Unfrosted

[Milburn Stone]

This movie has received so many pans in the press and social media that I bet a lot of people aren't going to bother watching it. Which would be a shame, because it's so good.

I don't get the hate. Not one moment in the film is meant to resemble anything that happened or could happen in real life. It's a fable. For gosh sakes, the very framing device of the movie tells you that, with the Seinfeld character relating the Pop Tart story to a little girl, very much in the manner of telling a fairy tale. From then on it's just a fun ride; we laughed our proverbial asses off. Clever writing, with some superb comic acting. 

If I had to pick a movie with a somewhat similar tone, I'd say Home Alone. Not for one moment do we actually buy that a four-year old boy could rig his house with booby traps and explosives. But we go along for the ride, and love it. Same here.

Edited June 2 by Milburn Stone

[EtheltoTillie]

Thanks @Milburn Stone. I also thought the movie was silly fun. I loved all the celebrity cameos. 

Edited June 2 by EtheltoTillie

[Spartan Girl]

It was silly fun. Jerry Seinfeld sucks, but everyone else made laugh. Especially Hugh Grant.

[EtheltoTillie]

I really cackled at John Hamm and John Slattery. 

[cpcathy]

I thought it was really cute and fun. I laughed out loud every time Snap, Crackle and Pop were on screen. I don’t get the Seinfeld hate, how can we hate one half of the team who created one of the funniest shows in TV history? (Ok, don’t answer that). 

[Crashcourse]

I think people got tired of seeing Seinfeld everywhere on tv (I know I was), so that likely affected whether or not people would see the movie.  So, in addition to him, they should have had some of the other actors promoting it more.  

Edited June 2 by Crashcourse

[SomeTameGazelle]

10 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

It was silly fun. Jerry Seinfeld sucks, but everyone else made laugh. Especially Hugh Grant.

Lots of fun cameos. I enjoyed some parts more than others. I could watch James Marsden and Peter Dinklage dance for hours but I am adding sod to the list of things that Jerry Seinfeld does not understand. 

[Morrigan2575]

This is the first I've heard of it but, just watched the trailer and it looks funny. I will give it a watch this weekend.

[Trini]

15 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

This movie has received so many pans in the press and social media that I bet a lot of people aren't going to bother watching it. Which would be a shame, because it's so good.

Well, I wasn't going to bother because it seemed like a feature-length commercial. ::shrug::

[Perfect Xero]

I try not to judge child actors too harshly but the two kids in this movie have to be somehow related to Jerry or someone else high up in the production, right?

[Milburn Stone]

8 hours ago, Trini said:

Well, I wasn't going to bother because it seemed like a feature-length commercial. ::shrug::

It is and isn't. On the one hand, the movie made me think about Pop Tarts for the first time in forty years. On the other, the imaginary, fantasy version of the behind-the-scenes at Kellogg's isn't always flattering to either the company or its product! (Which is a large part of the humor.)

[EtheltoTillie]

Same here, @Milburn Stone.  I was surprised to learn that Pop Tarts are apparently Kellogg's most successful product line--more than the cereals (well, any individual cereal).  They really are awful.  I tried them when they first came out, and even as a kid I guess I had a sophisticated palate, because I couldn't stand them (and I do like cereals).  I confess I tried them again out of curiosity after watching the movie (hangs head).  Revolting.  I discarded the remainder of the pack and 3/4 of the one I tasted. 

Edited June 3 by EtheltoTillie

[Milburn Stone]

4 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I confess I tried them again out of curiosity after watching the movie (hangs head). 

Why I said I hadn't thought about them in 40 years--as opposed to more like 60--is that I had to do a Pop Tarts commercial in the early eighties. (Got dragged in to help the group whose account it was, and came up with the "winner," if you want to call it that. A Milton the Toaster spot that was memorable in no way whatsoever, unless maybe you were 5. I hope someone liked it.) 😄

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Why I said I hadn't thought about them in 40 years--as opposed to more like 60--is that I had to do a Pop Tarts commercial in the early eighties. (Got dragged in to help the group whose account it was, and came up with the "winner," if you want to call it that. A Milton the Toaster spot that was memorable in no way whatsoever, unless maybe you were 5. I hope someone liked it.) 😄

Wow. If you had asked me yesterday about Milton the Toaster I would have said I had never heard of him, but checking YouTube I found a couple of commercials with Milton talking to little girls that were incredibly familiar even if they are almost 50 years old.

[EtheltoTillie]

I just watched one that had William Schallert as the voice.  From 1975.  I don't remember Milton the Toaster.  Did you do voiceovers, @Milburn Stone?  Or ad copy? 

[Milburn Stone]

Yes, Schallert was the VO. I was a copywriter, later a creative director, at Kellogg's agency.

[Milburn Stone]

5 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Wow. If you had asked me yesterday about Milton the Toaster I would have said I had never heard of him, but checking YouTube I found a couple of commercials with Milton talking to little girls that were incredibly familiar even if they are almost 50 years old.

This one brought back a memory--I'm pretty sure it's the one I did. It's better than I remembered!

[SomeTameGazelle]

20 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

This one brought back a memory--I'm pretty sure it's the one I did. It's better than I remembered!

Yes, that was one of the ones that struck me as very familiar. Were Poptarts specifically marketed to girls or is it just a coincidence that the clips I found featured girls?

[Milburn Stone]

12 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Yes, that was one of the ones that struck me as very familiar. Were Poptarts specifically marketed to girls or is it just a coincidence that the clips I found featured girls?

They weren't specifically marketed to girls, but on the other hand I don't think it's a coincidence that so many of them featured girls. I would recall if the creative brief contained that bit of demographic direction, and it didn't. Why I say it's not a coincidence that so many featured girls is based on an intuition, that it was just easier to write cute dialogue between a child and a toaster if the child was a girl. And why that's so, is probably because the male and female creatives on the account consciously or unconsciously felt that a girl's freer imagination would more naturally allow her to delightedly give herself over to the belief (while knowing better) that a toaster was real. Apologies for all the guesswork, but at least it's educated guesswork.

[lovinbob]

I enjoyed this and laughed quite a bit. Not Oscar-worthy, but fun. Jerry Seinfeld is a better stand-up than he is an actor and director. Per usual, the weakest link, acting-wise. (I was also confused by his hair -- it was not period-appropriate. Not sure why they went all in on hair/makeup for everyone else but Jerry just looked like himself. 

I loved the star-studded cast. Great to see Sarah Cooper. Bobby Moynihan is a personal favorite, and he did a good job with that oddball role. Dean Norris as Kruschev was a fun surprise, as was Bill Burr as Kennedy. 

[Morrigan2575]

This is wierdly funny; James Marsden as Jack Lalanne and Christian Slater as The Milk Man are perfect. 

[Rickster]

I wonder if being a certain age helps you appreciate this movie. I’ll admit I also had a past relationship to the company that owned Post in the 80’s.

Anyway, we really enjoyed it. Certainly not great cinema, and a few spots that elicited groans, but a fun movie we don’t see that much of these days.

[rmontro]

On 6/2/2024 at 2:23 PM, cpcathy said:

I don’t get the Seinfeld hate, how can we hate one half of the team who created one of the funniest shows in TV history? 

Seinfeld was critical of the Woke effects on comedy, therefore he was semi-cancelled.  That explains a lot of the hostility toward him from the media and some fans.

[Tenshinhan]

5 hours ago, rmontro said:

Seinfeld was critical of the Woke effects on comedy, therefore he was semi-cancelled.  That explains a lot of the hostility toward him from the media and some fans.

It's not only about the state of comedy, which he has been going on about for years. Seinfeld has also been much more vocal lately with his anti-intellectual and regressive viewpoints, including his comments regarding "dominant masculinity" and his pro-Israel stances.  The criticism from the media and fans is well-deserved in my view.

[rmontro]

9 hours ago, Tenshinhan said:

It's not only about the state of comedy, which he has been going on about for years. Seinfeld has also been much more vocal lately with his anti-intellectual and regressive viewpoints, including his comments regarding "dominant masculinity" and his pro-Israel stances.  The criticism from the media and fans is well-deserved in my view.

If people want to criticize his viewpoints, that is one thing (although I am not familiar with his remarks on "dominant masculinity", and I don't find it troublesome that he takes pro-Israel stances, especially considering he's Jewish).  But that should have nothing to do with his work on Unfrosted.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 6/3/2024 at 8:44 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

 I confess I tried them again out of curiosity after watching the movie (hangs head).  Revolting.  I discarded the remainder of the pack and 3/4 of the one I tasted. 

What flavor did you try? 

Mr. Outlier's default morning food is Pop Tarts, and he has them probably 4 or 5 times a week.  He obviously likes them, but he's picky about which flavors.

I'll take a bite maybe once a year, but only if it's unfrosted brown sugar cinnamon or unfrosted blueberry.  Those two aren't bad at all, but I don't want to waste calories on something I don't love.  None of the frosted flavors appeal to me, and the Frosted S'Mores?  I won't let him eat them if we're both sitting at the table because I can't handle the smell.

But the unfrosted single-flavor ones are pretty benign.

Unfortunately, the movie is on Netflix, which I don't subscribe to.  This discussion made me want to watch it.

[EtheltoTillie]

I tried strawberry with some kind of pink frosting. They didn’t have many flavors at the CVS where I bought them. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

5 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I tried strawberry with some kind of pink frosting.

Well no wonder. 

 

[DoctorAtomic]

This movie was hilarious, tight, and well acted. There is no objective way it could be panned unless you're grinding an axe. 

When I was a kid, I ate the frosted chocolate or frosted cinnamon. When we had parties in undergrad I used to get them for my friends that would get high and totally nom on them. 

The parallel with the space race was perfect and how they figured out to package it in foil. 

I watched the whole Made Men scene three times. Hamm and Slattery didn't miss a beat. Unreal. 

I think Gaffigan stole the move though. 

The kid at the beginning was great - Leave the box.

I assume it had to be deliberate, but the conference I was at last week, had custom made pop tarts at the reception.