''Strawberry Shortcake'' is an American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

animated series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either ...

produced by

DIC Entertainment Corporation DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production comp ...

and

American Greetings American Greetings Corporation is a privately owned American company and is the world's second largest greeting card producer behind Hallmark Cards. Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting ...

based on the franchise of the same name that debuted in March 2003. The series consists of 45 episodes, plus one short and one movie. Part of the series was broadcast on television including by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, and

HBO Family Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, and in

broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

. None of the voice actors from the 1980s ''Strawberry Shortcake'' animated specials returned to reprise their roles, with producers instead opting for younger and lesser known voice actors. To coincide with the series'

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

in 2009, the 2003 series was succeeded by ''

Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures ''Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures'' is a CGI animated television series based on the '' Strawberry Shortcake'' franchise. The series, produced by MoonScoop Group (2010–2013) and Splash Entertainment (2015), follows the adventure ...

'' in 2010.

Release information

Home Video

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...

began releasing the series direct-to-video in the United States beginning in March 2003. The first few episodes were released on both DVD and VHS, and bundled with certain toys; later episodes are DVD-only. They are also available on VideoCD through various fourth party licensees in South-East Asia and in certain other markets. The first four videos contain only one story but run for twice the length of subsequent episodes. From Season 2 onwards, the DVDs and VHS's are presented as "compilations" in which Strawberry recounts the featured adventures using her "remembering book" or for Season 4, showcases the featured stories as simple flashbacks. 22 Volumes (1 including the movie) have been released for the series overall.

Television

United States

In the United States, although promoted as a direct-to-video series, the series did air on television as well. In late-2003, Season 1 gained one-off airings on

and

. In September 2006, shortened Season 1 and Season 2 episodes aired on Mondays within the Program B slot (which mainly aired on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

affiliates) of the

DIC Kids Network The Cookie Jar Kids Network (formerly DiC Kids Network) was a syndicated children's programming block that airs selected Cookie Jar Group shows on local Fox, The CW, MyNetworkTV, and independent stations to provide them with a source of E/I p ...

Syndicated block. It would then gain a slot on the KEWLopolis block on CBS in September 2007, with the addition of Season 3 episodes. Season 4 has never aired on television in the United States and remains exclusively on DVD and digital download.

Internationally

In international markets, DIC pre-sold the series to

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

in the United Kingdom and

Fox Kids Europe Jetix Europe N.V. (formerly known as Fox Kids Europe N.V.) was a European television broadcasting company that owned children's television channels and programming blocks across the Europe and Middle East, such as Jetix and Jetix Play. History ...

in some European territories in 2004. In 2008, DIC pre-sold the series to more broadcasters including M6,

Canal J Canal J (stylised as canal J) is a French pay public television channel dedicated to children's programming. It is aimed at children aged seven to fourteen. On 1 February 2019, M6 Group entered negotiations to acquire the television unit of ...

and Tiji in France,

Tiny Pop Tiny Pop (styled as tiny POP) is a British free-to-air children's television channel in the United Kingdom, owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. Broadcast on many of the major digital television platforms in the UK, Tiny Pop, which was ...

in the United Kingdom,

K-T.V. K-T.V. (also known as ''Kids TV'') was a children's network broadcast in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus and South Africa as a programming block on M-Net and later on FilmNet. It was owned by Multichoice. In Greece, it used ...

in South Africa,

KiKa KiKA (contraction of ''Der KinderKAnal von ARD und ZDF'' ARD and ZDF">ARD_(broadcaster).html" ;"title="he Children's Channel of ARD (broadcaster)">ARD and ZDF]) is a German free-to-air television channel based in Erfurt, Germany. It is man ...

in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and German-speaking Switzerland, and

Mediaset Mediaset Italia S.p.A., also known as Mediaset, is an Italian-based mass media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE - MediaForEurope. Founded in 1987 by former ...

in Italy. Season 1 episodes are broadcast as two parts instead of being shortened, doubling the episode count to eight. In Canada, the series aired on

Treehouse TV Treehouse TV is a Canadian English-language specialty channel for preschoolers aged 2 to 5 that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from YTV's former preschool block, " The Treehouse". The channel is owned by YTV Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of ...

. From Season 2 onwards, the episodes are presented individually on the TV broadcasts rather than being compilations, although this depended on the broadcaster (e.g.,

Disney Channel Asia Disney Channel was a pan-Asian pay television kids channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia; part of The Walt Disney Company Asia-Pacific. It began broadcasting in Taiwan on 29 March 1995, until its main launch on Jan ...

aired the first four episodes as two-parters). Some networks, like GMTV and

Minimax Minimax (sometimes MinMax, MM or saddle point) is a decision rule used in artificial intelligence, decision theory, game theory, statistics, and philosophy for ''mini''mizing the possible loss for a worst case (''max''imum loss) scenario. When de ...

in CEE aired Season 1 uninterrupted as one, full-length part akin to the DVD releases, while Season 2 onwards are broadcast exactly like on the DVDs with the compilation format.

Shorts and PSAs

A five-minute Strawberry Shortcake short, "Growing Better All the Time", is available exclusively in the ''Care Bears: Daydreams'' DVD (released on October 14, 2003) as a bonus feature. Numerous scenes from the short were used in the 2000s (decade) series' second opening sequence, and the song from the short was released on the "Strawberry Jams" CD. Apart from that, a

Public Service Announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

for the

ASPCA The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective mea ...

was produced and aired in the US. The PSA features Strawberry Shortcake talking about the basics of pet ownership.

Cast

Episodes

Game Boy Advance Video

Majesco has also released Strawberry Shortcake episodes as a

Game Boy Advance Video Game Boy Advance Video was a format for putting full color, full-motion videos onto Game Boy Advance ROM cartridges. These videos were playable using the Game Boy Advance system's screen and sound hardware. The cartridges were all developed and p ...

cartridge: :Strawberry Shortcake Volume 1 :*Meet Strawberry Shortcake :*Spring for Strawberry Shortcake :''Note'': The episodes released on Game Boy Advance Video are the 22-minute edited broadcast version of the episodes (some markets show these episodes as a two-part series without cutting off scenes instead), unlike the video versions which are 45 minutes in length each. Presumably this decision was made to keep the costs of producing the cartridges down (as the need for higher density memory chips would drive the cost of the cartridge up). As a result, two songs and a significant number of scenes from "Meet Strawberry Shortcake", as well as two songs and half of the scenes from "Spring for Strawberry Shortcake" were missing from the GBA Video release if compared to the other videos. Also notable is that the song ''Friendship Grows Like a Flower'' was shortened.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Children's programming on CBS in the 2000s 2000s American animated television series 2003 American television series debuts 2008 American television series endings Strawberry Shortcake American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated musical television series Television series by DIC Entertainment Television series by DHX Media CBS original programming First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Television shows based on Hasbro toys English-language television shows Animated television series about teenagers