more popular characters to be introduced in this series, to the point where people still hope for her to show up in future series.
In Legend of the Lost Treasure, the Sea Beast makes a Heel–Face Turn and narrowly escapes death. The adventure ends with a song about treasuring friends. A few months after said episode was made, the character's voice actress died. The Sweet Dreams Movie was dedicated with love to Pam Carter's memory, as mentioned in the closing credits.
The death of James Street ventures into this territory. His character, Huckleberry Pie, often used a skateboard to get around Strawberryland. Riding without a helmet, Street was in a fatal skateboarding crash (Daniel Canfield voiced Huck in the first season).
In "Happily Ever After", Angel Cake gets very upset and angry when she thinks that Rainbow Sherbet's "very best friend" is Strawberry and not her. She immediately overreacts and gets jealous, threatening to leave the sleepover and saying to have her sleepover without her "since they are such good friends," sounding as if she caught Rainbow cheating on her.
In "The Friendship Club", Strawberry and Crepes Suzette have a duet together, with Suzette saying that Strawberry "opened up [her] door and then [her] heart". They also hold hands while looking at the not-Eiffel Tower together. When Strawberry is departing in her hot air balloon, they sing "A bientot, je vous aime / I like you vous aime aussi / I like you too", which translates to "See you soon, I love you / I like you, love you too".
Narm: Due to the show using an Amateur Cast, a lot of line deliveries end up feeling flat, which can lead to some unintentionally hilarious moments. Such as this scene, where Blueberry Muffin (who is a mermaid) gets trapped in a fishing net. She’s supposed to sound panicked, but the way her actress delivers the lines makes Blueberry sound merely inconvenienced or uninterested instead.
Sacred Cow: You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would dare criticize the 2003 show, as its generally beloved due to its wide cast of characters, fun and cozy Slice of Life feeling, and being the series that introduced many fans to the franchise (though said fans are usually less defensive of Season 4, aka the 2007 revamp, due to several changes invoking They Changed It, Now It Sucks!).
2009 series (Berry Bitty Adventures)
Awesome Art: The IDW comic series has some incredible artwork done by Amy Mebberson, every character is expressive, vibrant, and positively adorable.
Cult Classic: If evidence in form of fanarts on Deviantart is anything to go by, this incarnation has its own share of loyal fans.
Overshadowed by Controversy: The series lightening Orange Blossom’s skin color was not received well at all, made especially worse by the fact that she’s usually the only prominent black character in the series. To this day, many people still cite Berry Bitty Adventures as a major example of whitewashing characters in media.
Orange Blossom having straight hair was not taken well. Neither was her Race Lift from black to vaguely Hispanic.
The switch to CGI from the predecessor's traditional animation.
The removal of fan favorites like Apple Dumplin' (though she was eventually reintroduced), Ginger Snap and Angel Cake.
The reintroduction of Sour Grapes as the series villain did not go well with the Slice of Life crowd.
Some fans of the earlier versions of Sour Grapes were disappointed to see her being made into one of the kids as opposed to the wicked old lady she was prior.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The Berrykins and Mr. Longface are tiny critters with too-human faces, and even the main cast can fall into this at times, with their wide-apart eyes, tiny noses, and realistic lips.
The Woobie: Plum Pudding in the episode "Good Citizens Club". Her membership pin gets lost in the mail, resulting in her believing that there's something specifically wrong with her. Afterward, Sadiebug and Katiebug both take advantage of the situation to essentially use her as a slave, only to try and force her to do something that she knows is wrong.
is a variety of cabbage. No wonder the results are bad!