A Boy and His Dogs is the first episode of Season 3 of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures.
Summary[]
Strawberry and her friends befriend a boy after they assist him and some stray dogs. In this time, the boy requests their help with his puppies.
Episode Review[]
It's a beautiful, average day when someone suddenly crashes.
Meanwhile, Berrykin Ed and Berrykin Earl fearfully tell the Princess and the Berry girls that they encountered a monster with seven noses. As Orange and Blueberry approach the group, Strawberry suggests they go to investigate. At the crime scene, they hear a strange sound and recognize it belongs to puppies and a boy. She finds the boy to be stuck in a van and they introduce themselves to each other before welcoming him to Berry Bitty City.
After they free him from the muddy hole a bunch of puppies suddenly break out of the van. He struggles to keep them together and explains what he does, driving around to find good people to adopt the dogs.
That evening, Huckleberry explains Strawberry and Cherry that he has been driving from town to town in the Pup-Mobile, getting dogs adopted. Originally he started with twenty-five of them, and will be taking the remaining dogs to Berry Big City, where he plans to open "Huckleberry's home for pets". Strawberry and Cherry are impressed.
Soon the berrykins have finished doing their work, and Huck thinks it's time to leave; Strawberry insists he stays the night since it's so late now, even letting him use her apartment above the Market while she returns to her bedroom at the Cafe. She leaves, after remembering to also take Pupcake and Custard with her.
As Huckleberry sleeps, the puppies get up and make a huge mess.
When Strawberry returns the following morning, she is momentarily startled but she understands that Huckleberry's dogs are just puppies. Huckleberry feels very bad, however, apologizes and offers to fix it, no matter how long it takes. This makes Strawberry happy and later in the day she notices a blue
carpet suddenly roll over to her and finds Huckleberry inside. As they talk, Raspberry and Orange show up with the cute leashes Raspberry made before they explain their idea of each berry girl being host of the dogs so that Huckleberry won't have to watch all seven of them at once. Huckleberry agrees and each girl picks one of the adorable pups.
Unfortunately, over time the berry girls begin to wonder if maybe they didn't pick the right pooch for them. Lemon's adorable pink puppy doesn't have much hair for her to groom and it seems to be more vocal than she imagined. While Plum's puppy refuses to dance and just wants the treats she has.
Meanwhile, Huck is trying to fix the room and the berrykins offer to help him but he claims he can do it himself and that he likes to do these things, so the berrykins let him use their tools. At first, it seems good but it falls apart and he decides to go take a break instead by visiting the girls at the dance studio. He asks to join them but he ends up falling off the stage in the process. Huckleberry then goes to the Berry Bitty Cafe and sees Strawberry in the middle of baking and he offers to help her put the muffin mixture into the oven. But he doesn't actually know what the oven is and accidentally inserts the mixture into the toaster. He pays Cherry a visit, then Blueberry after he hears strange sounds coming from the van. However, Cherry is trying to teach one of the dogs to sing, but honestly it sounds lousy. She asks Huck to sing when he claims he enjoys it, but it turns out he isn't very good either. Cherry offers Huckleberry a lesson, but he leaves instead.
Meanwhile, Orange and Raspberry are on their way to Lemon's Salon as they explain of a new hairstyle they wish to try. Huckleberry claims he's been dying to get this hairstyle too, and while they have their doubts he comes along anyway. But this too also ends up not working and he goes into hiding out of shock and embarrassment.
Later, Blueberry is trying to teach her puppy to find the puppy treats she went to hide but the little pup hesitates for a few minutes until she sees Huckleberry in a bush nearby. Blueberry confronts him and forces him out of the bush after he explains what happened. So before she brings him inside, Blueberry sprays Huckleberry with a hose after she lies and claims it has a warm setting, so it'll fix his hair. He gets sprayed with cold water.
Inside then, he thanks Blueberry for the Ginger tea, claiming it to be his favorite. Blueberry accuses him of this claim and notices his strange behavior. So Huck explains that because everybody was so nice to him, he was trying his hardest to fit in by trying to be the same as everyone else. However, Blueberry tells him he just has to be himself and when she brings up a quote from Patty Persimmon, he says he knows that quote from here, and he loves the book series a lot. To see if he told the truth, Blueberry quizzes him with some trivia, before happily bonding with him over their love of the series. She also reveals that she has the newest book in the series and she lets Huckleberry have a copy but on one condition: he has to promise to be honest about how he really feels.
At Orange Mart, Raspberry comes in to see the tiny little puppy hiding. Orange is disappointed since she had hoped to use it as a guard dog, but it's shy. Raspberry then comments on how her puppy doesn't like the sweater she made for it either, as Orange points out it's probably because of its thick fur. Raspberry however soon notices that the little puppy isn't afraid, it's just cold. So she takes the sweater from her pup and puts it onto the tinier one.
As this goes on, Huckleberry shows the brand new room to Strawberry and he asks her about her opinions regarding it. She is very pleased and offers him to return to Berry Bitty City at any time he pleases. Strawberry also points out that all of the berry girls cared for him right from the start when they realized how nice he was. The following day he is busy packing his items, ready to take off with all the pups until the girls casually ask if they could keep them, with some changes that it. He agrees before realizing that the last pup seems to want to be with him instead of Strawberry, so he decides he'll just take the pup and names him Tom Tom.
And so, with all the girls happy with their pets, and Huck has made some friends, he drives off with Tom Tom into the distance.
Quotes[]
- Huckleberry: Aw, mud pies...
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- Strawberry: Okay, tell me again what you saw, but slower this time.
- Ed: Okay. So there we were, were we? On a routine irrigation test...
- Earl: Bouncing boysenberries! Looks like we got a loose triple lock.
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- Princess Berrykin: Oh, how unbecoming.
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- Orange: What's going on, Strawberry?
- Strawberry: Monster in the berry patch.
- Orange: Scary berries! (with trembling voice) So... what do we do?
- Strawberry: I guess we... go meet it!
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- Blueberry: I myself don't see any evidence of a monster. (she heard yapping) Sounds like... DOGS?!
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- Huckleberry: Be reasonable now, that was my last biscuit.
- Strawberry: Dogs!!! And...
- Strawberry, Orange, Cherry, Blueberry: A BOY!!!
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- Strawberry: Excuse me...
- Huckleberry: No excuse me! Umm... who... w-where'd you come from?
- Strawberry: Berry Bitty City! I'm Strawberry Shortcake. I live there with my friends!
- Huckleberry: Oh, hi there. I'm Huckleberry Pie!
- Orange: Hello, I'm Orange!
- Cherry: Hi, I'm Cherry!
- Blueberry: Hello Huckleberry, I'm Blueberry!
- Ed: Ed!
- Earl: I'm Earl!
- Strawberry: Where are you headed?
- Huckleberry: (sighs) Not anywhere now. I'm kinda stuck...
- Strawberry: Hmm... not for long you aren't!
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- Strawberry: So, you've been driving from town to town in "Huck's Pup-Mobile" getting dogs adopted?
- Huckleberry: Yeah, I started with 25. I'm taking these, um... (lowering his voice) "leftover guys" to Berry Big City, to start "Huckleberry's Home for Pets".
- Cherry: (impressed) Awww...
- Strawberry: That is quite admirable.
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- Blueberry: Give Berry Bitty City a chance to like you for who you are.
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- Blueberry: (imitating Patty Persimmon) Ah-ha! I think I'm getting the better of this mystery before it betters me!
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- (final scene: the last puppy approaches Huckleberry)
- Strawberry: (chuckles) No wonder he didn't stay with any of us! He's been your dog all along!
- Blueberry: Well, Huckleberry? Will you let him adopt you?
- (Huckleberry pets the puppy)
- Huckleberry: (chuckles) I think Tom Tom already has!
- (Huckleberry and Tom Tom enter the Pup-Mobile. The girls wave goodbye)
----
Lessons[]
Huckleberry learns over time that he doesn't need to try so hard to make friends. As long as he acts like himself - he'll meet people who truly care for him as he is.
Trivia[]
- Starting with this episode, new clips were added to the opening.
- Also added are screen transitions.
- Also note that the art for the series has become "smoother", and more vibrant.
- In the first two seasons, Strawberry's voice actress was always on the top in the cast order. Starting with this episode, all the voice cast are listed in alphabetical order, by last name.
- This is the first episode premiere to introduce a new berry character.
- It would be followed by Season 4 premier, in which Sweet Grapes and Sour Grapes are introduced.
- Huckleberry is the first and only boy introduced as a main cast member.
- This is the only episode to feature Custard and all eight puppies together.
- The fourth wall is broken when Blueberry glances at the camera while spraying Huck, before the screen fades to black.
Goofs[]
- When Huck's van is pulled out of the mud pit/hole, it strangely does not have any mud on it.
- Cinnapup was in front of Raspberry at one point, but when Lemon comments on the puppies - she is suddenly in front of her.
External links[]
- A Boy and his Dogs at the Internet Movie Database