Hallowe'en Treats #1 : Meeting Count Chocula

If you've visited the Popular Culture links on this page, you may already be familiar with Darrin's Frankenberry Site. Since I wanted to concentrate on some of the more 'fun' monster topic in the weeks leading up to Hallowe'en, I recently re-visited this site with the intent of featuring it and other General Mills Monster Cereal pages in this column

Ever since my parents abandoned the notion of keeping me indefinitely shielded from Saturday morning cartoons (I think I made it to about age five cartoon-free), I have been enthralled by the graphics and commercials associated with these cereals. In fact, I believe that Frank and his cereal based cronies, Count Chocula and BooBerry (Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy were, sadly, before my time, ), may have been my first ever exposure to the "Classic Monsters" archetypes, even pre-dating Sesame Street's Count VonCount and the various masked spooks of Scooby Doo.

Naturally, discovering unofficial fan sites for my "frighteningly frosted" buddies was a big nostalgia kick for me. While reminiscing over my love for Frank and crew, however, I came to a very strange realization. In all the time I have loved the characters, one year even going so far as to choose them over Herself the Elf as the motif for my back-to-school pencil case set, I had never once tried the cereals. How, exactly, did this prolonged disloyalty come about? Well, it happens that the same caring parents who relented on the cartoon issue had better luck on the breakfast cereal front. For us it was Cheerios, Shreddies, Cream of Wheat or good old Bran Flakes- representations of the fiendish in any form simply had no place at our breakfast table.

So now, nearly twenty years after our initial introduction, I made a quick trip to the supermarket to get acquainted with the friends I never really knew. Alas, Frank and his companion Boo were nowhere to be nowhere to be found, and subsequent trips to The Dead Foods Board have verified that the berry-flavored critters suffer from very limited distribution. Since I am loathe to pay the shipping costs to have overpriced boxes of cereal air-mailed to Canada through eBay, I was forced to content myself with a visit from the Count.

For sheer cartoon nostalgia value, Count Chocula did not disappoint- in fact, in this respect my box was a double kick, featuring marshmallow candy pieces allegedly shaped like Scooby Doo characters. There's even a swirled green and blue sugar simulacrum of the Mystery Machine. (I am, however, vaguely embarrassed by the fact that this product is obviously actually targeting the candy-coated vampire nostalgia demographic, rather than a new generation of five- year-olds..)

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