Genre: Children’s Animation, Comedy
Director: Phil Lord & Chris Miller
Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Neil Patrick Harris
Running Time: 81 minutes (plus trailers)
“You may have seen a meteor shower, but I bet you've never seen a shower "meatier" than this”
Flint Lockwood always dreamed of becoming a great inventor. Spray on shoes, flying cars, walking televisions and rat/bird hybrids are just a few of the poorly conceived creations he has unleashed on the small island town of Swallow Falls, located under the ‘A’ in Atlantic Ocean. But despite his best efforts Flint has never been able to come up with an invention that can help solve the town’s reliance on sardines or that could win him the affection of his father. But all that is about to change.
The Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (conveniently abbreviated to FLDSMDFR) can transform water into food, and after Flint accidentally fires the device into the upper atmosphere, food begins to rain down from the sky. The phenomenon initially makes Flint a hero and attracts the attention of a fetching young weather intern from New York. But as the portions begins to grow rapidly in size, the food begins to seem less like mana from heaven and more like a biblical apocalypse and it may be up to Flint shut down the machine before Swallow Falls is completely...devoured (see what I did there?)
Believe it or not, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball is a very funny movie, with plenty of gags both visual and spoken that kept me grinning the whole time. In fact come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve laughed out loud more times during a movie this year. The humour isn’t exactly sophisticated (and I wouldn’t exactly count myself as having a particularly sophisticated sense of humour anyway), but this movie is certainly a lot cleverer than the advertising material might suggest. In addition to the humour, the second half of the film brings a fair share of genuinely exciting action, with people dodging spaghetti twisters and watermelon asteroids left and right, and Flint’s monkey Steve going mono e mono with some very aggressive gummy bears.
The movie looks terrific. In terms of beauty it doesn’t come close to WALL-E or even Up, but it’s still incredibly detailed animation and the whole concept of food falling from the sky makes for some wonderful and often very funny visuals. And the final showdown in which Flint must navigate a flying car through a giant food storm whilst the citizens of Swallow Falls must flee from an avalanche of leftovers was almost worthy of a Rolland Emmerich film in terms of spectacle. I’m still not convinced that the 3D adds anything significant, but it certainly wasn’t a detractor either.
And again, while it hardly has the profundity of a Pixar film, Cloudy also succeeds in hitting all the right emotional beats, and actually offers a decent messages to kids, particularly young girls, about not having to dumb themselves down to get ahead in life. It’s not anything you haven’t already seen before, and in a lesser film I might have been rolling my eyes at life lessons like these. But the movie was funny enough that I was willing to go with it and I’m not going to say that I didn’t get a little teary when Flint’s father finally tells him how proud he makes his old man. But most importantly, even in moments like this, the film never stops making you laugh.
Finally I want to talk briefly about the cast. Specifically, I’d like to say...holy crap! Bruce Campbell?! And Mr. T?! And NPH...as a monkey?! That is some pretty awesome casting! Now admittedly I didn’t actually recognize any of the voices except for Andy Samberg as Baby Brent (he was hilarious by the way) but I did get a real kick out of reading some of those names in the end credits. This is probably one of the first times I’ve seen an animated movie that had big name actors doing the voices in which I didn’t find their inclusion horribly distracting.
This may seem like an odd comparison, but the other 2009 film that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs really reminds me of it Star Trek. This isn’t trying to be deep and meaningful; it’s just trying to be fun, and in that it absolutely succeeds. And although it may seem as though there wouldn’t be much of an audience crossover, I’d put good money on anyone who enjoyed Star Trek having a blast with this movie (and for the record, I probably liked Cloudy even more). The other thing to keep in mind is that most kids movies these days are pretty crappy and so while I don’t think this movie is going to teach children a whole lot, it’s still visually engaging, kind of sweet and very very funny. Even to big kids like me.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is now playing in Australia on both conventional and 3D screens
Director: Phil Lord & Chris Miller
Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Neil Patrick Harris
Running Time: 81 minutes (plus trailers)
“You may have seen a meteor shower, but I bet you've never seen a shower "meatier" than this”
Flint Lockwood always dreamed of becoming a great inventor. Spray on shoes, flying cars, walking televisions and rat/bird hybrids are just a few of the poorly conceived creations he has unleashed on the small island town of Swallow Falls, located under the ‘A’ in Atlantic Ocean. But despite his best efforts Flint has never been able to come up with an invention that can help solve the town’s reliance on sardines or that could win him the affection of his father. But all that is about to change.The Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (conveniently abbreviated to FLDSMDFR) can transform water into food, and after Flint accidentally fires the device into the upper atmosphere, food begins to rain down from the sky. The phenomenon initially makes Flint a hero and attracts the attention of a fetching young weather intern from New York. But as the portions begins to grow rapidly in size, the food begins to seem less like mana from heaven and more like a biblical apocalypse and it may be up to Flint shut down the machine before Swallow Falls is completely...devoured (see what I did there?)
Believe it or not, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball is a very funny movie, with plenty of gags both visual and spoken that kept me grinning the whole time. In fact come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve laughed out loud more times during a movie this year. The humour isn’t exactly sophisticated (and I wouldn’t exactly count myself as having a particularly sophisticated sense of humour anyway), but this movie is certainly a lot cleverer than the advertising material might suggest. In addition to the humour, the second half of the film brings a fair share of genuinely exciting action, with people dodging spaghetti twisters and watermelon asteroids left and right, and Flint’s monkey Steve going mono e mono with some very aggressive gummy bears.The movie looks terrific. In terms of beauty it doesn’t come close to WALL-E or even Up, but it’s still incredibly detailed animation and the whole concept of food falling from the sky makes for some wonderful and often very funny visuals. And the final showdown in which Flint must navigate a flying car through a giant food storm whilst the citizens of Swallow Falls must flee from an avalanche of leftovers was almost worthy of a Rolland Emmerich film in terms of spectacle. I’m still not convinced that the 3D adds anything significant, but it certainly wasn’t a detractor either.
And again, while it hardly has the profundity of a Pixar film, Cloudy also succeeds in hitting all the right emotional beats, and actually offers a decent messages to kids, particularly young girls, about not having to dumb themselves down to get ahead in life. It’s not anything you haven’t already seen before, and in a lesser film I might have been rolling my eyes at life lessons like these. But the movie was funny enough that I was willing to go with it and I’m not going to say that I didn’t get a little teary when Flint’s father finally tells him how proud he makes his old man. But most importantly, even in moments like this, the film never stops making you laugh.Finally I want to talk briefly about the cast. Specifically, I’d like to say...holy crap! Bruce Campbell?! And Mr. T?! And NPH...as a monkey?! That is some pretty awesome casting! Now admittedly I didn’t actually recognize any of the voices except for Andy Samberg as Baby Brent (he was hilarious by the way) but I did get a real kick out of reading some of those names in the end credits. This is probably one of the first times I’ve seen an animated movie that had big name actors doing the voices in which I didn’t find their inclusion horribly distracting.
This may seem like an odd comparison, but the other 2009 film that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs really reminds me of it Star Trek. This isn’t trying to be deep and meaningful; it’s just trying to be fun, and in that it absolutely succeeds. And although it may seem as though there wouldn’t be much of an audience crossover, I’d put good money on anyone who enjoyed Star Trek having a blast with this movie (and for the record, I probably liked Cloudy even more). The other thing to keep in mind is that most kids movies these days are pretty crappy and so while I don’t think this movie is going to teach children a whole lot, it’s still visually engaging, kind of sweet and very very funny. Even to big kids like me.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is now playing in Australia on both conventional and 3D screens
