The cartoon characters who normally inhabit your grocer's cereal aisle are on the move.

Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and the Disney and Sesame Street gangs are among the many children's favorites who in recent years have taken up residence in the produce section.

Which is why you now can tempt your tots with Dora edamame, SpongeBob broccoli and Winnie the Pooh apples.

The folks behind these licensing deals say plastering produce with popular characters is win-win — growers and retailers see sales boom, the companies that own the characters extend their brands, and children are encouraged to eat good foods.

But not everyone is sold on the idea that Tweety Bird grapes are a good idea.

"Do we want our children to learn to choose food based on whether it is labeled with a certain character?" asks Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "We miss the chance to help them learn to choose based on the food itself."

Until about five years ago, the few recognizable brand names in the produce section didn't exactly inspire clamoring by children. Meanwhile, the cereal and snacks aisles were a riot of collaborations with cartoon and movie characters.

But as concern about child obesity has grown, food companies have faced mounting pressure from regulators, Congress and parents to end the aggressive marketing of sugary and fatty foods to children.

And that pressure has produced results. Eleven of the nation's largest food and drink companies recently announced sweeping changes in how they market to young children, including limiting the use of licensed characters to healthy foods.

That has entertainment companies looking for new real estate in the grocery store, and that fact that produce is about the only food health officials want children eating more of makes fruits and vegetables prime property.

"I've seen a significant increase (in licensing programs) in the last five years," says Kathy Means, of the Delaware-based Produce Marketing Association. "A lot of it is being borne by efforts to market healthier products to children, because there is a childhood obesity problem and we know that eating right is a big component to fixing that problem."

Branding produce in this way was not possible 10 or 20 years ago. The trend toward more convenience-driven precut produce packed in boxes and bags makes it easier to use licensed characters.

Victor Strasburger, a New Mexico pediatrician who wrote the American Academy of Pediatrics policy on marketing, says this sort of branding is more palatable to him when the characters that appear on produce don't also show up on unhealthy options. But some parents complain that this trend has turned yet another section of the grocer into a battleground.

"I'm sure I'm not the only mom to buy the Disney carrots because her 3-year-old demanded it," says Cara Bernosky, a mother of two and president of IMC Licensing, a Louisville, Ky., agency that represents companies looking to license their brands.

She has yet to help match a brand with a fruit or vegetable, and she's not sure about the long-term value of the practice.

"In my opinion it's something of an overcorrection after years of these brands associating with unhealthy foods. It's almost more of a product placement to build good will with moms," she says.