The trailer sold me with falling food, brought to us in 3D. Yes I know, I'm easy to please. Based upon a children's book of the same name (Wait, I thought kids didn't read anymore due to video games and hip hop?), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs follows the exploits of Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), a young nerd determined to invent something useful for his island town of Swallow Falls, famous for its sardines.
All through his childhood, Flint came up with brilliant but botched experiments such as spray-on shoes (that don't come off), a Monkey Thought Transmitter (placed on his best friend, a monkey called Steve who has nothing intelligent to say),and Rat-birds that fly off and scavenge things from the town. Constantly ridiculed and watched ceaselessly by the town's police officer, Earl (Mr. T), poor old Flint never has any luck and even his father (James Caan) decides it's best to put him to work in the family sardine shop. That is until the world discovers sardines suck, and no one outside of Swallow Falls wants them anymore.
The town is then stuck with all these sardines for food, and nothing else, so Flint builds a machine that turns water into any kind of food people want, or at least, it's supposed to. By complete fluke, Flint finally gets his machine working properly by "placing it" in the sky where it manipulates the clouds to rain food. Things go great for a while with everyone singing Flint's praise, and he's even able to befriend the cute weather news intern, Sam Sparks (Anna Farris) and get on the good side of the greedy mayor (Bruce Campbell). Of course, like all his other inventions, this one ultimately goes wrong.
What follows is a silly, hilarious, and very imaginative story about Flint discovering who he really is, and how to undo the damage he's done.
Brought to us in 3D like Coraline before it, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs literally has its antics jumping off the screen, and like Coraline, this really helped enhance the film which is very light hearted to begin with. While it's hilarious watching Flint's antics, and his attempts to woo Sam, I did find the film dragged a little in the 2nd Act, but this didn't detract too much. The animation, 3D aside, works very well, and the voice acting is great. Really, it's awesome to hear both Bruce Campbell and Mr. T. Especially Mr. T.
A simple film that one can enjoy with the whole family, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will make you laugh, make you want a talking monkey, and have you craving some kind of food by the end. For me it was pasta. And a steak. But I didn't get a steak. Costs too much.
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