0:38

This is your reminder to have

0:40

some water. I

0:43

know it's not the most natural pairing for

0:45

cereal. Cereal and water. It's

0:48

no good. But have you

0:51

thought to have some water today? Sometimes

0:56

I feel really sad, but

0:59

it turns out I was just thirsty. So

1:02

maybe that's something you could try? If

1:05

that doesn't work out, there's

1:08

us, the empty bowl, a

1:10

meditative podcast about cereal. Hi,

1:13

my name's Justin McElroy and I'm a

1:15

cereal enthusiast. And my name's

1:17

Dan Gubehr and I like my cereal the

1:20

way I like my coffee. Pretty

1:22

more so out of an oversized mug than out of

1:24

a bowl. This

1:28

week on the show, we are

1:30

going to be telling you some

1:32

monster cereal news. Oh, so it's

1:34

not a preview. Spoiler alert. I

1:36

know, spoiler alert. We got a bunch of news.

1:39

We have a bunch of reviews, maybe some live

1:41

taste tests and then a

1:43

movie review. That's right. First

1:45

on the empty bowl. I'm so excited.

1:48

Dan, don't keep me in suspense. What's going

1:50

on with the monsters? Yeah,

1:53

so as it normally goes, like obviously

1:55

the monster cereals come out around Halloween

1:57

time, but because this is one of the

1:59

most. Hotly anticipated headlines of

2:01

the serial year the news ends

2:03

up leaking months ahead of time

2:06

and that it did as we

2:08

found out what the Sort

2:10

of central gimmick is going to be this

2:13

time because the new monster serial boxes have

2:15

already been posted on Amazon and

2:17

can be found there and

2:19

so they've been general mills. Yeah,

2:21

exactly The

2:25

whole central conceit this time is monsters

2:28

frightful friends and basically they're

2:30

giving the monster cereals little

2:33

pets and that manifests

2:35

itself in the form of unique marshmallows

2:37

as well as another sort of like

2:40

Superstar ensemble monster cereal where they

2:43

put them all together in one

2:45

cereal with all the marshmallows Kind

2:48

of a reduced lineup this year. We're

2:51

not seeing any fruit bird or yummy-mummy

2:53

representation even in Sort

2:55

of like the conglomerate cereal, but it is

2:57

a Welcome return

2:59

of Carmella creeper the mascot who

3:01

was introduced for the first time

3:03

last Halloween The first

3:05

female monster the first new monster in

3:08

decades Pretty pretty big

3:10

for her to be joining the new lineup like this

3:12

and I gotta say I like Like

3:14

the more classic design that they've given her this

3:16

year. I'm guessing you're looking at yeah It's cool.

3:18

All the boxes have the kind of throwback feel

3:20

and it's neat to see her rendered that way

3:22

She's got kind of looks she much

3:24

like the other ones looks like she'd be right

3:26

at home on an episode of Scooby-Doo or something

3:29

Yeah, absolutely. I like this idea. I mean I

3:31

I you know, I am all For

3:34

any cereal innovation, especially these days that

3:37

is not just a rebrand or a

3:39

marketing change We're rather like some

3:42

new cereal even if the flavors I'm sure are

3:44

gonna be pretty well established I think these new

3:46

shapes are pretty fun. Yeah, I mean, they're

3:48

not doing anything about the cornflower

3:50

phenomenon as I'm sure You'll probably

3:52

could have guessed by this point, but I think

3:55

the pets are pretty cute. Frankenberry gets Frank

3:58

and Barry gets a bat named Benny. I don't. Really

4:00

know why Franken Berry gets a bath

4:02

and Control Killer gets a little spader

4:05

named Eat for the attention Franken Berry

4:07

be named Igor and Count Dracula should

4:09

be is that right now? But since

4:11

like the plant got mixed up in

4:14

a kennel that with yeah Carmela gets

4:16

a snake named scratch and blueberry cat's

4:18

meow bury the cat is obviously my

4:21

favorite they can as as well as

4:23

with my cat looks like I'm a

4:25

big way cat. so big fan of

4:28

now. They're grassy Really? That was considered.

4:30

Lawyer: Very very. Ah,

4:33

nervous as fun on I'm excited

4:35

about that. What else is gonna

4:37

sweet? Also got a noose as

4:39

presumably early so far Sam's Club

4:41

exclusive new serials strawberry vanilla checks.

4:43

I am so excited for the

4:46

sun because I love good Dan

4:48

yet even tell that it's gonna

4:50

be one of those like new

4:52

chefs varieties that says like super

4:54

powder Dustin and I really love

4:56

those. And obviously Strawberry Vanilla is

4:58

an incredible. Flavor profile and

5:00

them. You know, I don't think there's

5:02

even really been that many bad strawberry

5:05

cereals so I have a huge flavor.

5:07

Their right it's weirdly it's it's not

5:09

as big of a a player as

5:12

you would think baby right? Billie thinking

5:14

Valley Strawberry Vanilla we had like the

5:16

Strawberry Shortcake Molto mean serial of as

5:19

well as that like our Strawberry Blonde

5:21

Cold Stone Creamery serial from years ago.

5:23

so it's kind of a and established

5:26

and needs of success I would say.

5:28

I think by the. Look of it.

5:30

this is gonna be another race based checks

5:32

variety. It's kind of weird that I can

5:34

decide and if I rice and corn checks

5:36

on say i'm a i'm I might be

5:38

wrong but this is when I'm when I'm

5:41

getting me and my next based extrasensory perception.

5:45

That would be. My

5:49

I guess I would guess race looking at

5:51

them. and

5:53

look up slightly to whitest

5:55

to be corn i can

5:58

not quite host would

6:00

say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excited

6:02

for it though. Looking forward to it. Now I

6:04

feel pretty

6:07

opposite about this last news story,

6:09

Dan. Yeah, it's another

6:11

new fruity pebbles variety and

6:13

by new variety, I mean

6:16

same fruity taste as boasted on the box,

6:19

but these summer fruity pebbles

6:21

come in. I don't know if I'd

6:23

really call like hot pink and hot

6:25

blue the colors of summer. I don't.

6:29

Yeah, yeah. I mean it's just

6:32

kinda, I don't

6:34

know. I know you like, I bet you like

6:36

these colors. They're like right on the edge for

6:38

you, right? Like this is almost

6:40

to your color palette. It's like nudging

6:42

up against vaporwave. Yeah, it's very much

6:44

like vaporwave, like Porygon from Pokemon sort

6:47

of deal is what I'm getting by

6:49

looking at this, like precisely that. But

6:53

yeah, like the last ones we got were

6:55

like the spring fruity pebbles and I think

6:57

these same two colors were in that. They

6:59

just had additional colors in that as well.

7:01

So again, I just don't know what

7:03

they want me to feel from this. I mean,

7:05

I would have preferred like an all

7:07

blue, you know, at least that'd be

7:09

something. Something else. Yeah, like ocean pebbles.

7:12

And two colors doesn't even feel like

7:14

fruity pebbles. Like who cares? Yeah,

7:17

I mean, you're the, you're the principal pebbles

7:19

proponent on this show. So I don't think

7:21

your word is gospel on this one. Yeah,

7:25

I'm, I, I, I

7:28

just imagine pulling up to

7:30

the house and I hand this to my kids

7:32

and I'm like, what do you kids think? I was

7:35

like, I don't know, Dan, this is pretty pebble. Like

7:37

who cares? It's red and blue, man. I don't care.

7:39

This doesn't get me excited. I don't

7:41

need a different cereal for summer. I don't

7:44

know. This just bums me out. Give

7:46

me your new flavors, please. Thank you. I

7:50

crave novelty. Speaking,

7:52

actually what a beautiful segue, right?

7:54

Into some new flavors that you

7:57

and I had the opportunity to.

8:00

To sample this week. Yeah,

8:02

try would you love the new wave

8:04

of General Mills cereal is Landing

8:07

for the summer and I think between

8:09

us We were trying the vast majority of them

8:11

here, and I think the first one that Both

8:15

of us have tried are these new

8:17

peach mango Cheerios I'm

8:19

gonna let you take the lead on this one. What did you think? Um

8:25

We're both big fans of the Cheerios

8:27

base, and I think it's one of

8:29

the better places It's a really hardy

8:31

place to start from I

8:35

think that For me, I

8:38

thought these were pleasant, and I thought they were

8:40

nice to eat I think

8:42

for me they fell short of

8:44

enough tang To

8:46

cut through this sort of like

8:48

hearty oaty flavor and

8:50

didn't really vibe like peach Mango

8:53

to me as much as just like

8:55

a sort of like Definite

8:58

fruitiness, but I didn't get like

9:00

those two flavors Strong

9:02

enough to like like if you think about

9:04

a peach cobbler right you got a very

9:06

dense Base on

9:08

top that's like crunchy and a dark

9:11

Sugary caramelized thing and the lightness of the

9:13

fruit helps to like brighten that up yeah,

9:16

and for me There just wasn't enough fruit

9:18

coming through. It's not enough tang to offset

9:21

To make it really stand out that was me though It's

9:24

tough because I don't want to criticize the Cheerios

9:26

base grain because it's like the best in the

9:28

game but sometimes it's

9:30

hard to like thoroughly layer a flavor on

9:32

top of that like you're saying and I

9:34

think Aiming

9:36

for peach and mango together is a

9:39

lot also to ask of a very

9:41

like you know Typically

9:43

one note sort of confection like a cereal

9:45

I think the mango comes

9:47

through a lot stronger than the peach I would

9:49

say and I do like that I think it's

9:51

solid. I just wish it

9:53

was yeah again more potent like Again,

9:56

much like the checks There are some

9:58

new Cheerios varieties where they're like. Labour

10:00

does them to really amp it up

10:02

and a village. This is when those

10:04

instances where it could have use an

10:06

extra layer of like flavor dusting to

10:08

really pack a punch. Like a fruity

10:11

punch, a silly peach is slightly more

10:13

divisive than a lot of cereal flavors,

10:15

right? Like I feel like if there's

10:17

a peach flavored like. Seltzer

10:19

soda or something. that is why that might sit

10:22

in the fridge with the black cherry for

10:24

a little bit longer. You know to me not

10:26

everybody's gonna reach for is not a universal

10:28

crowd pleaser so maybe they are like second guessing

10:30

that does try to turn down the p to

10:32

low but adam out yet within my reach

10:34

him for this if you don't want beach they

10:37

had peach cheerios before to straight up each

10:39

cheerios I have to him as at were better

10:41

for you. Are A

10:43

was definitely a more unified vision, but like

10:45

you're saying her, How much peach can I

10:47

take? How much peace to I want in

10:50

my Brecht right before I want a little

10:52

bit something more universal I would say. Oh

10:57

what about Tsp saying with the

10:59

A Cheerios family? About. Team

11:01

Serious. This is one that I

11:03

haven't tried yet but I haven't

11:05

on my desk here to ah

11:07

had so Fi can open ah

11:09

file of them here. and now

11:12

as the rule, like a few

11:14

have any anecdotes about say teams

11:16

are Cheerios or the alone are

11:18

you know what? I actually can

11:20

sneak in here with a quickie

11:22

I tried. Ghost has a new

11:24

serial their an energy drink company

11:26

ah but they've got a couple

11:28

of new serials that I tried.

11:31

one of them is a ah

11:33

a fruity cereal and are try

11:35

to lot of the per team

11:37

cereals as cause i know i

11:39

think the idea of different kinds

11:41

of nutritional cereals is interesting to

11:43

this one has a marshmallows which

11:45

i think scan interesting for protein

11:47

serial it's a little bit more

11:49

sugar than lot of her team

11:51

cereals but ah the flavor is

11:54

good and i think the marshals

11:56

are nice way of lightning in

11:58

up so if you're like If

12:00

you're interested in protein type cereals, that's

12:02

definitely one out there. There's a peanut

12:05

butter too. It kind

12:07

of reminds me of the one to work if you ever try

12:09

that peanut butter cereal. I think I reviewed those last time, didn't

12:11

I, and gave my perspective, I think. I

12:17

was interested to see the marshmallows. I thought the marshmallows were

12:19

an interesting way of undercutting the sort of like protein-y flavor

12:26

of the base, I think. Because it's like, hey

12:29

marshmallows, I like these. Can't be

12:31

all bad. Okay, but do you

12:33

sort of agree with my sentiment when I was talking

12:35

about them that it kind of just tastes like if

12:37

milk was of the cereal? Yeah.

12:39

Does that make sense? It's weird. I

12:41

like the...yes, I do. I think I've

12:44

tried so many protein cereals. It's still

12:46

in like the better end of that

12:48

spectrum, right? I do agree, yes. Like

12:51

for me. But yeah, but I know what you're saying.

12:53

They needed a little something. It's

12:56

like lack of flavor, like anti-flavor.

13:00

Okay, so yeah, I was... Anyway.

13:02

I got these team Cheerios. I was actually

13:05

going to Walmart to look for these

13:07

fruity Cheerios that are also new

13:09

because I've heard that they're actually good and somebody

13:12

said that they're better than Fruit Loops. I

13:14

couldn't find them, but I did find the team Cheerios.

13:16

I have fruity Cheerios, Dan. Oh, okay. Okay, we'll get

13:18

to that. I tried fruity Cheerios. But

13:20

I do want to provide an anecdote in that

13:23

along my same lines of having some funny story

13:25

that happens every single time I go shopping at

13:27

Walmart for cereal. This time I had

13:30

come just after I was at work

13:32

at the office and I was wearing this all black

13:34

outfit basically. And so I was standing in the cereal

13:37

aisle just with my arms crossed

13:39

looking really studious at the shelves. And this

13:41

woman walks by and is like, are you

13:43

guarding the cereal? And I had

13:46

to be like, lady, you have

13:48

no idea. I am

13:50

guarding the cereal in many metaphorical and

13:52

physical ways. I

13:55

Think of myself more as a shepherd, more

13:57

of a steward. The

14:00

the team Cheerios are essentially. I.

14:03

Guess I only list of the

14:05

side of the box. Now it's

14:07

is frosted very on the front,

14:09

but in reality this is a

14:11

combination of strawberry cheerios, frost interiors

14:13

and blueberry cheerios in one box.

14:15

Wow! And much in the same

14:17

vein as the peach mango cheerios.

14:19

I think it's maybe not the

14:21

most even spread. Definitely getting more

14:23

blueberry and frosted anything strawberry which

14:25

in reality mean it's kind of

14:27

like a diluted blueberry says like

14:29

maybe this is just the stock

14:31

they had on hand ferry. Away

14:33

failure modes wonder about like the at

14:35

the snack mixes from like brands like

14:37

Palms are whenever it's like as as

14:40

extra stuff or scholars for sweeping that

14:42

he the civil or four sigma existence

14:44

explore see these really use that as

14:46

a to the lexicon alongside her cereal.

14:51

Or did you think of the freezer

14:53

is ah man in his treasure it

14:56

track him down. Pass them. Darn good

14:58

I ah I don't know about better

15:00

there for lives but the flavor is

15:03

you know under my the the best

15:05

analog I can to is like member

15:07

rainbow krispies isn't that sort of like

15:09

well this is it necessarily better business

15:12

An interesting way of like inverting this

15:14

little bit I'm I am really dead

15:16

with the furniture is I don't have

15:19

great. Insights

15:21

but I hope you contract goucher think

15:23

it like is a real fruit the

15:25

can say it tastes like or as

15:28

a sort of that own heard an

15:30

anus miss made psych the yeah like

15:32

am. A tutti Fruity

15:34

either To read If I had the

15:36

like what free a what flavor is

15:39

this tested Outlawed fruity for a reference

15:41

Yes. We. Didn't to

15:43

dinner. But.

15:46

Team serious. It's

15:48

okay, As give

15:50

it the bronze personally. now

15:56

what of allah centimeters crunch waffles

15:59

ariel This is such a weird

16:01

one and you tried this one too, right? Yeah,

16:03

I did. So like we were talking about how

16:05

interesting of a combination cinnamon and maple would be

16:07

in a cereal and then someone left a comment

16:10

that was like, isn't that already

16:12

what French toast crunch is? And

16:14

I just stopped in my seat because I'm like, that's

16:16

exactly what French toast crunch is. Yeah.

16:19

So what was the call? Yeah. What

16:22

was the aim with this cereal? I think when I taste it,

16:24

I don't really get a lot of maple out of it. I

16:26

don't know about you. I agree. I

16:28

agree. I really liked it,

16:30

but just because like I thought it was

16:32

a good combo and

16:35

I think the little bit of maple

16:37

for me made it a little better than some

16:39

of the other like cinnamon toast

16:41

crunch varieties where it's just straight

16:44

down the middle of that flavor in a different

16:46

form factor. This is not that,

16:48

but I do wish the maple note was

16:50

more present. I like

16:52

the waffle shapes a lot. Honestly, it's

16:55

in the same deal as like the Cine-Gram toast crunch

16:57

where I feel like this is a better

16:59

fundamental core geometric concept for

17:01

the cinnamon toast crunch flavor to be based

17:03

on top of than the real thing. It's

17:06

almost like they're diluting their main brand by

17:08

consistently making things that are better than normal

17:10

cinnamon toast crunch. Right. Right.

17:13

But yeah, this is kind of like it's in

17:15

the same family as the cinnamon toast crunch churros

17:17

and the cinnamon toast crunch rolls where

17:20

it's predominantly the same flavor in a new

17:22

form. But I think out of all of

17:24

those, the waffle is probably my favorite shape.

17:26

It's very thick, got a lot

17:29

of good dense crunch to it. And I think even if,

17:31

you know, unless you're

17:33

really expecting that maple flavor, I think

17:35

you won't be disappointed just because it's

17:37

just a solid cereal. It's not super

17:39

maple-y again, maybe a little bit of

17:42

butteriness to it, I would say, but

17:44

as just a cereal with a good form

17:47

factor and just a classic flavor profile

17:49

that can't go wrong, it's

17:51

worth trying. And it does

17:54

make me think that like, I don't know. Why

17:56

haven't I thought about French toast crunch in years? I was

17:58

so geeked when that came back for the first time. time

18:00

but now it's not even really on my radar. It's

18:04

a very good cereal. I do I find it to

18:06

be a little one note. I

18:08

feel like a lot of

18:11

times by the end of a bowl it's so

18:13

hyper sweet that I'm like I'm getting a little

18:15

burnout on the on the flavor. Yeah. For me

18:17

it gives a little sickly sweet to me at

18:19

the bottom. I agree. Really

18:22

good pieces though. It's a great piece. Looks

18:24

amazing. Any more bread shaped cereal. Yeah, stacks

18:27

of that cereal are. When

18:29

you find a really good one and

18:31

you feel like a giant it's really

18:33

high to beat. French toast crunch. Now

18:36

what about Special K-buddiness and cream? Yeah so

18:39

Kellogg's squeaking in a new one here too

18:41

alongside all the general Mills hitters. This

18:44

is one that I wasn't even aware of until I saw

18:46

it on the shelves as I was you know guarding the

18:48

shelves at Walmart. But

18:51

this is it's kind of

18:53

got a mix of this like Special

18:55

K flakes that also have banana flavor

18:57

to them. You've got dried banana chunks

19:00

in them and then you've got like

19:02

these yogurt cream clusters and those yogurt

19:04

cream clusters if you get those in

19:06

your spoonful this is like

19:08

one of the best cereals of the summer.

19:10

But the fact that they are you know

19:13

so erratically scattered throughout the bowl and not

19:15

necessarily high in number means that

19:17

you're kind of like like spinning

19:19

a slot machine every time you take a spoonful

19:22

where most of the time you're just

19:24

gonna get some dry like pretty generically

19:26

banana laffy taffy like flakes that

19:29

have a good crunch don't get me wrong or

19:31

you get the dried fruit pieces which are good

19:33

don't get me wrong but something about like the

19:36

texture of a dried banana

19:38

piece in a crunchy cereal is a little

19:40

bit strange but on those you

19:42

how crunchy are they like how crunchy is it

19:44

like a really some banana chips are like super

19:46

hard crunch oh no they're not crunchy

19:48

I think they'd be better if they did have

19:51

more crunch it's kind of hard to not really

19:53

banana chips more just like that spongy

19:55

sort of yeah kind of maybe like

19:57

an dried fruit thing it's hard

19:59

to describe It's considering

20:03

you have so many other crispity components in your

20:05

mouth at the same time, but

20:07

the point is that you need those yogurt

20:10

clusters in every spoonful to make it not

20:12

like too dry. Obviously, milk can help with

20:14

that too, but once you've tasted those clusters,

20:17

it's hard to derive that same level of

20:19

enjoyment from the other components when it's not

20:21

present. So,

20:24

whenever yogurt clusters aren't in

20:26

your spoon, everyone should be asking, where are

20:29

the yogurt clusters? That's

20:32

100% Dan, let's just get in everything. We

20:36

deserve it. Oh,

20:39

you know what else I found? Blueberry

20:46

pie cereal. Oh, I did the um... The um... I

20:50

didn't buy it. Yeah, it was uh, it

20:52

was pretty indistinguishable from blueberry muffin tops. I

20:54

don't really know what I was expecting, but

20:57

yeah. I don't really have much to

20:59

add there, but I didn't want to mention it in case anyone

21:01

was curious. I do have this

21:03

one more birthday cake loaded cereal to

21:05

try live on air too. Ooh,

21:08

which one? Birthday

21:11

cake loaded. Oh, that's right, birthday cake loaded. That

21:13

was, sorry, that was, I forgot that that was

21:15

one of the loaded, it was just like a

21:18

non-branded loaded. Yeah, when you front load the one

21:20

birthday cake like that. Yeah.

21:22

You got any anecdotes about birthday cake while I open

21:24

this up? I

21:26

have pretty strong feelings about cake actually.

21:30

When it comes to actual birthday cake, my

21:33

favorite is from

21:35

a grocery store chain

21:38

around here called Kroger because

21:40

they have what's called Kroger

21:43

Whippy and that is their

21:45

special frosting that

21:47

everyone loves. It

21:51

often will advertise Whippy

21:56

in the frosting and that is

21:58

my favorite kind of birthday cake than anyone

22:00

made with coke or whippy. It's

22:03

just delicious. I

22:06

also used to like it at McDonald's when you

22:08

would get a birthday cake at a birthday party there

22:10

and it would be decorated with characters

22:13

of the McDonaldland characters

22:15

and they'd be made out of

22:17

these impressed sugar wafers that

22:20

were just fantastic to

22:23

eat because they were basically flat sugar

22:25

cubes that looked like grimace. They were

22:27

a slam dunk. Okay,

22:32

this is also a really weird one because

22:34

obviously I'm very biased against birthday cake cereals

22:36

and vanilla cereals as I always have. Only

22:38

because they don't taste good. Only

22:40

because they don't taste good. The only problem.

22:43

This is maybe the best birthday cake cereal

22:45

I've had. Not that that's saying a ton.

22:47

I think in the grand scheme of cereals

22:49

it's still not amazing, but in

22:52

terms of cereals that do birthday cake

22:54

justice, this comes much more closer to

22:56

being like authentic than I think it

22:58

owes to the fact that it is

23:00

a thick cereal

23:02

pillow with actual creamy frosting

23:04

inside. And there's

23:07

additional flavor scattered on the top insides as

23:09

well. It almost tastes more like

23:11

a sugar cookie or like a

23:13

Nilla wafer than like an actual birthday cake I

23:15

would say. So it's got a lot

23:17

more nuance to it. More

23:21

density again, better crunch. It's not just like

23:23

a corn puff that they're trying to make

23:25

taste like vanilla and so you get like

23:27

vanilla corn. There's more room

23:29

for that flavor to actually play here. And

23:31

I do kind of feel like I'm getting

23:34

cake battery elements from it in

23:36

like a much richer way than I've gotten

23:38

from any birthday cake cereal in the past.

23:40

So if you're looking for birthday cake at

23:42

the top of its form in a cereal,

23:45

this is probably the one for you. But if

23:48

you're not super sold on birthday cake or

23:50

vanilla cereals, I think all

23:52

the other loaded cereals are still better. Well,

23:57

there you have it. I did

23:59

wanna mention Dan. this is exciting. I

24:01

uh to to slot

24:04

into the reviews here at the

24:06

end. Uh I was in Canada

24:08

last week for a

24:11

uh for us to do

24:13

some shows and they had an IGA

24:18

grocery store on the same block as

24:20

my hotel. So I

24:22

thought what the hey I'm gonna

24:24

go in and find some Canadian

24:26

cereals that we don't have. Uh

24:30

so I will say a little disappointing.

24:33

Um not a lot of Canadian offerings that

24:35

were at least not at this IGA. Maybe

24:37

another store the wider variety would have had

24:40

more but I did want to mention one that

24:42

I found. Uh you know

24:44

shreddies which are

24:46

they're very popular uh in

24:48

in uh England I know has them and

24:51

they're big in Canada too. They're basically cheques

24:54

um but they had

24:56

a honey shreddies that

24:59

was like imagine

25:01

wheat cheques imbued with like honey flavor.

25:03

I like that I like that. Really

25:07

really really good. It was they were delicious.

25:09

If you ever are up that way uh

25:12

and can track down some honey shreddies

25:15

they were uh quite delicious. Enjoyed

25:17

a bowl those in my hotel room post show and felt

25:19

like a real rock star. Okay

25:22

keep it on my docket for my worldly

25:24

travels. At

25:28

the end we have not ever done

25:30

a movie review on this podcast before but this uh

25:32

when a movie hoses close to our general interests uh

25:34

I can't remember are there any serial movies? Any

25:39

serial movies. Any

25:41

serial movies? Like

25:46

mainstream serial movies I don't think so. Like movies about

25:48

cereal? There's definitely a movie

25:51

that has like really good like uh

25:54

time capsule shots of what a serial aisle looked

25:56

like during the time that the movie was shot.

25:58

Like there's Sure. And you

26:00

can go back and see supermarket scenes and like recognize

26:03

old cereal. I would say like

26:06

that the there's

26:09

movies that have great cereal scenes you

26:12

know like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Oh yeah.

26:14

Has a really iconic one where for

26:16

me at least iconic where he's eating

26:18

a big pile of Mr. T cereal

26:20

from his breakfast machine. That's a good

26:23

one. A lot of good monster cereal

26:25

movies. Quentin Tarantino movies too. Isn't that

26:27

interesting? Anyway this is not

26:30

a hero movie either. Well it's got

26:32

a lot of cereal in it I would say

26:34

and a lot of cereal is a humor. But

26:36

anyway I tried I tried to think of a

26:38

good name for this segment under the pretense that

26:40

maybe someday we'll get to redo it. I

26:43

couldn't decide between coming spoon and

26:46

cinema toast crunch. I'm kind of

26:49

leaning towards the ladder. Yeah it's

26:51

very good. But the first entry

26:53

in this series is of course

26:56

Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted movie which

26:59

is sort of a satirical

27:01

fantastical fictionalized origin story for

27:03

the Pop-Tart as a

27:05

breakfast foodstove. And the

27:08

movie basically details like an

27:10

innovation war between Kellogg's and

27:12

Post during the 1960s and

27:15

you know how they were both rushing to

27:17

be the first to shelves with their their

27:19

newfangled toaster pastries. And

27:21

I mean the movie's not

27:27

funny. It's not okay that's

27:29

a huge problem. It's not funny

27:31

and I think that's a pretty universal sentiment.

27:33

That's not just like my sense of humor

27:35

it's getting pretty bad reviews for that reason.

27:38

I think I've

27:40

never seen a movie that's like sets

27:43

out knowing that people are gonna be like scrolling

27:45

on their phone while they're watching it. Like no

27:47

scenes in this movie are longer than like 20

27:49

to 30 seconds it feels

27:51

like. It's a very like brain

27:54

rot sort of movie pacing and editing style that

27:56

doesn't really give any sort of character development or

27:58

interaction the chance of that. to breathe. But

28:02

you know, core cinematic

28:04

fundamentals like editing, pacing, and

28:07

writing, and humor aside, there are some

28:09

fun nods for serial fans in there.

28:12

Like I do like that the central

28:15

battle between Pop-Tarts and post-country

28:17

squares is actually based on

28:19

actual products and they didn't just like make stuff

28:22

up for it and like all of the serial

28:25

box art that you see in the movie

28:27

is period accurate. But

28:30

I think the most heinous historical

28:32

omission that the movie

28:34

made besides basically like sidelining General Mills

28:36

for the whole movie because that wouldn't

28:39

be convenient for the narrative, the

28:41

main thing is that they make Quaker out

28:43

to be like this exclusively religious serial brand

28:46

that doesn't make any fun serials. But like

28:49

you look in the movie set in

28:51

1963, what year did Cap'n

28:53

Crunch hit shelves? In

28:56

1963 and they never mentioned Cap'n Crunch in the

28:58

entire movie. It should just be about Cap'n Crunch.

29:00

It should be the looming threat of Cap'n Crunch.

29:02

At least do like a post-credits scene where they

29:04

tease him in the sequel or something. I don't

29:07

know. That was what stuck out to me is

29:09

like how can you how can

29:11

you omit such a key bastion

29:13

of the serial industry? Yeah, great

29:16

question. But I laughed maybe like

29:18

three times during the movie so I'll give it a

29:20

half star out of five for every time that I

29:22

laughed. One and a half out

29:24

of five for Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted. That

29:26

is my conclusion. Thank

29:28

you so much Dan for sharing and thank you

29:31

to you for listening. We really appreciate

29:33

the time that you spend with us here. Anybody

29:36

else we have gratitude to today? We'd like

29:38

to thank Chris Zabriskie for our opening theme

29:40

of The Sun is Scheduled to Come Out

29:42

Tomorrow, Bria Davis for doing

29:45

our amazing podcast branding, as

29:47

well as M Loper and Samuel Rardon for designing

29:49

our empty bowl merchandise. That's

29:53

going to do it for us for

29:55

this episode. Until

29:58

Next time, my name is Chris. This smack right.

30:00

that's think a bear and his answers

30:03

in every episode. and for you to

30:05

drink some water. Or

30:07

maybe maybe do drink milk. They do say milk hydrates

30:09

you more than one. Or have you heard that.