Unfrosted is all the comedy things: satire, parody, double entendres, physical nonsense, word play, exaggeration, topical visuals, and an abundance of cameos from well known comic actors. It was co-written by Jerry Seinfeld and is his first time as a director.
Unfrosted uses real people and things but in totally cracked ways. The plot is about how the Kellogg and Post cereal companies compete to develop and market a new product which became Pop Tarts. But this is no serious business marketing flick. This is a slapdash, cornball marketing flick.
The film is set in the 1960s. The main characters are Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan), his main man Bob Cabana (Jerry Seinfeld), and their idea person, Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy). On the Post side of things we have Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer) and her main man Rick Ludwig (Max Greenfield).
Thurl Ravenscroft (Hugh Grant) is a stage actor moonlighting as Tony the Tiger. He leads all the Kellogg mascots and characters like Snap, Crackle, and Pop in an assault on the Kellogg building. Their revolt looks exactly like the terrorist attack on the U.S. Capital on Jan. 6.
The cameos are fun and silly. The people getting parodied were real people, but are nothing like reality. A few examples include Kyle Dunnigan as both Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson, James Marsden was Jack LaLanne, Dean Norris played Khrushchev, Peter Dinklage was Harry Friendly, Bill Burr played JFK, Jon Hamm and John Slattery were ad men (oh, the irony), Fred Armisen was Mike Puntz, and Dan Levy played Andy Warhol. The milkman Mike Diamond (Christian Slater) was around too much to be considered a cameo. Cereal and milk do go together.
Coming in at about 90 minutes with its constant race through snappy dialog and gags, Unfrosted was fast paced and quick on its feet. It was a fever dream of nostalgia. It was silly but it made me laugh.
You can see this one on Netflix.
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