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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Strawberry Shortcake!

Ah, the 80s and early 90s and childhood memories. American Greetings created a slew of popular girls' tv animation characters (ex: Rainbow Bright, Lady Lovely Locks), but none has become quite as long-runningly successful as Strawberry Shortcake.

Old versus new: I feel the trademark style of Strawberry Shortcake kind of dissolved in the 2000s. They look like any character you might find on Dora the Explorer even :-(

Unfortunately, like the My Little Pony franchise, Strawberry suffered an--in my opinion--overdone makeover to make her "hipper" and more of a "tomboy." I say that because she's wearing jeans and almost everything cutesy has been deleted from her wardrobe to make her look "sleeker," "simplified, and up-to-date (and somehow like Where's Waldo?). I know this is probably an attempt to make her character more gender-neutral (while still marketing exclusively to girls), but I'm going to really, really miss the cute and original-looking costumes the characters wore. Just look at the above difference! The new designs are BORING. The only thing identifying each character is their hats.

But I choose to remember her as she was, and I made a new polyvore coordinate to celebrate her quirky, girly style:
Strawberry Shortcake

So here's my question to all of you: Did you have a favorite childhood cartoon/tv show/book/etc that was remade recently in a way that made you shudder? The closest thing for me currently is the new Transformers movies (yes this frilly, girly girl loves metal music and is addicted to the original Transformers series. Ba-weep-grana-weep-ninny-bom). How do you feel about sequels to childhood classics or revamped characters/plot? What studio exec scarred your precious childhood memories?

1 comments/comment?:

Jaime said...

I liked My Little Pony generation 3. They're currently on "3.5", and I don't like the new look. And it's a younger demographic, which I'm sure sells more, but I just don't like the new molds, and they're releasing the same ponies over and over again.