Film / Unfrosted

Unfrosted is a 2024 comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Jerry Seinfeld. Joining Seinfeld in the cast are Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, and Hugh Grant, among a host of other celebrity cameos.

Set in the 1960s, the film is a fictionalized account of the creation of Pop-Tarts, presenting a satirical take on true life stories through an over the top race between Kellogg’s Cereal and Post Consumer Brands to produce the world’s first viable breakfast pastry and change breakfast forever. The film released on Netflix May 3, 2024.

Previews: Trailer

Unfrosted contains examples of the following:

• The '60s: The trailer’s narration sets the film in the early 1960s.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: UNIVAC has a creepy habit of predicting peoples' deaths.
• Argentina Is Nazi-Land: Harold von Braunhut, the creator of Sea Monkeys, declines to answer questions about what he did during the 40s and considered moving to Argentina at one point.
• Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs: Parodied. Both Kellogg's and Post are obsessed with marketing their cereals to kids, and adding more sugar is the go-to solution for making them more appealing to them.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Thurl Ravenscroft, the actor who plays Tony the Tiger, feels demeaned by his work and wants to bring Shakespeare to Michigan.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The cereal mascots’ riot and incursion on Kellogg's HQ to stop the Pop Tart certification has direct parallels to the January 6th attack, with Thurl even wearing a tiger-stripped buffalo hat similar to that of the QAnon Shaman and giving a speech with the same language Donald Trump used on January 6th.
• Expy: Jon Hamm and John Slattery play a pair of ad men who are obvious Captain Ersatz versions of their Mad Men characters. Given that Slattery's character is even named "Roger", it borders on a Crossover Cameo.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": After Steve Schwinn is accidentally blown up, we cut to his funeral where he is buried with "full cereal honors"… And by "full cereal honors", we mean his coffin gets lowered into the grave, actual cereal and milk is poured onto his coffin, and the prize is folded like the American flag, similar to the military.
• Gender-Blender Name: Donna Stankowski prefers to go by "Stan".
• Goofy Suit: Kellogg’s employs a number of characters dressed like cereal mascots like Snap, Crackle and Pop and Tony the Tiger (the latter played by Hugh Grant).
• Incredibly Obvious Bug: Post and Kellog spy on each other by sending spies disguised as janitors with enormous cameras attached to the front of vacuums and mops.
• It Will Never Catch On: A running gag in the film is the characters scoffing at future developments - air bags, the moon landing, even the Pop-Tarts themselves being frosted.
• Little Green Men: When Bob Cabana goes to NASA headquarters to find Stan, an astronaut is preparing for the moon landing by practicing reacting to various types of little green aliens, like "hostile alien" and "tricky alien."
• Mundane Made Awesome: The toasting of a Pop-Tart, filmed like a rocket launch.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: The movie has to clarify that, yes, Marjorie Post really did found Mar-A-Lago.
• Only Sane Man: Steve Schwinn's wife is absolutely baffled by the "full cereal honors" ceremony at Steve's funeral and demands to know why her husband died by explosion at a cereal company.
• Repurposed Pop Song: The trailer is set to “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie.
• Serious Business: The race between Post and Kellogg’s to create a breakfast pastry eventually involves a sugar cartel, a secret milk mafia, and even entwines the Soviet and United States governments, with the conflict even triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Worst News Judgement Ever: The trailer shows a news report on Post developing a breakfast pastry, reported by none other than Walter Cronkite.