UNFROSTED
US, 2024, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant, Christian Slater, Patrick Warburton, Sebastian Maniscalco, Max Greenfield, Cedric the Entertainer, Kyle Dunnigan, James Marsden, Adrian Martinez, Thomas Lennon, Tony Hale, Maria Bakalova, Dean Norris, Peter Dinklage, Bill Burr, Ronnie Chieng, Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Fred Armisen, Dan Levy.
Directed by Jerry Seinfeld.
You might have to be in a good mood to enjoy Unfrosted. Even then, it may not be entirely satisfying. But, it offers a lot of ingredients and performances for an easy enjoyable 90 minutes.
It would seem that Jerry Seinfeld has had a thing about breakfast cereals over the years, part of his stand-up comedy routines. American audience, familiar with Kellogg’s and Post cereals, the rivalries in Battle Creek, Michigan, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, may feel that this is familiar material, companies, products, promotion, cereals for parents, cereals for kids. Non-American audiences will be familiar with Kellogg’s but not so much with Post.
There is an amusing opening, a young boy is dissatisfied with his family, packing his goods in a knapsack, leaving home, arriving in a diner and encountering Jerry Seinfeld and they talk about Pop Tarts and Jerry offers to tell the true story of its origins, and the flashback to the shenanigans.
And, shenanigans there are, in many ways like a live action cartoon. Some of the behaviour is quite absurd. A lot of the action and behaviour is very silly. From a more serious point of view, there is caricature, there is irony, and a lot of satire, comment on American capitalism and business deals…
We are taken to Battle Creek in the 1960s, in the last months of JF Kennedy’s presidency. Seinfeld plays one of the executives at Kellogg’s, Jim Gaffigan playing the heir to the family business, erratic, not always confident. There are lots of discussions, issues of products, testing, marketing. But, across the way, with binoculars peering from both sides, is the Post office, led by Marjorie Post, played by Amy Schumer. An awards ceremony where Kellogg’s wins everything, compared by Cedric the Entertainer.
But, there are plots afoot, Marjorie with her underlings and spies, stealing Kellogg’s formula, Kellogg’s with their spies. They are after a family product to entice families.
Then two young children appear getting into dumpsters and finding leftovers and testing them. They become an important part of the final drama, arbiters of what children like or not.
Kellogg’s then want to go back to one of their previous experts, Donna, played by Melissa McCarthy, working in the company preparing for moon landing – and ridiculing the very idea of anybody going to the moon! She has back to the company, hires an alleged expertise group, including caricature Nazi played by Thomas Lennon, a fitness freak played by James Marsden, a bike manufacturer, a chef. In fact, they don’t come up with anything much at all. There are some comedy sketches for each of these characters, even to creating a pastry covered fish.
There are also some satiric presentations of press conferences and how not to answer questions. There is also a crisis in the supply of sugar, Kelloggs visiting a Latin dictator to ensure a steady supply of sugar, he both charming and threatening. Which means then the Post executives have to look elsewhere and decide on Cuba, including a visit to Moscow and Kruschev. This involves complications with the Kennedy administration and Kelloggs going to have an interview with the President.
In fact, one of the enjoyable aspects of the film is the range of promotion caps that critical Snap, Crackle and Pop and a wide variety, but the best of all of these is the British actor who in his Tiger outfits is filmed for commercials. The special enjoyment is that he is played by Hugh Grant, sending up himself, sending up pompous British, full of self-importance, ambitious to plead King Lear, ultimately trying to lead a revolution against Kellogg’s but failing.
Amongst the other satires are presentations of famous TV host of the 1960s, Walter Cronkite, as well as the national official for approval of foods and the pressure Kelloggs put on him.
Ultimately, both companies hasten to put a new product on the shelves, Post failing completely with “Country Squares” (and the comment who wants to be a square!) And Kelloggs using an old computer which turns out mistaken messages, wanting to have Trat Pops, finish up having Pop Tarts – an extraordinary success, and Jerry Seinfeld’s character getting all that he wanted for his house, especially a front lawn.
Audiences will enjoy the finale and the credits, all the characters performing in an entertaining musical performance and recapping their characters.
