Five Cereals That Changed Mascots

Usually once a cereal mascot gets popular, they stick around. Oh sure the designed may change or be refined, but it's the same character. Some cereals have trouble finding that perfect gimmick however. And even when they do the character inexplicably disappeared after a while. Usually the mascot vanishes because the product did (Poor Fruity Yummy Mummy) but not always. The creators just decided they had enough of one mascot and it was time for something new! This makes sense when the product is brand new and searching for an identity. Frosted Flakes had a kangaroo before they realized Tony was better. Cocoa Puffs had an uncle for Sonny who vanish (but did make a comeback) and even Lucky Charms dropped Lucky for a lame wizard. It didn't take.

Here are five cereals which had more trouble with mascots, switching them out for no really good reason, 

Cookie Crisp

Ok I am going to date myself here and freely admit it. I remember seeing the old commercials with the wizard Jarvis. He was a wizard in the 70's. Jarvis later introduced cookie crook and the officer chasing him whose name eludes me. There were several commercials of these two before cookie crook got a dog sidekick. The dog always giving away the crime by crying coookiee crisp. These three did a bunch of ads before the cop and robber vanished and it just became about the crazy dog. But he outlived his usefulness eventually and today we have the silver fox in a jacket guy, if he has a name, I don't feel like looking it up. And yes I at Cookie Crisp and loved them, it's chocolate chip cookies for breakfast what's not to love???

Five Forgotten Commercial Mascots

 Over the years I talked about my favorite commercial mascots and others that are creepy. But what about the forgotten mascots? It's funny to be as old as I am, and see some mascots have disappaewred that were common when I was a kid. And there are some that faded away so long ago that even I can't remember them! Here are five examples of characters who were a big deal once but now no one remembers them. And let's overlook cereals for now, that's another article!

Geoffrey (Toys R Us)

This could count as a cheat since the image of Geoffrey has returned in an cartoon form. But actually, the character has taken many forms. He was a live giraffe awhile back, and before that a more anthropomorphic giraffe who appeared in commercials. There were also animated versions. What happened to him?

My Tribute-The Many Works of Alan Oppenheimer

I have been wanting to talk about him for a long time. One of my favorite voice actors who did the voice for some iconic characters. The amazing thing is that unlike a lot of voice actors, he is also a great character actor and has made many appearances on TV shows all the way back to the Andy Griffith Show. Here is a sample:

Movies:

Did I just say TV? Oh yeah he has done his share of voice work for movies too and the classic has to be Falkor in Never-ending Story. He does a great job making Falkor kind and gentle. He also did the voices for the Rock Biter and the narrator. Other movies he did include "The Hindenburg", "Westworld", "Freaky Friday", and "9".

Top 5 Worst Peanuts Characters

Peanuts has been around for ages now with no end in sight. After 71 years, these characters aren't going anywhere! I love the characters from Charlie Brown to Linus to, of course, Snoopy. But of course they can't all be great and some were so bland they literally faded away over the years. Some didn't but weren't liked much regardless. Here are my five picks for worst Peanuts characters. 

#5.Peppermint Petty & Marcie

I know lots of people would expect to see her as #1, but while Patty has her flaws she has her nice moments. For example her frustration at Marcie in the Easter special still makes me laugh. She will admit when she is wrong and I like how she isn't perfect in school. But she can also be such a bitch, from her lusting over Chuck in the New Year's special to what she does in the Thanksgiving special. As for Marcie, I really don't know what to say. She's clearly there to be Patty's conscience. I wish her character developed more.

Reconsidering "The Great Muppet Caper"

When it comes to the Muppet theatrical movies they are hit or miss for me.

The Muppet Movie-A little slow, relies way to much on cameos but the good moments make it worth it. Also, a good origin movie, to this day we still have never gotten another "how the Muppets met" story (Muppet Babies doesn't count).

Muppets Take Manhattan-I loved this movie as a kid it has charm and some sad moments too. The ending is pointless but ok.

Muppets in Space-Awful

Muppet Christmas Carol & Treasure Island-I have no major issues they are both fine

The Muppets-Yeah, I had issues when it came out but overall not bad.

Muppets Most Wanted-Winner of the "trying way to hard" award

But wait, I missed one! Which? Well....

Of course!! The one movie I can't seem to remember!

Yeah for sone reason the second movie is the one black hole for these movies for me. If I saw it, I don't remember it. Of course, I know what it's about and have seen scenes from it over the years, but it raises the question-- Why did it either leave no impact when I saw it or not interest ne enough to check it out? I can't believe I didn't see a Muppet movie at 7 years old! Since this is the 40th anniversary of the movie I decided to finally watch it and see if I could find out what the issue is.

Top 10 Doug Walker's Biggest Failures

Ok let me make this clear, I am a Doug Walker aka Nostalgia Critic fan. I know a lot of people hate on him and that's fine. I get it. But while he is not perfect and made mistakes I am still a fan of his. For reasons I explained elsewhere he is a personal hero for me and so far at least I have heard nothing to make me change that opinion, That doesn't mean I ignore what has been said about his troubled productions, I just don't hold it against him (that asshat in charge of CA is the real creep imho, but I digress). We all make mistakes. If you disagree with me, no problem.

Anyway I got to thinking about his flops, which after 10+ years he's had his share of, and wondered what it was that made them a failure. So since I have done articles talking about his stuff that I love, let's discuss the stuff that isn't so good. From not so bad to really, really bad. And a few of these may be more personally bad than others which are almost unanimously regarded as flops. If you like any of these, just opinion. And again I am only judging these buy the finished product not the behind the scenes troubles.

Five Things I Liked in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"

This year is the 50th anniversary for Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. This is one of those movies everyone like, and has truly become an icon. It's just the right mix of drama, humor, and even some dark moments to make a really delightful film. Based of course on the Roald Dahl, this movie is always a must watch for me.

This movie was released in 1971 and was not instant hit. But has certainly become a classic since. Now normally when I do these I nitpick the good movies and praise the bad, but since we are celebrating a big anniversary let's give some love to this movie with five reasons why I love watching it over and over.

The Music & Sets

Ok I hate that song Charlie's mother sings as much as anyone. It slows down the whole movie so a character that will soon vanish from the movie can explain something we've already figured out. Yay. Putting that side, the music is well done. Of course the big song when they enter the candy room, and the Oompa Loompa songs which are done well. And the Candy Man song at the start. The style of the songs doesn't match the movie, at all, but they work. The sets were also well done even the home where the family lived. The chocolate room is still amazing fifty years later! And no I won't go into every scene because they are all good and we will be here all day.

Five Dumbest Characters from Justice League International

The Justice League of America has actually gone through various versions over the years. When you hear the name you think of the big names of DC Comics, coming together as a group. And yeah, they did that. Except there was a period of ten years when the team was, weird for lack of a better word. First came the Justice League "Detroit" era, which would have been find if the team had a different name. Much like how Batman spun off into Batman and the Outsiders that's what this strange version of the JLA should have been. 

Then came the Keith Giffen/Mark Maguire era, when Justice League International was the name. At least the heroes weren't lame no names but it wasn't the big tier names either. The series didn't start out as funny, just witty banter, but it become humorous after awhile. Sadly, to a point where the book was almost nothing but satire and jokes. 

Thankfully the book would get a relaunch with Dan Jurgens which helped get things on track, before the book was cancelled and Mark Waid returned the Justice League to full form. Before that, we had some real goofy things. So goofy, they were just plain stupid. Here are five characters introduced during that era that I just did not like. These are all examples from the 90's era, and of course just opinion here as always. 

G'Nort

To be fair this character has stuck around and gotten better. I give credit to the creators for taking a character designed to be a joke and making something more of him. But he always bugged me. According to Hal Jordan G'Nort had no business being a GL, but he had an influential uncle who was in the Corps and pushed him through. G'Nort had heart but was a dumb screw up and talked weird, sort of the Jar Jar of the JLA.