• The New York Times, Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12 PM

American Greetings Properties has worked for a year on what it calls a "fruit-forward" makeover on Strawberry Shortcake, the doll and cartoon star of the 1980s who has not been connecting with modern girls. She now prefers fresh fruit to gumdrops, appears to wear just a dab of lipstick (but no rouge), and spends her time chatting on a cell phone instead of brushing her calico cat, Custard.

Strawberry Shortcake's new look was unveiled Tuesday, along with plans for a new line of toys from Hasbro. She is not the only aging fictional star to get a facelift. American Greetings is dusting off another of its lines, the Care Bears, which will return with a fresh look this fall (less belly fat, longer eyelashes).

Warner Brothers hopes to "reinvigorate and reimagine" Bugs Bunny and Scooby-Doo through a new virtual world on the Internet, where people will be able to dress up the characters pretty much any way they want. The studio introduced futuristic-looking "descendants" of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and others in a TV series in 2005. But many parents hated the "Loonatics," which had mohawks and menacing eyes.

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