Crispy Critters

 ( Defunct Food Product Brands ) 

Crispy Critters was a breakfast cereal manufactured by Post Foods starting in 1963. The sweetened cereal, made of oats, consisted of animal-shaped pieces similar to . Television commercials featured a cartoon lion, Linus the Lionhearted, voiced by Sheldon Leonard, with the slogan "The one and only cereal that comes in the shape of animals.", Topher's Breakfast Cereal Character Guide - Post sung to the tune of "Trepak" from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker ballet. The next year, Linus was spun off into a Saturday-morning cartoon show, which ran for two years on the CBS network, then rerun on the ABC network for three more until 1969. After a decline in popularity, the cereal was discontinued.

Post made an unsuccessful revival attempt of the cereal in 1987. This time, the commercials featured a puppet mascot named "Crispy" with pom-pom antennae, a pom-pom tail and a Fur yellow body, resembling a moose. Crispy used an impersonation of Jimmy Durante (provided by Rich Little) including the nonsense phrase "Ah-cha-cha-cha". This puppet interacted with a child actor and was accompanied by smaller puppets that resembled the individual pieces of cereal. Together, these puppets spoke the cereal's tagline: "It's indubitably delicious."

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