Movie Reviews

Unfrosted's "Five Cereal Families" Explained: Each Member & Their Company's Histories

Summary

  • Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story portrays the breakfast food industry as fierce competitors in a wacky space race for the first Pop-Tart.
  • Kellogg’s and Post are the main rivals in the film, with Kellogg’s successfully developing the iconic toaster pastry in the end.
  • The meeting of the Five Cereal Families features fictional and real characters from Kellogg’s, Post, General Mills, Quaker Oats, and Ralston Purina.



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Netflix’s Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story features a secret meeting of the Five Cereal Families, and here are all of them explained, including who attended the meeting and what their company’s history is. Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story looks at the world of breakfast food manufacturers through an interesting lens, portraying them as harsh syndicates of cereal and breakfast pastries locked in a heated space race to develop the first Pop-Tart. The secret meeting in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story gives the first good look at the competition, and here is every character who ended up attending.


Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is finally here, with the highly anticipated comedy now released on the streaming service. Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story tells the not-so-true tale of the origin of the Pop-Tart, with it treating it with the severity of the space race. The film subs out real facts for gags, celebrity cameos, and appearances by food and breakfast cereal mascots, creating a wacky adventure through the worlds of Kellogg’s and Post. The meeting of the Five Cereal Families is one of the wackiest scenes in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, and here is a full breakdown.


Kellogg’s

Bob Cabana, Edsel Kellogg III, Donna Stankowski


Kellogg’s is the main company that Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story follows, with it being the manufacturer that finally develops the Pop-Tart at the end of the film. Kellogg Company, now called Kellanova in real life, was founded in 1906, with it making all kinds of foods, although breakfast cereals are some of the company’s most popular products. Much like in the movie, Kellogg’s found out about Post’s plans to develop a toaster pastry, causing Kellogg’s to attempt to beat them to the market. In the end, Kellogg Company successfully made the Pop-Tart, which it still sells to this very day.

Unlike the other companies, Kellogg’s actually has three attendees at the meeting of the Five Cereal Families, showing just how invested they are in the project. Jerry Seinfeld’s Bob Cabana is one of the Kellogg’s members in attendance, with him being the driving force behind the Pop-Tart’s development. Although he isn’t real, it turns out that Jerry Seinfeld’s Bob Cabana is actually based on Bill Post, the real employee of Keebler and Kellogg’s who ended up successfully developing the Pop-Tart.


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The next member of Kellogg Company who appears at the meeting of the Five Cereal Families is the head of Kellogg’s, Edsel Kellog III. Played by Jim Gaffigan, Edsel Kellogg III is not a real person, with him being a fictional CEO of the company. In reality, William E. LaMothe was the CEO of Kellogg Company during the time in which the film takes place, with him being the suit that oversaw the Pop-Tart’s development. It is unknown why LaMothe was cut from the film in favor of Kellogg, although that can be said for a lot of elements of Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story.

The final member in attendance at the meeting is Melissa McCarthy’s Donna Stankowski. Stankowski is a NASA employee and former Kellogg’s scientist who is brought back on when the Pop-Tart space race began. This character does not seem to be based on any real figure, with her simply being made up for the film.


Post

Marjorie Post, Rick Ludwin

Post Consumer Brands is the antagonist company in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, with them being Kellogg’s main competition throughout the movie. Post is the company that calls for the meeting of the Five Cereal Families, with the gathering intended to allow Post to explain their new toaster pastry product and outline the terms of their agreement. Post Consumer Brands is a real company that was founded in 1895 and still operates today, and much like in the movie, Post’s Country Squares were the product of their involvement in the Pop-Tart race.


Post had two attendees at the meeting of the Five Cereal Families, the first of which is Amy Schumer’s Marjorie Merriweather Post. Unlike most of the characters in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, Marjorie Post is actually a real person, with her being the head of Post from 1914 until 1958. Although Post’s role in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is almost completely made up, Amy Schumer is representing a real person, with some aspects of the character being based on who Post was in reality.

The second Post employee who attends the meeting of the Five Cereal Families is Max Greenfield’s Rick Ludwin. Ludwin is not based on a real Post employee, although he does share his name with the NBC executive who backed Seinfeld, with this potentially being a tribute.

General Mills

Unnamed

Unfrosted- The Pop-Tart Story-3


General Mills is another real company that appears at the meeting of the Five Cereal Families in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, although it plays a much smaller role than Kellogg’s and Post. First incorporated in 1856, General Mills is a company that still operates to this day, with them releasing popular breakfast cereals like Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, and Reese’s Puffs. The representative at the meeting goes unnamed, with it not resembling any real known employee of General Mills, meaning that it mostly just acts as a cameo appearance for the General Mills breakfast product company.

Ralston

Unnamed

unfrosted table scene

Ralston Purina is another popular food manufacturer, although its products also range into animal feed, entertainment products, and more. Much like the other Five Cereal Families, Ralston produces some major brands, including Chex and Cookie Crisps. Much like General Mills, Ralston plays an incredibly small role in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, with its representative at the meeting of the Five Cereal Families going unnamed as well. However, it is nice to see some representation from other cereal companies, with them sitting as equals at Post’s surprise meeting.


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Quaker

Quaker Oats Quaker

The final of the Five Cereal Families is the Quaker Oats Company, which was founded in 1877 and still operates today. Although the company mostly specializes in oats and granola based products, cereal has been a major staple of the company since the very beginning, with Quaker being behind brands like Cap’n Crunch and LIFE cereal. At the meeting, Andy Daly cameos as the Quaker Oats Quaker, with this being one of the funniest characters to appear in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story.


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