Jerry Seinfeld makes his directorial debut as the Bee Movie writing team reunites for the hysterical Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story.

If you’re familiar with Jerry Seinfeld as a comedian, you know he has a joke about Pop-Tarts and how its origin should be a movie. It took a pandemic to get things going between Seinfeld and Spike Feresten and their other writing partners but here we are. Better late than never, right? The only downside of the Netflix release is not sharing in communal laughter. I feel like if I’m watching a Jerry Seinfeld movie, it needs to be on the big screen and with an audience. I’m rather old school when it comes to comedies but I digress.

Kelloggs CEO Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) employs Bob Cabana (Jerry Seinfeld) and Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy) in coming up with a new breakfast concoction. Thurl Ravenscroft (Hugh Grant) is the voice of Tony the Tiger–American in real life, Grant plays the role as a bitter British Shakespearean actor. Across town, Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer) was one of the first female CEOs. Rick Ludwin (Max Greenfield) is her number 2. There are so many cast members that it’s impossible to highlight every single one of them. Anyway, leave it to Seinfeld and company to find a fun way of telling this origin story as audiences take a ride back to Battle Creek, Michigan, 1963. I mean, obviously, they have their share in exaggerating the story with ambition and betrayal and everything in between. There was a competition but not at this level of absurdity!

Origin stories are not usually this fun to watch. But hey, even the best comic book origins have a nice mixture of comedy, drama, and action. Well, aside from Batman Begins because there’s nothing funny about that film. Business origin stories are something of trend recently with Tetris, BlackBerry, and the like. What we have are cereal rivals Kelloggs and Post competing to create a new pastry. The next thing you know is that one of them invents the Pop-Tart and the rest is history.

In terms of the film, the pay homage to other films that came before. There’s a NASA aspect to the film that I certainly wasn’t expecting–it’s where Stan is working as Bob works to crack the secret. When they do some of the actual testing, the film moves into action thriller territory. Obviously, they still go for comedy but I hope you get the gist.

Seinfeld has a solid grasp of things behind the camera. He comes from a background in comedy and acting and from what I hear, actors make some of the best directors for other actors. When one puts together a cast of this nature, it’s not going to require much in terms of directions. It might be the only time that any of them act in a live-action feature with the comedy legend. One can only imagine how much improvised material did not make it into the film. And again, this is one of the downsides of a streaming release–there’s no bonus features to supplement the film. We’re basically getting whatever goes into the end credits. Please make sure to stick around after the end titles start.

Seinfeld’s Cabana is loosely inspired by the late William Post, who passed away in February at 96 years old. Despite Post’s last name, there is no relation with the cereal rivals. I know, right?!? I was expecting a relationship and maybe a family dispute!

Unfrosted is finally out of the toaster oven and offers plenty of fun for audiences watching from home.

DIRECTOR: Jerry Seinfeld
SCREENWRITERS: Jerry Seinfeld & Spike Feresten & Andy Robin & Barry Marder
CAST: Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Max Greenfield, with Amy Schumer and Hugh Grant, Peter Dinklage, Christian Slater, Bill Burr, Dan Levy, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Adrian Martinez, Sarah Cooper, Mikey Day, Kyle Mooney, Drew Tarver, Tony Hale, Felix Solis, Maria Bakalova, Dean Norris, Kyle Dunnigan, Sebastian Maniscalco, Beck Bennett, Cedric the Entertainer, Fred Armisen, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Aparna Nancherla, Andy Daly, Sarah Burns, and introducing Eleanor Sweeney and Bailey Sheetz

Netflix will release Unfrosted on May 3, 2024. Grade: 4/5

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