"A Circle of Friends" is an episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures.
Summary[]
The Berry Girls work on special designs for the Glimmerberry Gathering. But after seeing her design on other lanterns, Raspberry worries it was stolen! Her initial suspicions spread to the other girls, and soon they lose trust in each other.
Episode Review[]
The Berrykin cleaning crew is busy doing the prep work for the upcoming Glimmerberry festival. After finishing they pile the dead leaves and decide to leave- until the wind suddenly blows them away.
At Strawberry's cafe, Strawberry, Pupcake, and Custard are preparing for First Frost. She has been decorating the tables with pretty ornaments. While cleaning up, she finds a box beneath the counter. She pulls it out to find a book she used to read prior to moving to Berry Bitty City, and she decides to call her friends to read it with them. She and her pets take off to run into Orange and Lemon, then she stops by the boutique to speak with Raspberry, who is in the middle of a pile of swatches.
After finding the specific one she was looking for, Raspberry explains that she was very excited about her idea for the upcoming festival. It's the best one yet. Strawberry brings up her plans at the Cafe with the others, and leaves her friend to work in peace.
That evening everybody in town shows up for the story. Strawberry has them sit down. Princess Berrykin expresses how happy she is to have been invited. Strawberry sits with her and begins to read, until Plum suddenly interrupts and quickly turns the topic of discussion to Glimmerberry carving. It's a tradition that everyone wants to participate in, and they're so excited that they quickly take off before Strawberry can finish her story. She apologizes to Princess Berrykin, who reasons that perhaps the timing wasn't right. She assures Strawberry that one day she'll help them see the real reason for the gathering.
Raspberry is busily working, and later, Lemon shows up wanting to take a peak of her design. Raspberry refuses, so Lemon explains that she really came to borrow some drawing paper.
That following morning, the girls are gathering their Glimmerberries for carving. Raspberry hurries home when she bumps into the others, who are going to work together at Strawberry's place on theirs. They invite her and she accepts the offer, but she doesn't want to share her design with them just yet. But to her surprise, she realizes their designs match hers. She ends up accusing Orange of having stolen her design, but the girls are doubtful. Raspberry becomes so frustrated after putting so much effort into her design that she decides to leave, stating that she won't carve a glimmerberry after all. Before going, she recalls how Lemon came by the other day and accuses her of having stolen it.
Later, Plum and Blueberry become convinced that their designs were copied by Orange and Lemon. They are unaware of the other two girls having the same discussion about them.
Plum decides to talk to Strawberry about this with Blueberry, but she accuses the blue-haired girl behind her back; which the latter overhears. Once Orange and Lemon show up, their argument turns into a severe shouting match with Strawberry caught in the middle.
Unsure of what to do about her feuding friends, Strawberry vents to Princess Berrykin. None of them want to carve glimmerberries now. Princess Berrykin decides that if such good friends are going to act like this, they won't have any choice but to cancel the festival.
Back at the Cafe, Custard and Pupcake comfort Strawberry as she starts putting away the box with her book. However, something she sees suddenly instills her with hope, and she realizes that she can't give up yet. She calls the girls to straighten things out.
Strawberry gets them together and she forces them to listen to the story about the first glimmerberry gathering. During the first winter in Berry Bitty City, it was so harsh that despite the communities best efforts, the grove would not be able to survive. Then the littlest berrykin suggested that they carve out glimmerberries, and put glow-bugs in them to help keep the plants warm. Initially everyone scoffed at the idea, but they knew they had to at least try. Without the plants, the city wouldn't have any food or power. They gathered together and picked glimmerberries, then they carved them and the warmth from them worked. Therefore the lesson of the story and meaning behind the festival is that everyone needs to come together and learn to depend on each other for the sake of the community.
Strawberry shows everyone the box the book was in and the design on it. It turns out that all of them had the same idea from the design, which was why they thought it was stolen from them. Nobody stole from each other after all. Realizing this, Raspberry apologizes for starting this, and the others apologize for their part in it too. With everyone feeling better, the girls quickly run out to get started with carving their glimmerberries. The festival is able to resume with everyone coming together once again.
A montage plays as everyone marches through Berry Bitty City with raised, carved Glimmerberries. For the finale, they come together, with each lantern forming the design when put together.
Quotes[]
Lessons[]
The girls learn a lesson in making accusations without solid proof. Raspberry had rushed to judgment in accusing Orange because of prior frustration and the effort she put into her work, being unable to recall where she got the inspiration from and believing her idea was stolen. This led to the other girls accusing each other of the same thing and nobody was getting along until Strawberry helped them realize they weren't focusing on the upcoming celebration and having fun anymore, and they should have investigated to figure out the truth.
Trivia[]
- Custard can turn lights on and off on command.
- When everyone gets together, Orange, Lemon and Plum were next together, while Strawberry sat with the Princess Berrykin. Raspberry stood next to Pupcake and Custard.
- Blueberry was the only berry girl whose seat is not visible.
- The lesson the girls learned in this episode is very similar to that from "Vanishing Violets". However, unlike that one, it wasn't just one girl making assumptions, it was most of them.
Goofs[]
- During "Life is Sweet", they leave at night, pick strawberries at daytime, and then it is night again when they parade.
- It is possible that picking the strawberries may have taken the entire daylight period, since some regions of the world have extremely short daylight hours in the winter.
- During the montage at the end of the episode, Mr. Longface is shown with a yellow lantern; as everyone is forming together, his lantern is now the same color as Raspberry's.
External links[]
- A Circle of Friends at the Internet Movie Database