Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 computer-animated
film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
It was released on September 18, 2009 and is inspired by the children's book of
the same name by Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett.
It is Sony Pictures Animation's third theatrical feature, not counting Open
Season 2, a direct-to-video film.
The film features the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James
Caan, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick
Harris, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte.
The film is presented in its 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is released in 3D in select
theaters using RealD Cinema and IMAX 3D systems.
Plot
Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is a young inventor who has trouble seeing eye to
eye with his technophobic father Tim Lockwood (James Caan), because he invents
many things that end up faulty, unwanted, and/or chaotic (including the
"Spray-On Shoes" - which imprisoned his feet into rock-solid shoes forever). His
mother (Lauren Graham) always believed he would become great someday until she
passed away before Flint graduated school. Flint continues to invent (with the
"Remote-Control Television", the "Hair Un-Balder", the "Flying Car", and "RatBirds")
even at the time he should be getting a real job at his father's sardine shop.
Because his hometown, Swallow Falls, rests on an island in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean, the only food everyone can afford are sardines. Hoping to solve
this problem, Flint invents a machine that converts water into food. However,
the machine initially fails due to the low amount of electricity. The next day
during a rally for the opening of a theme park named Sardine Land by Mayor
Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell) and the sardine mascot Brent (a celebrity who has
represented the town's sardine products ever since he was a baby, Andy Samberg),
Flint sneaks out of his father's shop and uses the electricity from the nearby
power station to work the machine. Meanwhile, a cute weather intern from New
York City, Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), has her big break when she is sent to
Swallow Falls to report the events. However, her time is cut short when Flint's
machine flies around, destroys a segment of the theme park and flies up in the
sky. Blamed by everyone in town, Flint flees to the docks where he meets an
emotionally-wracked Sam and instantly falls in love. Sam then realizes it was
Flint that ruined her big break, but is interrupted by a large set of purple
clouds that covers the town and rains cheeseburgers solving the problem that has
been plaguing the town.
Flint invents a communication device that allows people to order what they want
to eat, like ice cream for Officer Earl's (Mr. T) son Cal's (Bobb'e J. Thompson)
birthday and a huge amount of food for the Mayor to gorge on. The city's name is
changed to ChewAndSwallow, and the mayor tries to generate tourism by inviting
cruise ships to the island to eat. Getting to know Sam, Flint brings her on a
date to a giant Jell-O mold in the fields. Flint then discovers that Sam was
once a nerdy weather forecaster who changed her appearance and outward behavior
due to ridicule. Flint, however, states his preference for her previous persona,
allowing Sam to feel better about walking into public with glasses and her hair
tied with a Jell-O scrunchie that Flint had given her. Before they can share their first
kiss, the Mayor calls Flint to cut the ribbon for the grand re-opening of the
town, which was scheduled for the next day. Later that evening, Flint is
confronted by his father, who is unable to admit that he is proud of Flint for
what he has done, and worries that the food may not be so good for the people,
which causes an argument between the two. Flint then discovers that the food is
getting bigger before the day that many tourists arrive at ChewAndSwallow for a
grand re-opening. Flint decides to turn the machine off, but the Mayor (now
morbidly obese) persuades Flint not to turn it off, thinking "The Bigger, the
Better", and letting him know that if he turns the machine off, nobody will love
him. The Mayor whispers into Flint's ear "It's your choice" and he agrees and
leaves.
When the tourists arrive and right before the grand re-opening, Sam realizes that
the town and the world is in great danger and tries to warn Flint, but he rudely
denies to turn off the machine. Suddenly, after the ribbon is cut, a spaghetti
twister strikes the town, and Flint runs to the lab to turn off the machine, but
arrives finding the Mayor ordering a large Las Vegas style buffet, which
overloads the machine. The Mayor then destroys the communication device by
accident. The food storm roars around the world, threatening to destroy the
Earth with giant raining food. Flint grabs a USB flash drive that holds a code
that will stop the machine and rebuilds a past invention into a small aircraft.
As Flint apologizes to the town (and Sam) and says that he can turn off the
machine, Mayor Shelbourne jerkishly interrupts saying "It's all Flint's fault,
get him!" and the crowd turns into a angry mob and tries to attack Flint in his
Flying Car. However, Officer Earl stands up for Flint saying that it's their
fault more for being so greedy and they forgive him for the situation and let
him continue to end the maniac invention. Flint, along his his pet monkey Steve,
Sam, her cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt), and the sardine mascot Brent, give
chase after the machine, which has transformed into a giant meatball. Flint
loses the flash drive and calls his father to send the deletion code to his cell
phone. Meanwhile, the citizens build sandwich rafts and flee into the ocean now
that the city is being flooded by leftover food. The Mayor jumps greedily on the
first one, and floats away alone. Flint makes it to the core without Sam (who
has nut allergies and gets her arm stabbed by a peanut brittle) and Brent in the
meatball and jams the cell phone into the machine. However, his father sent him
the "wrong" document (a 3-hour music video "Fight the Power" by a kitten and
ducklings, which Flint showed Sam earlier in the movie) and the machine fights
back. Flint then pulls out the Spray-On Shoes that imprisoned his feet into
rock-solid shoes during his youth and blocks the machine from producing food.
Flint falls out of the meatball to his apparent death, followed by the
destruction of the machine, while Sam, Brent, Steve, and Manny escape. As the
citizens mourn the supposedly dead Flint, he emerges from the sunlight carried
by his earlier RatBird creations and the town cheers for Flint as their hero.
His father finally admits, through Steve's thought transmitter, that he is proud
of his son, and Flint and Sam finally kiss.
Afterwards, during the end credits, traditional-animation shows everyone lives
their new life in a food paradise and renaming the town "ChewAndSwallow 2". At
the end of the mild end credits, a clip is shown of Mayor Shelbourne clutching
the sinking remains of his sandwich raft in the middle of the ocean.
Cast
- Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood, an young
inventor and the main protagonist.
- Anna Faris as Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a
weather intern, and Flint's love interest.
- Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey,
Flint's pet monkey who can communicate through a speak and spell
thought-translating device.
- James Caan as Tim Lockwood, Flint's widower
technophobic father.
- Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, the
mayor of Swallow Falls and the primary antagonist. He hates being the mayor of
such a small town and does whatever he can to attract tourists.
- Andy Samberg as "Baby" Brent, a celebrity
mascot of Baby Brent's Sardines and Flint's school bully.
- Mr. T as Officer Earl Devereaux, the town's
athletic cop.
- Bobb'e J. Thompson as Cal Devereaux, Earl's
son.
- Benjamin Bratt as Manny, Sam's Guatemalan
cameraman and former doctor, comedian, and co-pilot.
- Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson, the
Anchorman of the weather station.
- Lauren Graham as Fran Lockwood, Flint's
deceased mother.
- Will Forte as Joe Towne, a citizen of
Chewandswallow. Production
Production
On August 15, 2006, Sony Pictures Animation
announced it would produce a film adaptation of the book, attempting to tell the
origins of Chewandswallow's weather. On September 18, 2008, Variety announced
that Bill Hader and Anna Faris had signed on to voice the two lead characters,
with James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris,
Bobb'e J. Thompson, Benjamin Bratt, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte also
in the voice cast. Co-writers and co-directors Philip Lord and Chris Miller said
later that year that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster movies
such as Twister, Armageddon, and The Day After Tomorrow.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the second animated film to be made using
Sony's animation rendering software, Arnold, and the open source image toolkit
OpenImageIO.
Marketing and release
The first trailer was released online on March
18, 2009 and was planned to premiere with DreamWorks Animation's
Monsters vs. Aliens, but failed to do so. The second trailer was
released on July 1, 2009 with 20th Century Fox's,
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The film released on September 18, 2009
in the US and in Japan on September 19, 2009.
The film's second trailer and some of its commercials feature Journey's, Any
Way You Want It and Europe's The Final Countdown. The Japanese
version of the commercial and the trailer of the movie features the song by
Shoko Nakagawa titled "Rainbow Forecast". The movie was released in theaters on
September 18th 2009.
Reception
The movie has done well by both critics and the
box-office, making a big improvement from
Open
Season (47% on Rotten Tomatoes and $23,624,548 gross) and
Surf's Up
(78% on Rotten Tomatoes and $22,150,000 gross), Sony Pictures
Animation's previous films.
Critical Reaction
The film has received generally favorable
reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave
positive reviews based on 90 reviews with an average score of 7.3/10.
Another review aggregator, Metacritic which normalizes a rating from mainstream
critics, gave the film an approval rating of 66% based on 22 reviews.
Ernest Hardy of LA Weekly stated the film "is smart, insightful on a host of
relationship dynamics, and filled with fast-paced action." Hardy also applauded
the 3-D effects which "are wonderful, full of witty sight gags that play out
both center-screen..." At the Movies host Michael Phillips of the Chicago
Tribune gave the film a mixed review stating that "Crazy doesn’t always equal
funny, and the gigantism of this 3-D offering’s second half puts a damper on
your enjoyment. But look: This film wasn’t made for you, or me. It was made for
dangerously easily distracted 9-year-olds." Kyle Smith of the New York
Post gave the film 2 stars stating that the animated movie "greatly expands on
the kids' book on which it's based in a clever and engaging first half. But the
second half leaves a foul aftertaste."
Box Office
"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" had a very
good first day at the box office, as it earned $8.1 million on its opening
Friday beating The Informant and other new releases for the top spot. and an
estimated total of $30.1 million for the first weekend.
Soundtrack
On September 15th, 2009, the soundtrack released including 31 tracks of score by
Mark Mothersbough, and two tracks of songs feature in the film.
Video game
Ubisoft announced the game based on the film
and it was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, and
PlayStation Portable on September 15, 2009.
Art Book
In August 2009, Insight Editions published a
companion book to the film called The Art & Making of Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" and is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License.
