Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is an imaginative, humorous, entertaining, three-dimension spectacular. I throughly enjoyed this film. Not being familiar with the source material, I trusted that directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller would only add whatever was necessary to flush out a feature length script from a beloved children’s book, written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. This fantastical tale has been a children’s book favorite since 1978.

Developing a new visual style and creating a back story for the town of Chewandswallow, directors Lord and Miller give us a young inventor named Flint Lockwood, who is obsessed with becoming the world’s greatest inventor. Voiced by Bill Hader, this young man invents a machine that causes the clouds to rain food. The town’s mayor, voiced by Bruce Campbell, sees this as an opportunity to save their small island after their chief industry, sardines, has gone bust because sardines are gross. He convinces young Lockwood to rig his machine to rain three meals a day, while the mayor invites the world to come see the phenomenon.

Anna Faris voices Sam Sparks, a young news station intern, who happens to be covering a local news conference when the first food-rain occurs. Having exclusive footage to the event and a secret passion for the science of weather, Sam and Flint become fast friends and join forces when the raining food problem becomes out of control. Additional cast members include James Caan, as Flint Lockwood’s tecnophobic father, Mr. T. as the local policeman, Bobbe’ J. Thompson as Cal, the policeman’s son and Andy Samberg as Baby Brent, a grow man still living off of the fame he achieved as a child model for the now defunct sardine company. Additional voice actors include Benjamin Bratt as Manny, Neil Patrick Harris as Steve The Monkey, and Al Roker as an anchorman.

When watching a film, I usually don’t focus on the technical aspects, I try to just enjoy the story. But in this film I was so impressed with the sound engineering that I can’t help but point it out. Imagine the monumental task of recording all the different sounds involved when food of all types hits the ground. In addition there was some very clever effects involved when sound had to be filtered through foreign objects. For example, when Flint Lockwood has a giant fishbowl land on top of him. The angry shouts of the community are muffled for comic effect until the glass breaks. Then Flint must hear the mob in their full voluminous roar.

I was also intrigued with the lighting effects. I don’t know who gets the credit for this in an animated film, but I was fascinated by the way the light played on reflective surfaces and through translucent materials. The three dimensional effects also severed this film well. As a adult, we often view animated films as a guardian to a small child, but I really enjoyed this film as a work of art. I found it visually stunning, interesting and most of all, entertaining. Even if you don’t have a child to bring to this film, go anyway. Let it bring out the child in you.

Rating: First Run Be ready to be amazed