Jerry Seinfeld has fun with Unfrosted. This film is a cartoonish version of an invented rivalry between two cereal-making firms: Post and Kellogg’s. Both firms are determined to create the next big thing in breakfast food. 

The movie includes a tongue-in-cheek tour of various news highlights from the early sixties through to more recent times. These events are claimed to be caused by this rivalry. For example, the Cuban Missile Crisis is because of the high demand for sugar between the two firms: Kellogg goes after South American sugar while Post, with the help of Nikita Khrushchev, targets Cuban supplies. Later, the mascot rebellion and storming of the Kellogg’s building is reminiscent of the 6th January 2021 invasion of the US Capitol Building.

Unfrosted is silly and is meant to be silly. It stars an extraordinary cast. Jerry Seinfeld, directs, writes and is the lead. Jim Gaffigan plays the Kellogg King with Amy Schumer as his opposition at Post. (Gaffigan and Schumer’s characters are roughly based on the actual people). Hugh Grant plays Thurl Ravenscroft, the Frosted Flakes mascot, Tony the Tiger, who leads the mascots out on strike and invents the catchphrase, ‘They’re Grrreat!’ Seinfeld even recruits Mad Men executives Jon Hamm and John Slattery, to recreate their personae, Don Draper and Roger Sterling, to offer advertising advice.

Kellogg attempts to enrol the best minds to create a breakfast biscuit; amongst them Melissa McCarthy as Donna Stankowski, who is persuaded to leave her job at NASA to find the perfect formula for pop tarts. Yet these minds are useless compared to the judgement of two dumpster kids who enjoy the leftover ‘goo’ they find in the bins, which is the catalyst for the new discovery. 

The movie goes along at a breakneck speed It is not always successful, veering chaotically from Mafia-like milkmen to a ravioli square that comes alive, but it remains entertaining. It is a likely holiday staple for all the family for many years. 

Streaming on Netflix now