Dr. Donna's Review

About the Film

Strawberry Shortcake and her friends Ginger Snap, Orange Blossom, Angel Cake, Raspberry Tart, and Lemon Meringue discover that there are not many strawberries in the garden this year. They are all disappointed, especially Angel Cake, because there aren't even enough to make a single cake. They see that the Berry Birds have been eating a lot of the berries and they shoo them away but they know the birds have not eaten all of the berries. Something else is wrong. Strawberry Shortcake has the idea that if they make a new garden and take care of it together, there will be strawberries.

While she is explaining her dream of a beautiful new garden to her friends, a strange couple arrives in Strawberry Land . It is the Peculiar Purple Pie Man and his sister Sour Grapes. They have come to build a pie factory and decide to build it on the same spot as Strawberry Shortcake's house and yard. When Pie Man finds the girls working together to make a garden, he shows them a deed and tells them they will have to leave because he owns the land. The girls are confused and sad but they leave. Pie Man and Sour Grapes plant the seeds and wait but nothing grows. Pie Man thinks that Strawberry Shortcake knows the trick for making strawberries grow and orders one of the Berry Birds to go off and find her so he can learn the “secret.”

In the meantime, the girls have argued and gone off in separate directions. Strawberry Shortcake, who wants her friends to get back together, invites them to a slumber party where they all have a good time. They talk and sing about how important it is to have and follow your own special dream. Berry Bird overhears these conversations and rushes back to tell Pie Man that the secret is “to believe in dreams.” Pie Man decides that he must find the dreams before Strawberry Shortcake does. He packs up his and heads off to Dreamland.

During the night, a Sleep Bug visits Strawberry Shortcake from Dreamland. The Sleep Bug warns her that Pie Man is causing trouble in Dreamland and tells her that she has to go there herself to help stop the trouble. Dreamland is far away and some of the girls are doubtful that they can or should go there. Strawberry Shortcake convinces them that they can and must go. It is resourceful Ginger Snap who builds a Dream Boat to take them there. When they arrive they learn that Pie Man has played the same trick by telling the citizens that he has a deed to the property and that they must leave or obey his rules. He has taken over the Dream Factory, locked up Charlie, kicked Sandman out and stopped sending dreams saying that from now on, all the dreams belong to him. Dark clouds are forming over Dreamland for the first time.

Strawberry Shortcake and her friends feel helpless in the face of his power until they realize the power of believing in yourself and in your dreams. By focusing on their individual dreams, each girl is empowered with the necessary skill to help overcome Pie Man and Sour Grapes and send them back home. When the girls wake up the next morning, they are back in Strawberry Land where the garden is starting to grow. They are not sure that the visit to Dream Land actually happened but they are sure that in order to keep the garden growing they need to take care of it and add love everyday.

About the Kids
This film's primary appeal is to younger children, especially girls, up the age of 6. Some younger boys may enjoy it also. The film may continue to appeal to older girls up to the age of nine. Those children who have collected and played with the “Strawberry Shortcake” characters will be pleased to see the many familiar characters.

Film Content and Features
“The Sweet Dreams Movie” tells a simple but meaningful story. The central themes of the story are:

1. The importance of believing in yourself and your ability to create your own reality, i.e. to have and realize your dreams;

2. The importance of friendship; and

3. The value of friends who bring different talents and skills together to solve problems. The six girls represent both diversity and a range of personality characteristics and demonstrate that no one is perfect. For example, Raspberry Tart can be negative and cynical compared with the other girls but when we learn about her lack of self-confidence, it is easy to feel empathy for her and feel glad to see her grow.

The film features the classic color palette of the Strawberry Shortcake mystique. It also contains several songs that help to underscore the major themes. Most of the songs are solo performances in child friendly voices but there are also some more complex pieces such as a lovely duet and an almost operatic, darker piece sung by the Pie Man.

Things to Talk About
The three central themes of the story lend themselves to discussion with children after seeing the film.

• Theme 1 . The importance of believing in yourself and your ability to create your own reality.
  
• Help children remember and cite instances when Strawberry Shortcake's positive attitude helped her move forward and accomplish difficult goals. There are several examples in the story, one is when the Sleep Bug told her to come to Dreamland she was not sure she could. She said, “I'm only a child.” But, she enlisted her friends and together they made the journey and saved Dreamland.
• Encourage children to talk about their own dreams and wishes.
• Theme 2 . The importance of friendship
• Strawberry Shortcake loves and relies on her friends. Help children cite the instance when she found a way to bring her friends back together after they had an argument, i.e. the slumber party.
• Encourage children to talk about times when their own friends had disagreements and how they might have helped bring them back together.
• Theme 3. The value of friends who bring different talents and skills together to solve problems.
• Discuss the different personality types among Strawberry Shortcake's friends: Ginger Snap talks all the time, Angel Cake cries when she is upset, Raspberry Tart holds back and doesn't believe in dreams. And yet, the girls get along in spite of, or because of their differences. Encourage children to talk about the different qualities that their friends have. Encourage tolerance for their differences.
• Discuss the way in which their differences and their different dreams led to skills that helped stop Pie Man, e.g. Lemon Meringue dreams of being a flying princess and her ability to fly enables her to stop Pie Man's machine; Orange Blossom dreams of being an acrobat and her skill enables her to release Sandman from the cage.
• Ginger Snap also had a dream that helped stop Pie Man. Encourage children to remember and describe what Ginger Snap did, e.g. she dreamed of being the driver of a race car and drove the car to catch Pie Man.