MAD About Pop-Tarts!

Jerry Seinfeld‘s new movie “Unfrosted”, a fictional origin story of the “Pop-Tarts” breakfast pastry, was released for mass consumption today on Netflix.

It happens that I did the art for another fake MAD cover prop ala “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, only this one was for “Unfrosted”. This, of course, did not necessarily mean the cover prop would actually be seen in the film. I’ve done a number of projects for film and TV that never got seen or used in the end product. However the cover does make a brief appearance in the film, with Melissa McCarthy‘s character reading an issue while working in the lab. Here was the final art used (logo was for position only, the final prop had all the cover graphics added in):

This all happened exactly two years ago. Back in May of 2022 Seinfeld’s production company reached out to MAD asking about having a special MADcover prop for the film. MAD art director Suzy Hutchinson contacted me about doing the art. I pretended to check my calendar/schedule before enthusiastically agreeing to do it.

We had a Zoom meeting with Jerry and some of his team to brainstorm concepts. The idea was a cover making fun of NASA, which somehow fits into the storyline of the film. They wanted some kind of 60’s era space scene with Alfred and a chimpanzee, a gag about being “airsick”, and the use of the NASA logo rebranded “NAuSeA”. I did a few concept pencils, etc. etc. The end result was supposed to be a Norman Mingo/Kelly Freas kind of look.

No credit in the film credits but MAD got their copyright and “used with permission” towards the end of the credit roll.