"Strawberry's Berry Big Parade" is an episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures.
Summary
Strawberry's friends help her prepare for the BerryFest parade. But soon it turns into them needing her help. Eventually the stress causes everyone to blow it off, and when Strawberry gets into trouble, they worry she ran away because of them!
Episode Review
Strawberry opens the cafe door to see a bunch of Berrykins announcing her as the Berry Best Princess. She admits that she doesn't know what a princess does though, and they begin to describe the many things she'll need to gather for the upcoming event- like flowers and honey, and she'll need to learn how to twirl a baton, and so fourth. She still doesn't really understand until they hand her some official rules and she heads back inside to determine what to do while Custard plays with a ball.
After thinking it over, Strawberry decides things would be easier if she assigns tasks to the various members of her group and calls them up. They all eagerly agree to lend a hand and she assigns each girl with a task she is sure they can handle.
Later, Strawberry decides to pay everyone a visit. First she finds Orange Blossom, who informs her that she has a bunch of work to do right now so she can't exactly work on her part yet. Strawberry points out that the Garland is very important and they need to hurry with it when Orange realizes she's late and asks Strawberry to watch the shop while she picks up the flowers.
To be supportive, Strawberry resumes her sorting in the mean time when Plum comes in to discuss the dance she wishes to do in the parade. She wants to practice the bunny hop, thinking it's the most fun, and mentions coming because she wanted Orange to lend her a hand. She asks Strawberry to take her place, and after a moment of hesitation Strawberry agrees. With that the two begin to hop while she continues sorting.
Soon Blueberry comes in, highly confused as Strawberry asks her how things are going. Blueberry then admits that she can't continue working because she's missing a few items that someone still has, then she asks to show Strawberry the map she made, to make sure it's perfect. Strawberry asks her to wait since she is busy, but Blueberry is less-than understanding and insists she checks it now as Orange returns. Strawberry tries to get the trio of berry girls to help each other since she still has her own work, but they each need a bunch of unrelated tasks to handle and they refuse to cooperate.
With no choice she heads off to check on Raspberry, who has been working on some wings for the float. Lemon comes in and Strawberry asks her about the music, but Lemon admits she got distracted focusing on the wings- but suddenly spots something that needs improved. At first this upsets Raspberry but she decides to focus on improving her own with some glitter glue.
Feeling defeated, Strawberry takes off yet again, concerned that nobody is near finished. She notices that Custard is getting distracted and it makes her remark that everybody is becoming more fussy and stressed and nothing is getting done. It's then Strawberry realizes that she was so distracted and trying to deal with everyone else that she was doing everything but the final task; which is shown to her by Custard. Due to how busy she was trying to help push the others to get their work done, she didn't realize that they are all supposed to be having fun.
At the Parade Location, the Berrykins are decorating the Royal Ride and bringing food and other decorations and items for the parade. While going over the list Strawberry is practicing her baton twirling when Orange comes to show her the garland she made and goes to hang it up, but not before Strawberry reminds her that she should keep smiling and be happy. Blueberry comes over to show them the new map and tries to explain that the poles and garland are in the wrong location, but Strawberry informs her it's too late to change it now, upsetting Blueberry since she used ink to make the map and it won't be that easy to modify.
Things worsen when Plum joins them to show the girls her Bunny Hop- but eventually the trio end up arguing. Raspberry and Lemon arrive to show the wings they made to Strawberry but get competitive over it and they join in the arguing. Everyone gets angry and leaves in a huff while Strawberry tries to hang up something, thinking they're still helping her until she trips and ends up hanging from the pole.
Lemon comes back, falsely reassuring Strawberry that she would help her, but it turns out she only returned to ask Strawberry for help sewing her wing before leaving again.
By luck, Strawberry is picked up by the wind and sent floating in some random direction. She lands on a pile of leaves in a small plant but is lost and can't get down.
After some time, back at the Parade location many of the Berrykins are wondering why the parade hasn't begun yet. The girls have tried searching for Strawberry but could only find her baton. They try to go over what could have happened but slowly it hits them that they let Strawberry down with all of their bickering and arguing and making things difficult for her. After some tears and apologies, they soon manage to determine Strawberry must have gotten stuck in some plant after hearing her calls for help and go to rescue her.
Each girl uses what she had made or helped with in order to rescue strawberry, from hopping over a pond, to following a pathway in the Daisies, to using the garland and wing as a rope to let Raspberry float up to Strawberry to get her down! As the two girls float back down to the others, Raspberry asks Strawberry why she was up in the plant to begin with, but Strawberry is too happy that all of them finally worked together that she doesn't even answer. She also points out that it looked pretty fun.
The others apologize, and the Parade then officially begins. The episode comes to an end as Strawberry waves to the others while riding in the special strawberry oriented carriage.
Lessons
As a leader, Strawberry was trying to do what was best for the sake of accomplishing tasks and kept trying to push her friends to focus. By the time she realized having fun was important, everyone was given too much free reign and this ended up angering everyone and nothing got done. It took the berry girls working together to remind them of their love for one-another and how much fun this event was supposed to be to begin with.
Quotes
- Blueberry: ...Do I even wanna know?
*~*
- Orange: Do I even wanna know?
- Blueberry: That's what I said...
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- Strawberry: I wrote this so fast, I put this task last. It's rule number one, make things fun.
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- Plum: I perfected my Bunny Hop!
- Blueberry: That's the fifth time you perfected it...
- Raspberry: "No wonder she took off, if I was her, I'd quit too."
*~*
Trivia
- This is the first episode to show a rivalry between Raspberry and Lemon.
- Kadiebug and Sadiebug make a cameo near the end of the episode on one of the floats.
- This was the second and last episode with Strawberry's name in the title, following "Strawberry's House Pest".
- This was the first time the group (minus strawberry) was shown to cry.
Goofs
- When the wings were being used in the air, they appear much bigger then they were when held on the ground.
- It is possible that they are made from stretchy fabric though.
- Plum was not shown using a helmet on her pogo-stick, although Orange wore one.
- This goes against the common rule of promoting safety in children cartoons. In more than one episode ("The Berry Best You Can Bee", "The Berry Big Harvest"), even Pupcake and Custard appeared wearing a helmet.
- When Strawberry is in her cafe with the list, notice Custard playing by a window with a pine shaped tree with pink flowers on it. The strawberry chair and table are in front of it. But later, when Strawberry paces by, the chairs and table are not there, and a lamp is in the corner.
- The sequences during the parade montage are out of order: one instance shows Strawberry approaching and going past Postmaster Bumblebee, but she passes him again later during it. The same thing is noticeable with Orange and her helmet and Pogo-stick.
- It comes off as strange that Strawberry would put Lemon in charge of music, despite her having no implications that she has any interest or skill associated with it.