Sonny the Cuckoo Bird is the anthropomorphic cartoon mascot for General Mills' chocolate cereal Cocoa Puffs.
Appearance[]
Sonny appears as an anthropomorphic cuckoo bird with orange feathers, a yellow beak and yellow legs. He originally wears clothes in the 60's commercials.
History[]
In most commercials, Sonny attempts to stay a way from Cocoa Puffs, by doing a different activity, but ends up coming across some reference to the cereal in the act (usually described by the adjectives "munchy," "crunchy," and "chocolatey"), causing him to burst, exclaiming "I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!"
He was designed by Gene Cleaves in 1962, but a new design was chosen in 2004. The old design can be seen on many retro shirts sold in stores such as PacSun and Delia's. As of 2005[update], Sonny was voiced by Tex Brashear. He was formerly voiced by Larry Kenney, who voiced Lion-O in ThunderCats. The legendary animation pioneer "Grim" Natwick, of Fleischers' Betty Boop history, appears to have contributed to the early images of Sonny & Gramps, according to then-contemporaries who collaborated with Natwick during his 100-year career.
Sonny's name comes from the original format for the commercials, in which he was paired with his Grandfather. Rather than proper names, they always referred to each other as "Gramps" and "Sonny." When the Grandfather was dropped from the ads, "Sonny" remained as the character's name. In those original spots, both Sonny and Gramps were voiced by the late Chuck McCann. In 2011, Grandfather returned to the Cocoa Puffs ads.
Trivia[]
- Before Sonny became the cereal's official mascot, in 1958, the cereal originally had 3 kids before Sonny was officially introduced.