Unfrosted tells the story of a corporate battle that led to the creation of Pop-Tarts, but with a pinch of humor. The film is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
A man named Bob Cabana meets a young boy in a coffee shop and tells him the story of how Pop-Tarts were made to entertain the grumpy boy.
The story takes place in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the early 1960s, when milk with cereal was the staple American breakfast.
The city was home to the two giants of the cereal world—Kellogg’s and Post. They are locked in a fierce corporate battle, and Kellogg’s has had the upper hand until now.
Bob Cabana is the head of development at Kellogg’s and works closely with Edsel, the head of Kellogg’s.
One day, while driving to work, he sees two children, Butchie and Cathy, eating from a dumpster outside Post. They make Bob taste the pastry that they find in the dumpster.
Bob realizes that Post has developed a fruit-filled pastry that Bob previously worked on but failed to develop.
From their spy at Post, Bob and Edsel find out that Post was able to make that pastry because they stole Kellogg’s’ research.
Bob must now develop a product that will be able to rival Post’s pastry if they do not want to lose to Post. For that, Bob approaches Stan, who works at NASA.
Bob and Stan have worked together in the past, and he convinces Stan to work at Kellogg’s again to develop their new product.
Bob and Stan hire taste pilots to help them, but the team is of no help. Unaware that the taste pilots are useless, Marjorie Post, the head of Post, grows anxious.
Marjorie decides to launch their product before it is even out of the lab. When the negotiations for shelf space go her way, Bob comes up with an idea to slow down the launch.
He meets with El Sucre, who controls 99% of the world’s sugar, in Puerto Rico. Bob and Stan buy all of his sugar so that there is none left for Post.
As a result, production at Post stops. However, Kellogg’s has still not made any progress; their taste pilots create products that have nothing to do with breakfast products.
When Bob and Stan are stuck, Bob ends up meeting Butchie and Cathy, who now scavenge tasty treats from Kellogg’s’ dumpsters.
The children advise Bob to let go of conventional expectations and combine whatever he has, which leads to Bob realizing that they must combine all the ideas of their taste pilots.
When Bob and Stan combine the ideas, they come up with a rectangular fruit-filled pastry that will rival Post’s pastry.
Ending explained:
Corporate battle gets out of hand
Marjorie is not willing to sit back and wait for her competitors to succeed. She finds a way to acquire sugar for her products.
She is going to get sugar from Cuba, and for that, she visits the Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev. She makes a deal with him and solves the sugar problem.
Meanwhile, Kellogg’s’ efforts to develop a breakfast pastry that does not need milk do not sit well with milkmen.
They kidnap Bob and torture him by making him walk between stinking cows. Bob, Stan, and Edsel are then summoned by the US President.
The President wants them to develop their product as soon as possible and win against Post, who is getting sugar from the communists.
Edsel takes this opportunity to ask the President to handle the organized milkmen, who are becoming a problem, and the President agrees.
Although there are a few accidents involved, Kellogg’s’ pastry test is a success. Their pastry can be easily toasted by children, and it is a treat.
However, the corporate battle between Post and Kellogg’s has gotten out of hand since the leaders of the US and the USSR got involved.
There is now a threat of a nuclear war, so Edsel and Marjorie meet. Edsel decides to let Marjorie buy her share of sugar, averting the threat of a war.
The birth of Pop-Tarts
Kellogg’s now needs a good name for their product. With their mascots on strike, choosing the right name becomes important to gain an edge in the market.
While Kellogg’s and Post’s products look a little different, they taste the same, which is why it is important to have a good name and hit the shelves at the same time as Post.
Where advertising agencies fall short, Butchie and Cathy prove quite helpful. Butchie accidentally gets hit on the head.
This results in Butchie reading the names suggested by Bob, Stan, and Edsel wrong; he reads them as ‘Tart Pop’, and Bob, Stan, and Edsel finally get the name they had been looking for.
Now, all that needs to be done is to get certified by the FDA, and their product will be ready to hit the shelves along with Post’s product.
The striking mascots try to hinder the certification, but they fail. Then, a reporter reads the name of the product backward while announcing it.
That is how Tart Pop became the famous Pop-Tart that everyone knows today.
The end of Bob’s story
When Kellogg’s’ Pop-Tart and Post’s Country Squares hit the market, it is Pop-Tart that emerges as a clear favorite; Pop-Tarts are sold out.
Kellogg’s retains its position as the number-one company in Battle Creek. Thurl, the leader of the mascot strike, is sued for defecating in the hallway of Kellogg’s.
Each of the taste pilots finds something that interests them. Marjorie goes on to become an icon of female empowerment; she builds a monument to feminism.
While Bob becomes rich and famous, Stan not only quits her job but also the culture of breakfast companies. She invents granola.
With this, Bob’s story comes to an end. The boy who has been listening has many questions about it.
However, his parents come to take him home, and he has to say goodbye to Bob. The boy leaves the shop with a smile on his face.
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