The Big Picture

• Unfrosted, a film starring Jerry Seinfeld, fails to impress with its lack of originality and insight.
• The Mad Men cameos in Unfrosted disappoint, wasting actors' talents and trivializing Mad Men's finale.
• Unfrosted's humor is familiar but lacks depth and creativity compared to Mad Men, offering a less enjoyable experience.

It’s often that the success of a game-changing television series can help a showrunner or star proceed to make more ambitious projects that allow them to take greater creative risks based on their popularity. Unfortunately, Jerry Seinfeld has failed to make any truly impressive projects since Seinfeld reached its conclusion almost three decades ago. Seinfeld’s latest original film, Unfrosted, aims to tell the “untold true story” of the popular Pop-Tart breakfast pastry brand, but really only serves as further evidence that the former sitcom star is completely out of touch with today’s comedy. To add insult to injury, Unfrosted features a pair of cameos by Jon Hamm and John Slattery reprising their characters from Mad Men.

Loosely based on a real corporate rivalry, Unfrosted stars Seinfeld the food designer Bob Cabana as he works alongside the NASA scientist Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy) and Kellogg’s head Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) to perfect the “Pop-Tart” recipe before their rivals at Post can hit the markets first. The film is designed as a broad satire about product origin movies and depicts the fight to make a perfect breakfast food as a seismic cultural event on the level of the space race. Unfortunately, the uninspired Mad Men cameos are reflective of Unfrosted’s lack of originality or insight.

‘Unfrosted’ Doesn’t Honor the Legacy of ‘Mad Men'

While the past decade has seen more than a few disappointing wrap-ups to beloved shows, Mad Men had a truly perfect series finale with the episode “Person to Person.” The episode revealed that while Don Draper (Hamm) had briefly considered stepping away from Madison Avenue, he ended up realizing that creating compelling advertisements is his true purpose, with Draper ending up creating the infamous “I’d Like To Give The World A Coke” advertisement for Coca-Cola. Similarly, Roger Sterling (Slattery) gives up his attempts to woo younger women when he finally marries Marie (Julia Ormond). The Mad Men series finale was significant because it was definitive. Unlike The Sopranos or Breaking Bad, there was never a spinoff film or prequel series that gave further insight into the universe. The cast has never even reprised their roles in any Super Bowl commercials or Saturday Night Live sketches like other shows have.

The appearance of Don and Roger in Unfrosted trivializes the end of Mad Men. What’s disappointing is that in the years since Mad Men has been off the air, both Hamm and Slattery have made a conscious effort to do something different with their careers by taking on more experimental projects. The duo even co-starred together in the highly underrated comedy mystery Confess, Fletch. Hamm and Slattery certainly could have added something to Unfrosted had they been given the chance to flex their comedic muscles, but Seinfeld opts to let them coast on their past success. Beyond the initial surprise of seeing the characters, the Unfrosted sequence fails to let Hamm or Slattery actually do anything with the characters they’d perfected playing for almost a decade.

While fans may have been pleased to see the actors slip back into their iconic roles, Unfrosted isn’t interested in consistency with the way that Mad Men characterizes Don and Roger. One of Hamm’s greatest abilities throughout the most memorable episodes of Mad Men was showing Don’s strong charisma. He is able to come up with brilliant campaign strategies off the top of his head, managing to turn even the most inconsequential of products into something seemingly essential. Strangely, Unfrosted depicts Don as being highly aggressive towards his potential clients, showing none of his persuasive abilities. Similarly, Roger is shown to have no knowledge about the Kellogg’s brand, whereas in Mad Men he always conducts deep research on potential business partners.

‘Unfrosted’ Fails to Homage the 1960s

The cameos by Mad Men characters aren’t entirely surprising, as Unfrosted examines the changing business strategies within the “decade of change.” Unfortunately, Unfrosted fails to develop an authentic depiction of the 1960s in the way that Mad Men did. By tracking the major historical developments of the decade by showing shifts in consumer products, Mad Men was able to examine how rapidly America changed politically, economically, and culturally. By comparison, Unfrosted simply uses the setting of the 1960s as an excuse to make jokes at the expense of popular brands. Tragically, the legacy of Mad Men is turned into just another punchline in Unfrosted.

The references to Mad Men are particularly distracting because Unfrosted doesn’t have any respect for the power of good advertising. One of the core themes of Mad Men is that a great marketing campaign can transcend its original intention, and become a compelling piece of art in its own right. Don is often quoted as saying “advertising is happiness,” suggesting that the product itself was often irrelevant. Comparatively, Unfrosted’s sense of humor relies on reminding the viewer of something they are familiar with. While Mad Men depicts marketing departments as bold and inventive, Unfrosted portrays them as a group of greedy clowns.

Surprising Cameos Didn’t Make ‘Unfrosted’ a Better Movie

While Hamm and Slattery's appearances were among the most surprising, Unfrosted is packed with unnecessary cameos that don’t improve the movie. A cameo can have value if the performer is given the chance to play an actual character of depth, but Unfrosted simply features well-known celebrities in goofy costumes. The idea of Bill Burr playing President John F. Kennedy or Bobby Moynihan playing Chef Boyardee may seem funny in theory, but Unfrosted doesn’t allow either actor to develop their roles beyond a broad caricature.

The Mad Men cameos aren’t even the worst part about Unfrosted, but they do speak to how lazy the film’s sense of humor is. If Unfrosted has any value, it is the possibility that bored viewers might be inspired to watch Mad Men for the first time.

Unfrosted is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix