DISNEY FROZEN CEREAL

DISNEY FROZEN CEREAL

Kellogg’s

            In 2013, Disney released their 53^rd animated feature film: Frozen, which was based on the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen. Written by Jennifer Lee and directed by Lee and Chris Buck, the film centered on the recently-crowned queen of Arendelle, Elsa (Idina Menzel), accidentally exposing her ice powers to the royal court and being branded a monster by the scheming Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk). She entered self-imposed exile casting the kingdom into eternal winter. Her sister, Anna (Kristen Bell), sought to find her and bring her back for the good of Arendelle. Along the way she befriended an ice harvester named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer Sven (Frank Welker), and a snowman Elsa accidentally brought to life named Olaf (Josh Gad).

            Frozen opened in theaters on November 22, 2013 and ended up grossing over $1.2 billion, turning it into a massive success. Naturally, it was met with a huge marketing push from Disney, was adapted into a Broadway play, the characters incorporated into other Disney projects and parks, and drove a generation of parents crazy with constant repeated renditions of the film’s signature song, “Let it Go”.

The original back of the American box.

            Interestingly enough, it would take just over a year after the film’s release for a cereal tie-in to come into play. Kellogg’s licensed the use of the characters and crafted Disney Frozen cereal that saw release in December of 2014. Marked as a “collector’s edition”, the cereal featured square cereal pieces with “ice” and “snow” marshmallows (or blue and white). The boxes featured Elsa and Anna on one side, Olaf on the side panel, and they were all joined by Kristoff and Sven on the other side. The backgrounds of the box featured foil enhancements. Eventually, the cereal would become a “regular edition”, losing the foil and the collector branding.

New marshmallow shapes!

In 2016, the cereal received a bit of an upgrade as the marshmallows all became “snowflakes” (although closely resembling stars). They were either plain white or purple and blue with white swirls. While Elsa and Anna were still on one side of the box, Olaf ended up getting the other side by himself.

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Disney.

Internationally, a marshmallow-less cereal was released featuring vanilla cereal pieces in the shapes of snowflakes and snowballs. In the United Kingdom, Elsa and Anna adorned one side of the box with Olaf on the other. In other countries, Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Sven were each showcased on their own individual boxes in close-ups.