Phones, shoes, crisp flavours… the product origin story has become a movie staple over the past few years. Now it’s the turn – albeit in heavily fictionalised form – of Pop Tarts, in Netflix’s Unfrosted (available now), directed by Jerry Seinfeld.
The sitcom veteran also stars, as Bob Cabana, a Kellogg’s exec enjoying the trappings of cereal domination, before his company becomes involved in a battle with rival brekkie maker Post to create a “shelf-stable, heatable fruit pastry breakfast product”. The film, with its colourful 1960s backdrop, leans heavily on the metaphor of the space race: who will get there first?
In a press interview for the film, Seinfeld railed against “woke crap” ruining comedy – a statement made (even more) bizarre by the fact Unfrosted isn’t remotely edgy. In fact, it’s cheerful family fare. Bob and co encounter dumpster-diving product testers, The Milkmen (“a greedy, ruthless syndicate” bent on killing off the Pop Tart), sugar baron ‘El Sucre’ and even JFK.
It doesn’t all work – a Mad Men revival falls flat, and a sentient ravioli adds little – but a steady stream of solid jokes are given life by a stellar cast, with Hugh Grant stealing the show as the man behind Tony the Tiger.
Food industry types might enjoy the short shrift given to a hapless Post employee’s suggestion that the company cuts sugar to create “a healthy lifestyle breakfast brand”. But while there’s the odd mention of pectin and xanthan gum, this is a fun fantasy, rather than an illuminating look at a product’s genesis. Maybe it will inspire a couple of NPD scientists of the future.
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