Toucan Sam

Toucan Sam is the avian mascot of Froot Loops cereal. The character is a blue cartoon toucan with a striped beak. 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, yellow = lemon, orange = orange). [ [http://petcaretips.net/toucan-sam.html All About Toucan Sam and Kellogg's Fruit Loops] ] The additions of new colors have made this color scheme no longer accurate. There are now seven colors of this cereal. The first new color was green, which was introduced in 1991. After that came purple in 1994, then blue in 1997. The newest color, gold, was introduced in 2006.

The colors perhaps represent different flavors present in the cereal, but each color has the same flavor. [ [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfroot.html Are the different colors of Froot Loops different flavors?] ]

Biologically speaking, Toucan Sam appears to be a Keel-billed Toucan. Keel-billed Toucans are well-known for their colorful beaks and propensity for fruit in their diets, two features which are very consistent with the character.

In commercials featuring Toucan Sam, he exhibits the ability to smell out Froot Loops from great distances. He invariably locates a concealed bowl or box of the cereal while intoning, "follow my nose! It always knows!" Sometimes followed by "the flavor of fruit! wherever it grows!"

Other Characters

*Lil' Doggie
*Ostrich Sisters
*Penguin voiced by Don Messick
*Rhino Rapper voiced by Jim Cummings
*Madame Gypsy voiced by June Foray

History

The cartoon character Toucan Sam was created by Manuel R.Vega and originally voiced by Mel Blanc, using an ordinary American accent. Blanc's original commercials were noted for their use of Pig Latin (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 to do what is, in effect, an imitation of Ronald Colman. In the most recent cartoon advertisements for Froot Loops, Toucan Sam's voice has been performed by Canadian voice actor Maurice LaMarche.

Recent Exploits

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 and Jim Cummings. In recent commercials, Toucan Sam's nephews 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 Sams foes.

The first of these enemies were Dr. Peacock, a peacock modeled after a stereotypical mad scientist 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 stole the Froot Loops and broke 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 current series of commercials for Froot Loops follow 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). Blackbeak looks very similar to Toucan Sam.Toucan Sam's age is not known.Starting January 2008, Wild Brain animates Froot Loops Brigade featuring Toucan Sam and the nephews. The commercials use CGI animation.

Notes