Last year was an unprecedented year when it came to films about origin stories involving items like Blackberry Phones, Tetras video games, and Frito Lay Flamin Hot Cheetos. With the new year comes a new story about the origin of a breakfast treat that we all know and love, Pop Tarts.  You’d think there is not much to this breakfast treat, but you’d be wrong. There is a lot more to Unfrosted and  Jerry Seinfeld as the writer/director along with Netflix and others has brought that story to life.

Bob Cabana (Jerry Seinfeld) works for Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) As the family name suggests he’s the owner of one of the two largest cereal magnets Kellogg’s located in Battle Creek, Michigan along with their rival Post-owned by Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer) They are bitter rival at the time this film movie takes place, in the 1960s. They try to steal each other’s secrets all the time. They have spies in each other’s camps as well. When Kellogg’s finds out that Post is developing a breakfast treat that doesn’t involve milk they are beside themselves with concern. As a way to try to come up with their own breakfast treat Kellogg’s enlisted an old employee to help them, Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy) She brings chaos and craziness with her, and hilarious moments ensue.

There is a lot more to this story based on true events, but the way Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, and others chose to tell this story was a bit misleading and very comedic. They use a framing device where Seinfeld tells the story to a little boy in a diner. Like most people in this circumstance, he embellished the true events of how this story actually happened. Along with that comes some wild characters and incredible scenarios involving Nikita Kruoschef (Dean Norris) and Russians, John F Kennedy (Bill Burr) a Milk Cartel that includes Christian Slater as Mike Diamond and Peter Dinklage Harry Friendly as its leader, and a Taste Committee that includes Chef Boyardee (Bobby Moynahan), Steve Schwinn (Jack McBrayer) Jack La Lanne (James Marsden), Tom Carvel (Adrian Martinez) and Harold Von Braun (Thomas Lennon). This is just the tip of the iceberg in this story though. It gets a hell of a lot weirder and wilder than what I have suggested here., but I don’t want to spoil everything here.

Seinfeld assembled an amazing cast for this funny take on a somewhat true story. I can’t say all of the cameos, but there are a lot of SNL alums and some bigger-named stars like Hugh Grant as Tony the Tiger in an ingenious casting. In a funny sequence, he tries to start a riot of other cereal mascots. It’s a side subplot of the main story that’s going on. It’s another funny side to this movie that is ridiculously hilarious. You can’t take this story seriously and you’ll have a lot more fun with it.

This film is about an hour and a half long and a lot goes on during that time. There is a bright and colorful aesthetic to the movie. The production design leans into the comedic nature of the story. Everyone wears bright and colorful period costumes with haircuts to match. Netflix spared no expense with this film. The cast alone would have cost them a pretty penny unless I’m sure, Seinfeld called in some favors there. Another thing that was a nice addition to the story was a romantic scene involving the “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” song sung by Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons. I was laughing at this moment for sure. Also, there was a nice dance number in the credits that was quite entertaining, to say the least. The movie had a lot of scenes that were funny though. 

Unfrosted is another film about the history of an item and like a couple of the ones that came out last year it takes a comedic path. Unlike Barbie, you can’t take this movie that seriously.  It’s meant as a wink-wink kind of story. The framing device proves that for sure. There is an amazing cast too numerous to list here, but there is definitely a huge SNL presence. Seinfeld, Gaffigan, McCarthy, Grant, and Schumer anchor an all-star cast of funny people. The production design, costumes, and hairstyling are all period-perfect. This isn’t going to be an Oscar contender,  but is an entertaining story of something we have all probably had at one time or another in our lives, Pop Tarts. How that breakfast treat was really invented is still up in the air, but this was a very funny version of the tale. Seinfeld knew what he was doing with this film and it worked for what it was.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen