"Unfrosted" is Good, Not Grrreat!

The new Seinfeld-directed vehicle leans into 1960s nostalgia and silly, PG jokes to get by

In the 1960s, there was a rivalry between two heavyweight cereal companies from Battle Creek, Michigan - Post and Kellogg’s. I can vividly recall this fierce competition well into my childhood in the 1980s, so it was alive and well for decades following that period. Kellogg’s mascots, like Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam, were cooler [to kids] than Post’s wholesome, country feel, and yet, while I didn’t favor any of their cereals, I was rooting for Post, the perceived underdog.

Side Note: My favorite cereal of all time - Kellogg’s Nut & Honey Crunch also doubles as a clever pun. Say “Nut & Honey” fast enough and it’s a barrel of laughs, at least when you’re 9 and an easily entertained kid.

In the new film Unfrosted on Netflix, Post and Kellogg’s battle it out for who can innovate a warmer, tastier, gooier breakfast pastry faster. Ingenuity and creativity are celebrated in this film where other innovations of the day, like moon travel and Schwinn’s Sting Ray bike also take up space. [pun intended]

Source: The Daily Beast / Even Seinfeld is weary of the milk Slater is offering up. And with good reason.

What this film has going for it is Seinfeld and it’s also its crutch. Seinfeld can get by on a so-so, mediocre script made funnier by a banquet of super-talented comics, like Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, James Marsden (Jury Duty) and Sara Cooper, because he’s Seinfeld. I purposely left out McCarthy because I don’t think she’s funny. But Christian Slater and Peter Dinklage, here as the milkmen mafia are. Other highlights included a cameo performance by Jon Hamm (as Don Draper) and (John Slattery) as Roger reprising their Mad Men roles.

Side Note: I would pay good money for a reboot with Don and Roger. In my script, their story picks up in the 80s. They are living together on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and overhear the original guys who created pickleball (those unsuspecting dads) talk about the fun sport. Being savvy businessmen, albeit now retired, they seize the opportunity to create a pickleball brand, campaign, and eventual empire. Don’s daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka) runs the operations. The other little brother does something. It’s a family affair. Sounds good, right?

In the Unfrosted universe, the fictional origin story of the beloved pop-tart unfolds with Schumer as Margie Post, head of the Post Cereal company, and Gaffigan as her arch nemesis, Edsel Kellogg. There is sizzling sexual tension between the two, which is played for laughs and because it’s these two comics, we all bang out a laugh or two. Hugh Grant as a British Shakespearean actor, who degrades himself for a measly paycheck by playing Tony the Tiger, while trying to teach high art to resistant Michiganders, makes the most of his role. Grant is such a comedic delight that as a rule, he can salvage any bad script/movie merely by his presence. I put his recent turn as an Oompa Loompa in Wonka, in that camp too.

Source: Vanity Fair / Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa in “Wonka”

As a family movie, this one is good. It’s not brilliant but it’s more than a few levels up in desirability from your kids [and you] mindlessly doom-scrolling on your phone in silos on a Friday night. The film, as it stands, invites smiles, some forced laughs (some not), and beckons to simpler times when distractions didn’t run nearly as rampant. Such as, when kids got excited about finding prizes in cereal boxes or ran to the store to buy their favorite sports card, or like the Walter Cronkite character in the film, they could keep themselves occupied for at least 5 uninterrupted minutes with silly putty, a yo-yo, and a fidget spinning wheel. There were milkmen whose sole job was delivering milk in glass bottles [to your door] for God’s sake! While we can’t transport ourselves back to the 60s or 50s, as was the case in the film, Pleasantville, films like Unfrosted may be the next best thing.

For Seinfeld, I’m 100% certain this project was about nostalgia (he wrote it during the COVID-19 pandemic when we all thought it was end-of-days) and an excuse to have a paid party with his friends. And you know what? Good for him. There are worse ways to bide your time. Same can be said about watching this film.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter / “Friends having Fun in Offices Eating Pop Tarts” formerly “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”

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