Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

==Plot==

Imagine living on an island in the middle of the Atlantic where the main catch of the day is sardines. As a result, the economy is reliant on this fish so when people stop eating them and the canning plant shuts down what are you going to do?

Flint Lockwood has lived in the island’s main town of Chewandswallow all his life, and ever since he was a small child, he has wanted to be an inventor. Unfortunately his inventions ...
...spray on shoes which cannot actually be removed.

He does, however, after a couple of false starts, have a hit with a machine that can turn water into food, and his nerdish behaviour catches the eye of closet nerd Sam Sparks, who turns up on the island to report for a TV weather channel. The townsfolk are initially delighted with the choice of food on offer after a diet which has consisted predominantly of sardines, however like so many ... more

Plot

Imagine living on an island in the middle of the Atlantic where the main catch of the day is sardines. As a result, the economy is reliant on this fish so when people stop eating them and the canning plant shuts down what are you going to do?

Flint Lockwood has lived in the island’s main town of Chewandswallow all his life, and ever since he was a small child, he has wanted to be an inventor. Unfortunately his inventions tend not to be fully thought through, such as his spray on shoes which cannot actually be removed.

He does, however, after a couple of false starts, have a hit with a machine that can turn water into food, and his nerdish behaviour catches the eye of closet nerd Sam Sparks, who turns up on the island to report for a TV weather channel. The townsfolk are initially delighted with the choice of food on offer after a diet which has consisted predominantly of sardines, however like so many things in life when you solve a problem, sometimes new ones you didn’t anticipate replace them.

My Thoughts

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” is the third computer animated film from Sony Pictures after “Open Season” and “Surf’s Up”. The film has their imprint on it and is, I feel anyway, a slight improvement on its predecessors however they have yet to reach the level of sophistication you see in Pixar films, particularly when it comes to the script.

Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and available to view in either 3D or 2D, I watched the 3D version and would recommend you try to see it this way as some of the scenes have clearly been made with 3D in mind.

The animation ranges from perfunctory to occasional flashes of brilliance. The character of Flint’s father, who is a man who cannot understand technology or his son, is particularly well done and displays how sometimes a character can become perfectly formed just by a couple of small facial movements.

There are also a few affectionate nods from the animators to disaster films – for instance if you have ever seen “Twister” you will recognise it in a scene in this movie.

The action scenes however are confusing – some of the ideas you see particularly using food are colourful and captivating, however there are other parts where everything seems to happen far too quickly and one is left wondering “what happened there” as the action passes by in a flash.

Another problem is it’s not going to be laugh out loud funny very often…the funniest scene has been played time and time again in the trailer – so much so hardly anyone even guffawed when we finally got to it in the film. There are a couple of very good visual jokes but not so much when it comes to listening to what is being said. To be fair of course this is a film which is definitely more about the visuals given it is aimed at young children.

The voice actors are all reasonably good…easily the best performance comes from Mr T as Police Chief Earl Devereaux, giving a perfect blend of voice and animation. James Caan is also very good as Flint’s taciturn father who cannot say anything to his son without using a fishing metaphor.

Flint is voiced by Bill Hader and he comes across as likeable and a little nerdish but I suspect any actor of a certain age could have voiced the part. I felt much the same about Anna Faris in the part of Sam. Better were Benjamin Bratt as Manny the cameraman and Bruce Campbell as the town’s greedy mayor. Al Roker also turns in an amusing performance as the patronising anchor on the weather channel.

Whilst it is an enjoyable spectacle, at the end of the day I felt a little let down by this film – perhaps because it had a chance to address the issue of world hunger but instead decided to just address the issue of one part of the world having a boring diet. I also found the father-son relationship issues to be a little laboured in parts and also completely obvious too.

Of course this is a kids’ film and the two 12 year old girls who I took to see it loved it, although I suspect much of that love was increased due to the 3D spectacle.

This is a pleasant enough film but don’t expect a script on the same level as “Cars” or other Pixar classics, however I think most kids will love it.

Certificate U – this is a film only review.

 

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