The Reel Review
America’s two leading breakfast cereal companies, Kellogg’s and Post, vie to be the first to create a pre-packaged breakfast pastry at their rival Battle Creek, Michigan headquarters. Jerry Seinfeld co-wrote, directs and stars in this farcical Netflix comedy very loosely based on the 1964 creation of the iconic Pop-Tart.
Celebrity vanity projects, typically filled with the filmmaker’s famous friends, are rarely any good, and sadly Unfrosted is no exception. Visually, it captures the groovy, 1960s vibe, and some of the jokes – a living sea monkey-filled ravioli, send-ups of kitschy celebrities of the era, and some wacky proposed Russian cereal names – are funny. Most of the jokes, however, are painfully stale, corny and downright awful.
Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy and Jim Gaffigan lead the cavalcade of Seinfeld comedy pals who appear in this dumb, dull dud of a historical comedy. You know a movie is bad when attention veers from the pointless story to celebrity spotting. Unfrosted has all the joy of a Pop-Tart that has burned to a crisp.
REEL FACTS
• While most of Unfrosted is fictional, Amy Schumer’s character, businesswoman and philanthropist Majorie Merriweather Post, was a real person – the wealthiest woman in America for most of her life. Her company, Post, unveiled its less popular Country Squares just before Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts.
• William Post (no relation to Kellogg’s rival company), who invented Pop-Tarts for Kellogg’s at his Battle Creek bakery, died of heart failure in February 2024. He was 96.
• Initially there were just four flavors of Pop-Tarts. Kellogg’s now sells more than 30.
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