Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs Review

Posted by Joseph Lee on 09.21.2009

Quite possibly the weirdest family film I've ever watched.




Starring:

*Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood
*Anna Faris as Sam Sparks
*Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey
*James Caan as Tim Lockwood
*Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne
*Andy Samberg as Brent
*Mr. T as Officer Earl

Story: After years of trying and failing to produce successful inventions, Flint Lockwood finally creates a working invention. He creates a machine that turns water into food. When the machine blasts off into the sky and starts creating bigger food, only Flint can stop what he has created.

Trivia: Inspired by the book of the same name by Rob and Judi Barrett.

I think everyone's read, or at least heard of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs when they were growing up. It's a classic children's tale about a town that has servings of weather turned food, three times a day. Most remember it fondly. But how a short book for children could be turned into a full-length animated film is the question that this film looks to answer. It was released in 3D, which I'm sure would have been an even better experience, but unfortunately I was only able to watch the 2D version.

Thankfully, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a perfect film for kids. One of the reasons for this is the fantastic visuals. It's every kid's dream to have nothing but ice cream, but what if you had a snowstorm of ice cream? Or a tornado of spaghetti? This movie uses the modern CGi animation technology to create a world that is vibrant and dare I say, delicious. Hamburgers falling from the sky, a giant Jell-O house and just about every other combination you can imagine. The animation is top notch and it feels more like a mere cartoon. A lot of work was taken to bring this world to life and it shows in the final product.

This film also features a ton of quirky characters to fill up it's story. Bill Hader gets his first starring role, even in an animated comedy as Flint Lockwood. Flint's desperate to please and invent something that works, but at the same time he refuses to stop his quest and stop being himself. Anna Faris plays Sam Sparks, a nerdy girl who hides that fact to be popular. James Caan voices Flint's dad...a man whose eyes you can only see when he is shocked. Filling out the other supporting roles are Bruce Campbell as the increasingly obese mayor, Andy Samburg as a child star that refuses to let go of the past and Neil Patrick Harris voicing Steve the Monkey.

While Samburg, Hader and even Harris are funny, it's Mr. T, of all people that steals the show. I don't know what compelled the producers to cast Mr. T here, but I can't imagine anyone else in the role now. Officer Earl is an overzealous cop who will do anything for his son. When we are introduced to the character, he starts a rant with erratic movements about how he's going to keep an eye on Flint. He probably provides some of the funniest moments of the film. He's the weirdest thing introduced to that point, but the movie soon gets a lot weirder.

This is the only time I can say I've ever seen a film that included a man wearing a cooked turkey, pizza missiles, and a monkey in a fight to the death with a pack of gummi bears. It's elements like this that make Cloudy an animated film that is completely unique. In any other movie this stuff would feel out of place and bizarre, but here it works. In this world, it's perfectly acceptable for ratbirds to exist. That's why I think this movie works so well. Once it establishes the rules of this world, anything can happen. It's movies like this that are able to capture the imagination of viewers.

That's not to say I don't have a few complaints. The film seems to project the message that technology is wrong. Everyone makes fun of Flint for wanting to invent things, and a kid says at one point: "He wants to be smart and that's lame". You could say the film's message is to be yourself, but one these people act like themselves, they aren't praised for it. They continue to be antagonized. Even Flint's father can't tell him he's proud of him, regardless of how hard he works, because he believes that technology is wrong and something's going to end up messing up. It just seems that when the message is "Be Yourself", it would behoove the movie to actually show that being yourself will lead to positive consequences. What exactly does Flint's inventions get him at the end? I won't answer that so as not to spoil things, but just leave you to ponder it as you watch. I would have preferred no message at all to the half-hearted attempt at one they went with.

But that complaint aside, I still had a very fun time with this film. Animated films in 2009 have been on a roll, with Monsters vs Aliens, Coraline, Up and now Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I almost wish I were young again so I could enjoy the great, imaginative stories being turned into stylistic and entertaining movies the way a child would. As it is, I'll just appreciate the ability to still make a film that's unique in this day and age. It may be based on a book, but a lot of the visuals were created by the filmmakers, and that's what I saw on the screen.

The 411: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is one of the weirdest animated films I've ever seen, but it's also a lot of fun. With unique characters, vibrant visuals and a world that is fully realized through it's animation, this film is sure to be entertaining for kids and adults of all ages. Go check this one out in theaters if you can, it'll be worth the trip.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]