Going on an Indiana Jones-style adventure through an underground tunnel with mysterious openings, the team have to solve the mystery of the dried-up river bed, with Strawberry Shortcake leading the way.
Strawberry Shortcake’s brother, Pineapple Cobbler, is a bit of a scaredy cat at first, but Strawberry Shortcake jollies him and the rest of the gang along.
The bad guy, greedy Boysenberry Mousse – snazzily dressed in purple and very conscious of keeping his hairstyle swooped back and his sneakers clean – lurks around corners, spying on them, trying to keep one step ahead.
Not even his AI assistant, Parsley, likes him.
Turns out he’s built a dam so the Berry family are forced to sell the farm to him, for the resort he wants to build on the land.
The first 15 minutes of this short film are quite tame: Strawberry Shortcake and her city chums arrive in the country, where Pineapple Cobbler and their mum are clearly worried about the dried-up river bed. But despite the impending doom, some of them focus on baking, while Apple Dumpling, Lemon Meringue and Orange Blossom water the berry bushes with the small amount of water that remains.
Meanwhile, Lime Chiffon and Blueberry Muffin are on the hunt for Granberry Jam’s old recipes, which they believe will lead them to the Berry Guardian’s treasure.
Yes, there’s a Treasure Island-type map, a secret entrance or three, a spoon that doubles as a key just the right size to open a vast door and a room full of gemstones and eggs that bounce out of holes in a rocky underground cliff, bursting open to spew out green foul smelling vapour, if you don’t do things correctly.
Urgent mixing of pie fillings follows, something about doing that quickly will stop the roof of the cave falling on them, and then they all, bad guy included, follow a paved path, being careful to only step on the stones marked with the ingredients of chocolate cake.
Step on a banana and you fall into the abyss.
The pace is good, it’s never really scary, the opening and ending songs are catchy, the characters are clearly from either the city or the country which adds a layer of interest for older viewers and something magical happens near the end that means the river valley is once more full of water and the worrying days for all Berries are over.
A standalone that follows several other Strawberry Shortcakes stories that can be found on YouTube, this one is holiday fun for the whole family.
★★★
