General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals

The monster cereals are a line of breakfast cereals produced by General Mills Corporation in North America. The line was introduced in 1971 and, at various times, has included six brands, each featuring a cartoon version of a classic movie monster: Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry (all produced seasonally from September 1 to October 31), as well as Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy (both are discontinued, except for limited productions) with a sixth character Carmella Creeper introduced in 2023. History In March 1971, the first two cereals in the line were introduced, the chocolate-flavored Count Chocula and the strawberry-flavored Franken Berry. In the commercials, the two monsters, Count Alfred Chocula and Franken Berry, would engage in comic bickering over which cereal was better, when something or someone else (usually Boo Berry) interfered in their verbal sparring and scared them out of their wits. In February 1972, Franken Berry cereal included an indigestible pigment that turned some children's feces pink, a symptom sometimes referred to as "Franken Berry stool". The Count Chocula and Franken Berry recipes were reformulated to remove this pigment.