Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is just one of the many animated films coming out in a busy year for the genre (others including another Ice Age movie, Up, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Ponyo, and G-Force), and as a result the once new and unique type of movie is wearing thin with ideas. It's hard to not just throw a tired idea against the wall and see if you make money. And in many ways this is where Cloudy ends up rising above other movies like G-Force or any Ice Age movie. Cloudy ends up combining the cute factor of a childrens movie with the unique visuals strived for in any animated movie all while telling a great story with some great comedic moments along the way.
The film, based on a popular childrens book (of which I haven't read), tells the story of a young inventor named Flint Lockwood who lives in a small island who's only claim to fame was sardines. When everyone in the world realized sardines were gross, the island's only food source becomes sardines which is where Flint hopes to change the island. He creates a device that takes water and creates food. When the device is launched into the sky it ends up creating food like rain. Obviously issues ensue and villians emerge and unlikely people become heros.
Movie 101 will now tell you that you don't have a blockbuster animated movie unless you have a great voice cast and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs remains no exception. Saturday Night Live actor Bill Hader plays the lead with other voice talents including Andy Sandberg, Anna Faris, and Bruce Campbell. Overall though there is nothing here that is spectacular as far as the characters go. Minus Mr. T as an over the top cop, the characters are fairly pedestrian, giving enough distinction between good and bad, but not enough for me to be talking about Flint Lockwood or any of the others in years to come as you would with movies like Shrek or Up.
The visuals are superb, with lots of color here but not on the characters, something that works well. While the people in the story are fairly normal, the movies settings are great. Bright and vibrant, the small island of Swallow Falls comes alive when food comes down from the sky.
If the movie has any downfall it's the finale. Giving some sort of throwback to the end of Independence Day, the final part of the movie just never lives up to the high president set by the rest of the movie. Not to say it's bad, simply uneventful in many ways.
But the movie is incredibly funny, leaving many punny lines along the way (I think we've bit off more than we can chew) as well as the funniest monkey in a movie to date. I can't sit here and tell you Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs will be remembered in 5 years the way any pixar movie will be because it won't be. But Cloudy is one of the higher end animated movies to come out in recent memory and is worth your 90 minutes. Grade - B+
The film, based on a popular childrens book (of which I haven't read), tells the story of a young inventor named Flint Lockwood who lives in a small island who's only claim to fame was sardines. When everyone in the world realized sardines were gross, the island's only food source becomes sardines which is where Flint hopes to change the island. He creates a device that takes water and creates food. When the device is launched into the sky it ends up creating food like rain. Obviously issues ensue and villians emerge and unlikely people become heros.
Movie 101 will now tell you that you don't have a blockbuster animated movie unless you have a great voice cast and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs remains no exception. Saturday Night Live actor Bill Hader plays the lead with other voice talents including Andy Sandberg, Anna Faris, and Bruce Campbell. Overall though there is nothing here that is spectacular as far as the characters go. Minus Mr. T as an over the top cop, the characters are fairly pedestrian, giving enough distinction between good and bad, but not enough for me to be talking about Flint Lockwood or any of the others in years to come as you would with movies like Shrek or Up.
The visuals are superb, with lots of color here but not on the characters, something that works well. While the people in the story are fairly normal, the movies settings are great. Bright and vibrant, the small island of Swallow Falls comes alive when food comes down from the sky.
If the movie has any downfall it's the finale. Giving some sort of throwback to the end of Independence Day, the final part of the movie just never lives up to the high president set by the rest of the movie. Not to say it's bad, simply uneventful in many ways.
But the movie is incredibly funny, leaving many punny lines along the way (I think we've bit off more than we can chew) as well as the funniest monkey in a movie to date. I can't sit here and tell you Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs will be remembered in 5 years the way any pixar movie will be because it won't be. But Cloudy is one of the higher end animated movies to come out in recent memory and is worth your 90 minutes. Grade - B+
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