Some years ago, admittedly a little hard to remember since I’m not sure the film ever got a real theatrical release, a film called Food Fight existed, and used a lot of these mascot type characters. I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews of Unfrosted, and my sentence as a film judge is that all critics who thought this was bad need to also see Food Fight, because this kinda thing can be a lot worse. When i saw it, it was just freely on YouTube because no one cared about Food Fight.
Unfrosted is Jerry Seinfeld’s love letter to cereal. Oddly, the central focus is not cereal, as it centers on this fake war over creating a Pop Tart. But, since the first Pop Tart was apparently Unfrosted, and there’s quite a focus on Tony The Tiger as the lead mascot in these mascot wars, Unfrosted makes a lot of sense as a title.
Jerry Seinfeld also has a laundry list of talent. It’s possible you were in this film and didn’t even know it. An amazing amount of people wanted to make this Netflix original with Jerry, from Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, and Hugh Grant in substantial roles, to supporting and cameo performances from Christian Slater, Peter Dinklage, Dan Levy, Mikey Day, Kyle Mooney, Drew Tarver, Cedric The Entertainer, Patrick Warburton, Rachael Harris, Bobby Moynihan, Thomas Lennon, James Marsden, Sasheer Zamata, Bill burr, and still many other talents, Unfrosted has one of the most substantial casts you will see this year. But, the debate is… is it funny?
I thought it was this quirky nostalgic slice of 1960’s life that captured what might have been a somewhat true story, and just amplified it into nonsense. There are some truly silly moments here, like the funeral sequence, as well as just some interesting turns of phrase. Watching little kids try and get congealed gel out of the bottom of a trash can was so gross, as someone who used to deal with throwing trash into dumpsters, I can’t think of much more revolting things to do except eat straight out of a toilet. So, I enjoyed this humor, and the way Seinfeld captures the 60’s. Pleasantville is one of my favorite films, and while that film is better and has dramatic weight, it did remind me stylistically of that.
But, comedy is so subjective. There are stand up comics I don’t find funny, movies I don’t laugh in that other people do, and vice versa. Comedy is one of the hardest things to recommend, which is why I think so many mainstream critics are afraid to ever not turn their nose up at anything lowbrow. Audiences pretty much declared titles like Billy Madison and Tommy Boy, though the Rotten Tomatoes scores for those films are 41% and 39% respectively. Unfrosted currently sits at 43%. So does it mean you shouldn’t watch it? Not really. Comedy is subjective, and Adam Sandler fans love Billy Madison, Chris Farley fans love Tommy Boy, and it is very likely that Jerry Seinfeld fans will enjoy Unfrosted. So, try it for yourself.
The audio description is one of my favorite tracks of the year so far, as I thought they did a great job describing the mascots, of which there are many. My only moment was when Seinfeld was with the milk mafia, and he walked through the door. I felt like that was a really summarized description of what apparently was horrifying to Jerry. But, this was a pretty terrific track, International Digital center did a solid production, Kathleen Finn wrote a terrific audio description script, and the always reliable Jamie Lemcheck was a perfect choice for narrator.
I may be an outlier, and that’s OK. Like I said, these films are subjective, but I just wanted to be the dissenting opinion here and say this film made me laugh, and it just might make you laugh as well.
Final Grade: A-
