Archive:General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals

General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals is a series of five current and formerly distributed breakfast cereal brands for the North American market during the later half of the 20th century. The series includes the currently produced Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, and the currently unavailable Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy

History

Template:Infobox generic Template:Infobox generic Template:Infobox generic Template:Infobox generic Template:Infobox generic In 1971, the first two cereals in the line were introduced, the still-available Count Chocula and (strawberry flavored) Franken Berry. Boo Berry was released two years later, in 1973, and Fruit Brute appeared a year after that, in 1974. Fruit Brute was discontinued by 1983 and replaced in 1988 by Yummy Mummy, which also had a short life and was discontinued in 1993. Boo Berry and Franken Berry are sometimes mistakenly thought to be discontinued as well. In reality, their distribution is just much lower and more sporadic than that of the flagship cereal Count Chocula. The best time of the year to find Boo Berry and Franken Berry is around Halloween. Target and Wal-Mart are among the stores that have been known to carry these more scarce cereals during October in time for Halloween. They can be found year-round in the Midwest at Wal-Mart Supercenters and on Amazon.com, and in the Southeast in many stores. In addition, they have been spotted year-round in some Wal-Mart Supercenters in the East.

Health concerns

Franken Berry was very popular when first introduced, even though the initial batches of the cereal used a dye that didn't break down in the body, causing many children's feces to be bright pink, a symptom sometimes referred to as "Frankenberry Stool."

There were also some public concerns regarding the potential health implications of eating Count Chocula, in part because the product used to contain high levels of sugar, which may have led to it being temporarily discontinued. However, it was later reintroduced with healthier ingredients, such as whole grain corn.

Appearances in popular media

Count Chocula

Television

• On the TV series Futurama, Count Chocula has been promoted to Archduke and is known as Archduke Chocula, just as Cap'n Crunch is now Admiral Crunch.
• The Simpsons episode Sweets and Sour Marge shows a parody of him, named Count Fudgeula, as being a sugarholic that wishes to quit (his teeth have fallen out due to gingivitis) but finds himself unable to resist. In Treehouse of Horror IV the credits list Matt “Count Chocula” Groening. The episode The Old Man and the Lisa, has Mr. Burns shopping for cereal. When he sees Krusty with a box of Krusty-O’s he asks, “Can you tell me where they put the Burns-O’s?” Krusty replies, “They don't put nobodies on cereal boxes!” Then, he notices the Count Chocula cereal and says “Hmm. I suppose this one looks a bit like me.”
• An episode of Invader Zim contains a parody character named Count Cocofang, a mascot for Coco Splodies cereal.
• On the episode "Health Care" of "The Office", Jim or Pam lists "Count Choculitis" as an illness when Dwight forces the staff to disclose their diseases in order to reduce health benefit costs. Dwight asks "Did you write that because you know I love 'Count Chocula'?"
• In Robot Chicken, Count Chocula is seen as a judge in an American Idol spoof called Zombie Idol in which he substituted for the role of Simon Cowell.
• A cut-away in the Family Guy episode "Wasted Talent" shows Cap'n Crunch wanting The Godfather to assassinate Chocula because "that son of a bitch has been spreading lies! My cereal does not cut the roof of your mouth! With all respect." [1]
• In the 21 Jump Street episode Old Haunts in the New Age, Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise) dresses up as Count Chocula for Halloween.
• In the HBO Original Series The Sopranos, mobster Johnny Sack is jokingly referred to as Count Chocula.
• In the Psych episode American Duos, Emilina Saffron refers to Detective Carlton Lassiter as Count Chocula due to the detective's likeness to the mascot.
• In the Imaginationland episode of South Park, Count Chocula appears among the imaginary characters in the titular land.
• In one television commercial, instead of the usual animation, Count Chocula was played by a live actor.

Film

• In Wedding Crashers, John Beckwith resists the temptation to go over-board in taking on fake occupations in order to sound fascinating; he says "I'd like to be pimps from Oakland or cowboys from Arizona but it's not Halloween. Grow up; Peter Pan, Count Chocula."
• In Blade: Trinity, Dracula walks into a store that sells vampire souvenirs. He picks up and looks at a box of Count Chocula cereal, then kills everyone in the room.
• In the movie Tank Girl, a character states he's better in the dark, like Count Chocula. He's angrily corrected by a friend, who tells him that "It's Dracula, fool! Count Chocula is the guy on the detergent box!" which sets off a heated argument until Tank Girl tells them to shut up.
• In the movie Multiplicity, Doug Kinney #4 (the child-like clone of Michael Keaton's character) finishes off a box of Count Chocula (and all of the rest of the food in the clones' apartment).
• In the movie Sugar & Spice, Jack Bartlet (James Marsden) asks Diane (Marley Shelton) which character she would rather be: Count Chocula or Trix the Rabbit, during their trip to the grocery store. She said Trix the rabbit.

Music

• In one of the many versions of his song "Your Body is a Wonderland", John Mayer imitates Bobby Brown singing "And in the morning, girl, I'm gonna pour you a bowl of Count Chocula"

Literature

• In Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, the story of the book starts with a note lying next to an empty Count Chocula box. After reading the note, Wheeler simulates the Count Chocula cereals with Froot Loops and some Nesquik.
• In 1999, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a front-page story about Count Chocula, portraying him as an actual blood-sucking monster to underscore the humor of his role as mascot for a children's cereal. Franken Berry is also referenced in the article, though not named.

Theater

• In Robin Williams Live On Broadway 2002, Robin makes a reference to Count Chocula as part of his performance. He talks about the winner of gold medal in snowboarding (freestyle) at the Winter Olympics. Robin says "Would you like to be on a box of Wheaties? -No. Count Chocula."

Internet media

• In the Halloween edition of Something Awful's Tub Bites series, there is a sketch where Count Chocula, called Chocolate Dracula, is trying to make kids eat his cereal, along with Frankenberry, called Strawberrystein. The kids are scared by the pair and kill them. Boo Berry looks out of the window and floats away.
• In the popular webcomic Something Positive, protagonist Davan McIntire and his best friend Aubrey Chorde buy a large supply of the monster cereals, which Davan (who has a culinary bent) transforms into a number of experimental desserts. The odd foodstuffs are then "donated" to a bunch of collegiate potheads.

Other

• When Danny Kass won the silver medal in the Snowboard Halfpipe event at Salt Lake Olympics in 2002, he shouted "I'm going to be on the Count Chocula box! Count Chocula!."
• A t-shirt with Barack Obama's face over an image of Count Chocula and bearing the slogan "Count Barackula For President" surfaced on the internet during the 2008 U.S. presidential race.
• In the Troika videogame Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines an e-mail mentions a way to hack the game in order to play as a chocula clan vampire.

Franken Berry

Franken Berry has appeared in South Park, Family Guy, The Simpsons, robot chicken , Dead Like Me (as "Frankenfruity"), Drawn Together . He is also mentioned as looking like a Russian who conned Randy in My Name is Earl.

Other Characters

• In the Metalocalypse episode "Dethdad", when the band visits Norway, Murderface points out a child who looks like Boo Berry.
• Somewhat unusual for a retired advertising character, Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute continue to be seen on the occasional piece of official merchandise: in recent years, both a resin model kit, and a bobblehead doll have been sold in their images.

File:Frankenberry Comic-Con2007.JPG

Franken Berry display at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. 2007.

External links

• General Mills
• Parody article on Count Chocula in The Onion
• Count Chocula inspired parody t-shirt
• Monster Cereal Facts and Commercials