In recognition of our friends at Fox Home Entertainment releasing a new DVD of Strawberry Shortcake tales, I'm sharing some interesting trivia about the adorable red headed girl and her berry best friends plus a fun coloring page for A Geek Daddy blog readers to enjoy. Here are five interesting facts that you might not know about Strawberry Shortcake:
- Strawberry Shortcake and her cat, Custard, were designed by greeting card illustrator Muriel Fahrion in 1977 and were part of a popular line of greeting cards for American Greetings' Juvenile & Humorous card department featuring the characters.
- Strawberry Shortcake toys appeared in 1979 when American Greetings licensed the rights to Kenner Toys who at that time also had the rights to another brand that was growing in popularity called Star Wars. Kenner produced Strawberry Shortcake dolls that had hair that smelled like each character in the toy line,s fruit themed name until 1985, which also happens to be the same year that the toy manufacturer discontinued production of its line of Star Wars toys.
- Strawberry Shortcake starred in an animated feature film called The Sweet Dreams Movie that was released on October 7, 2006 and played in select theaters across the United States. Fox Home Entertainment released the movie on DVD in 2007.
- From 1980 through 1985, back in the days when there were only a handful of stations you could watch on TV, Strawberry Shortcake and her gang of friends were featured in an annual television special. Plum Puddin who is one of the main characters in the current run of Strawberry Shortcake animated programming including the newly released DVD Berry Tales was first introduced in the very first TV special as a boy. The character then wasn't seen again in the television specials, toy line or any other licensed products until "he" was reintroduced as a "she" in 1984 with the introduction of a Plum Puddin doll by Kenner and inclusion in that year's annual television special.
- American Greetings sold the ownership rights to Strawberry Shortcake in February of this year to Iconix Brand Group for $105 million dollars. Iconix purchases ownership of iconic brands then manages their licensing to manufacturers, retailers, and television, movie and video game producers. Some well known brands also owned by Iconix include Joe Boxer, London Fog, Ocean Pacific, The Sharper Image, Starter, and Umbro. In 2010, Iconix partnered with the Charles M. Schulz family to acquire all the assets related to the Peanuts comic strip from its longtime owner United Media creating a new company to manage this brand called Peanuts Worldwide which is 80% owned by Iconix and 20% owned by Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates. A 3D animated Peanuts Movie is being released at theaters across the USA on November 6, 2015.
In Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Tales, Plum Puddin learns to believe in herself when putting on a small and simple play for a young audience during the tale of "Snowberry and the Seven Berrykins". The next tale is "Berryella and Prince Berry Charming" which focuses on guy friend Huck agreeing to act in a production of this berry tale then quickly realizing that he'd be happier working behind the scenes. Finally in "The Littlest Berrykin" Strawberry, Lemon, and Raspberry star as three princesses on a quest to rule a kingdom that realize during their adventure that they can never succeed without kindness and generosity.
