Toucan Sam
Encyclopedia
Toucan Sam is the cartoon mascot for Froot Loops
Froot Loops
Froot Loops is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's and sold in Hungary, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Germany, The Middle East, The Caribbean, South Africa, Latin America, Sweden and Finland...

 breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...

. The character has been featured in advertising since the 1960s. He exhibits the ability to smell out Froot Loops from great distances and invariably locates a concealed bowl of the cereal while intoning, "Follow my nose! It always knows!" Sometimes followed by "The flavor of fruit! Wherever it grows!"

History

Toucan Sam became the mascot for Froot Loops cereal in 1963. The cartoon character was created by Manuel R. Vega and originally voiced by Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...

, using an ordinary American accent. Blanc's original commercials were noted for their use of Pig Latin
Pig Latin
Pig Latin is a language game of alterations played in English. To form the Pig Latin form of an English word the first consonant is moved to the end of the word and an ay is affixed . The object is to conceal the meaning of the words from others not familiar with the rules...

 (referring to the cereal as OOT-fray OOPS-lay). The ad agency later decided to switch to the English accent more commonly associated with the character. They then employed Paul Frees
Paul Frees
Paul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago...

 to do what is, in effect, an imitation of Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...

. In the most recent cartoon advertisements for Froot Loops, Toucan Sam's voice is now performed by voice actor Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...

 after Paul Frees's death. Animation of the commercials were created by several animation companies including Thumbnail Spots, this impacted the character growth among the years.

Although his beak originally had two pink stripes, during the 1970s it became a tradition that each stripe on his beak represented one of the flavors of the pieces in the cereal: (red = cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....

, yellow = lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

, orange = orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....

). The additions of new colors have made this color scheme no longer accurate. There are now eight colors of this cereal. The first new color was green, which was introduced in 1991, then purple in 1994, blue in 1996, pink in 2002, and gold in 2006.

The colors, perhaps, represent different flavors present in the cereal, but each color has the same flavor.

Maya Archaeology Initiative

The Maya Archaeology Initiative (MAI) is a project of the World Free Press Institute (WPFI). On June 2010, WFPI submitted a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Patent and Trademark Office
The Patent and Trademark Office may refer to:* the United States Patent and Trademark Office * the German Patent and Trademark Office...

 for the MAI's logo, a side view of a toucan
Toucan
Toucans are members of the family Ramphastidae of near passerine birds from the Neotropics. The family is most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and about forty different species...

 with a Mayan temple in the background, both encircled by yellow/green light. It was published on 15 March 2011.

Kellogg's (owner of the Toucan Sam logo) objected on the grounds that the two logos are too similar. That caused a long argument, which ended on 15 November 2011 with an announcement that Kelloggs and the MAI are forming a charitable partnertship.

Recent commercials

Since 1994, Toucan Sam has been joined onscreen by Puey, Susey, and Louis. The nephews are voiced by two notable voice over artists: Frank Welker
Frank Welker
Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...

 and Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings
James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...

. In recent commercials, Toucan Sam's 2 nephews and niece have joined him in opposition to many practical Froot Loop-loving enemies through a series of integrated commercials (each of them as well appropriately advertise the cereal itself). In recent recordings, Mike Leboff will be voicing yet another one of Sam's foes.

The first of these enemies were Dr. Peacock, a peacock modeled after a stereotypical mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...

 who stole Toucan Sam's color with a giant laser called a color ray, thus rendering him black and white. Toucan Sam and his nephews find Dr. Peacock's lair and use the color ray to return his colors, and add Rainbow Loops to the cereal as voted by kids everywhere.

Another enemy, an alien called the Nasty Alien Froot Monster, lands on Earth in search of the ultimate fruit taste of Froot Loops. He captures Toucan Sam, but thanks to online voting, Toucan Sam's nephews gave the Froot Monster what he wanted, allowing Toucan Sam to escape. The Froot Monster, however, wanted more and stole Toucan Sam's cereal box. When Toucan Sam and his nephews found him, the Froot Monster devoured the entire box, and turned from bad to good by changing from green to yellow and creating Alien Berry Froot Loops, which he shared with everyone.

Then after, the smell of Froot Loops travels through the mirror to the land of Froot Scents, where the Froot Queen owns all fruity aromas. When she smells the Froot Loops, she declares it the best fruit scent and orders her guards (humans with fruit for heads) to capture the Froot Loops. The guards successfully steal the Fruit Loops and break the mirror in the process. Toucan Sam and his nephews fix the mirror, and Toucan Sam follows them inside, commenting on the land's wonderful and strange fruit, and takes back the Froot Loops from the Froot Queen. The Froot Queen orders her guards to capture Toucan Sam, but the confusion allows Toucan Sam to take some of the land's fruit, where kids decided through online voting that the new loop should be Cherry-Cherry. Toucan Sam then escaped and added the Cherry-Cherry to the cereal. He even gave the new Froot Loops to the Froot Queen, whom after taking a bite, turned into a pretty good queen and rewarded her guards with Cherry-Cherry loops.

A series of commercials for Froot Loops followed the adventures of Toucan Sam and his nephews finding a treasure map and following it to a treasure that once belonged to a toucan pirate, Blackbeak (the name is a pun on Blackbeard
Blackbeard
Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....

). In each exploit, they reach a new destination that holds a new variety of Froot Loops, the most recent being "Golden Bars" (in reality, just 3 Yellow Froot Loops stuck in a line) They encountered him and three other pirates later on. However, the pirates were beaten by a laser Sam made out of the loops and Blackbeak was helpless. Blackbeak looks very similar to Toucan Sam.

Villain #5 is the Greedy Froot Pharaoh in Egypt. A bandage was loose. A niece stomped on that and beat him.

Villain #6 is the Selfish Froot Master in Japan.
This karate koi ate some loops thrown by Sam and was trapped by 2 nephews in a fish bowl.

Sam set off to Mexico to get some Froot Loops. But he had to get through the Greedy Witch Doctor first. The Witch doctor was tickled and fell off his temple. He let go of his magic sprinkles on the way down and Sam used those to top the Froot Loops, creating Froot Loops with Sprinkles.

Toucan Sam's age is not known. Currently, the Toucan Sam campaign is produced at Pepper Films Inc. (www.pepperfilmsinc.com) by director, Jean Perramon. Toucan Sam is currently voiced by Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...

.

Other characters

  • The Nephews
  • Lil' Doggie
  • Ostrich Sisters voiced by Gail Matthius
    Gail Matthius
    Gail Matthius is an American actress and voice actress. She was a cast member of NBC's Saturday Night Live during its critical and ratings low point at the time , and co-anchored the Weekend Update segment with Charles Rocket in 1981.-Recurring characters:*Vicki, a Valley girl who,...

  • The Hippo
  • Bear Golf
  • The Seal
  • Turtle Cab Driver voiced by Mel Blanc
    Mel Blanc
    Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...

  • Penguin voiced by Don Messick
    Don Messick
    Donald Earl "Don" Messick was an American voice actor best known for his work for Hanna-Barbera. Perhaps his most well-known voice creations include Scooby-Doo, Papa Smurf, and Dr. Benton Quest....

  • Rhino Rapper voiced by Jim Cummings
    Jim Cummings
    James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...

  • Madame Gypsy voiced by June Foray
    June Foray
    June Foray is an American voice actress, best known as the voice of many animated characters...

  • Fruit Bat voiced by Frank Welker
    Frank Welker
    Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...

  • Surfer Cats voiced by Townsend Coleman
    Townsend Coleman
    Townsend Coleman is an American voice actor who performed in many animated series and TV commercials beginning in the early 1980s...

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