Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Even as a small boy, Flint Lockwood dreamed of becoming a famous scientist and assembling new and different inventions to improve the lives of his family and neighbors. Flint has lots of enthusiasm, but each of his ideas fall short of his expectations. Now that Flint is all grown up he feels the pressure more than ever to discover the next great invention and make himself the next Einstein or Tesla. Flint lives in a small town in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean named Swallow Falls which is famous for its sardines; until one day the whole world realizes that sardines are really gross. Now the citizens of Swallow Falls are stuck with all the leftover sardines. As the people become bored with the pickled fish, their lives and hometown also become grey and boring; not even tourists visit Swallow Falls anymore. Just as the town is about to reach financial ruin, Flint invents a machine that takes in water and then turns it into food. Needing more power to make the machine work, Flint accidentally shoots his machine into the atmosphere while trying to turn it on; but it is there that the machine begins to use the weather to produce whatever kind of food Flint programs it to make. Swallow Falls gains international attention and the town’s mayor make plans to turn the community into the number one food tourism destination. Flint just has to make it rain food three times a day for the foreseeable future and everyone’s problems are solved. But when the machine begins to overrun its programming and produces giant portions of food, the world is put in danger of being destroyed by food filled weather changes. Flint, with the help of his friends, has to figure out a way to stop the machine from drowning the world in food.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is based on the beloved children’s book of the same name. Written by Judi Barrett and drawn by Ron Barrett, the book version became famous for its wonderful illustrations and the movie also provides scenes full of eye candy with a spaghetti tornado and hamburger clouds raining mustard and pickles. The momentum created by the out-of-this-world imagery carries over into the wild and wacky characters voiced by the likes of Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood, Anna Faris as weather girl Sam Sparks, Bill Campbell as the mayor, and the wonderful Mr. T as policeman Earl Devereaux. Almost unrecognizable, Neil Patrick Harris plays Flint’s gummy bear obsessed monkey Steve and Benjamin Bratt is the Bond-like cameraman Manny. Although the characters have outlandish qualities, they all have very human aspects to their personalities making them very relatable. Flint wants to earn the respect of his father, Sam struggles with being seen as an ugly nerd, and Earl wants to be sure his son knows how much he loves him.

Sony Pictures did an excellent job of sticking to the original plot of the children’s book, but at the same time they created new aspects to the story that are hilarious and original. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is definitely a movie made for kids, but adults who are kids at heart and willing not to take the story too seriously, will also enjoy this adaptation. There are all sorts of little references adults will probably recognize more than kids, like the 1970s Sorry game that acts as a lock to Flint’s laboratory. So, to fully appreciate Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, make some huge bowls of popcorn and giant drinks that swallow the straw, get all of the kids together (or kids at heart), and roll film!