Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Well, I feel much better and finally got around to watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs tonight, the movie that you, the reader, decided you wanted to see me review the most.

I remember reading the book back when I was an elementary school student, and I loved the book. But to be completely honesty; I had actually forgotten about its existence. When I went to see Night at the Museum 2 in theaters, I saw the trailer for Cloudy and I wasn’t sure what to think of it. I still didn’t even remember the existence of the book.

I passed on it in theaters and a couple months later I was reminded that it was based on a children’s book and a rush of memories came flooding back to me. I remember being in Miss Dibb’s 2nd grade class when she read it to us the first time and I fell in love.

We began the movie and it honestly reminded me of something out of Tron with all the machines. It starts out with a young child named Flint who is a crackpot inventor. He makes Spray-On Shoes and sprays them on and can’t take them off.

His father tells him that he shouldn’t worry about inventing and work at the family bait shop. They live on an island in the Atlantic Ocean called Swallow Falls and they are the leading supplier of anchovies. But, the anchovy factory gets shut down because people realize that anchovies are ‘super gross’. So, the people of the island lose their jobs and they all have to eat anchovies.

Flint’s mother tells him that he should continue and she gives him a lab coat to feel like a real scientist. He gladly accepts it and keeps it on his whole life.

Several years pass and Flint is now an adult and he is working on a machine that turns water into food. He keeps trying and it fails because there’s not enough electricity. He then taps into the city’s electricity and makes his machine work. The machine then takes off like a rocket and is sent into the clouds.

A young weather girl from New York is sent to the island to watch the unveiling of “Anchovy Land” at the island, and Flint’s machine shoots past her and ruins her report. The two meet and it starts raining cheeseburgers from the machine.

Just like the weather, this movie really was unpredictable. Obviously, the children’s book had a lot less to it, so they added much more to the movie, but it was a welcome change. The animation was fantastic and would have made a great 3D experience, but it wasn’t realistic animation such as Up or other movies, but the animation was perfect for what it was.

It was definitely funny, and a fantastic family film. I watched it with several children and they all loved it. I did too. There were aspects I thought I wouldn’t like, but I did.

It definitely wasn’t the best animated film of 2009, Up I think takes that one, but it was still good. I give it 7 out of 10.