Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story

Unfrosted is a 2024 American comedy film directed by Jerry Seinfeld (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay he co-wrote with his writing team of Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin. Seinfeld and Feresten also serve as producers of the film alongside Beau Bauman, through their production company Columbus 81 Productions. The film stars an ensemble cast that includes Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Max Greenfield, Hugh Grant, and Amy Schumer. Christophe Beck composed the film's score. The film is loosely based on the true story of the creation of Pop-Tarts toaster pastries.
In this "tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen", cereal company Kellogg's attempts to beat their rival Post to the market with a revolutionary breakfast pastry in 1963 Battle Creek, Michigan.
The film was released in the United States on May 4, 2024, via Netflix.
== Plot ==
A young runaway orders Pop-Tarts in a diner, and Bob Cabana offers to tell him the true origin story of the American breakfast food.
In 1963, Bob is head of development at the Kellogg's corporation, headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan. After once again dominating their rival Post in the annual Bowl and Spoon Awards, Bob senses that Post is about to unveil something that could dominate the market. Soon after, Bob observes kids dumpster-diving at Post, and discovers they are creating a shelf-stable, fruit-based pastry breakfast food that seems to have addictive effects on kids.
A spy at Post reports that they have further developed a product Bob's former co-worker Donna "Stan" Stankowski had created for Kellogg's. Bob convinces Kellogg to hire Stan back from NASA, and the team sets to work creating their own version of the pastry, joining forces with several prominent industry figures as "taste pilots."
Marjorie Post, the head of the Post company and Edsel Kellogg's former lover, calls a meeting of the "five cereal families": Kellogg's, Post, Quaker, Ralston Purina and General Mills. To the surprise of Bob's team, Marjorie announces that their product will be on shelves within one week. Bob undercuts them by obtaining exclusive rights to 99% of the world's sugar by making a deal with Puerto Rican criminal El Sucre.
Bob begins to worry about the taste pilots' lack of progress, but he and Stan combine several of their ideas to come up with a rectangular, fruit-filled food packaged in foil that can be toasted. Kellogg warns Bob that by creating a product that is served without milk, they may be stepping on the toes of the dairy industry, in reality an incredibly powerful and ruthless cabal who end up kidnapping and threatening Bob.
Meanwhile, Marjorie visits the USSR to secure rights to Cuban sugar from Nikita Khrushchev. The idea of a communist breakfast worries president John F. Kennedy, who summons the Kellogg's team to the White House, and agrees to instruct his brother to put pressure on organized milk.
While testing the new pastry, taste pilot Steve Schwinn is blown up in an accident and is buried with "full cereal honors". Meanwhile, Thurl Ravenscroft, a long-suffering Shakespearean actor who performs the mascot role of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's, is convinced by the milk syndicate that the new breakfast pastry will make the cereal mascot obsolete. At Schwinn's funeral, Thurl convinces the other mascots to join him in a strike.
The team struggles with marketing the new pastry, eventually settling on the name "Trat-Pop". A mob of mascots, led by Thurl – now dressed as the QAnon Shamanhttps://www.vulture.com/article/this-one-joke-in-unfrosted-is-like-an-intrusive-thought.htmlhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/05/03/unfrosted-seinfeld-pop-tarts-movie/ – violently breaches Kellogg's headquarters, hoping to stop the product from being certified by the FDA. They are too late, and the product is certified. Walter Cronkite, reading a news brief off a piece of Silly Putty, misreads "Trat-Pop" as "Pop-Tart," forcing Kellogg's to change the name moments before they are shipped out.
The following morning, Pop-Tarts sell out of every store in the country within 60 seconds, defeating Post's poorly named "Country Squares". Thurl ends up facing a congressional committee for his role in the attack, the milkmen are implicated in Kennedy's assassination, and Marjorie Post becomes an icon of feminism who retires to Mar-a-Lago. Stan leaves Kellogg's again, becomes a hippie, and invents granola. Bob becomes nationally famous, and during an interview on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, is shot by Andy Warhol, who is furious that the name "Pop-Tart" sounds like "pop art." Bob survives thanks to the foil packet in his pocket.
In the present, the boy expresses doubt that a Pop-Tart packet could stop a bullet, and begins to question other elements of the story like the existence of a sentient ravioli creature. Bob admits that the story was made up as the boy's parents arrive to take him home. As they turn to go, the ravioli creature emerges from Bob's pocket.
== Cast ==
== Music ==
Christophe Beck composed the score for the film. Meghan Trainor and Jimmy Fallon provide a song for the film called "Sweet Morning Heat".
== Release ==
The film premiered at Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on April 30, 2024. The film was released on Netflix on May 3, 2024.
== Reception ==
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film received a "sharply divided reaction from critics" though most were "not bowled-over". 
== External links ==
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== References ==
Category:2024 films
Category:Netflix original films
Category:Films starring Jerry Seinfeld
Category:Films starring Melissa McCarthy
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