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Title: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there is nothing wrong with this film. Recommended for all ages. |
“Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” is based off a popular children’s book from the nineties (though I confess dear reader, I myself have not heard of it until now). It is the third theatrical outing from Sony Animation Studios, who has been trying to establish themselves as a major player next to Pixar and Dreamworks. Their first film - “Open Season” - was a forgettable affair while their follow-up film - the Oscar-nominated “Surf’s Up” - faired much better. I don’t think either film really established them as a major player, and I question whether “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” will really buck the trend. The film revolves around Flint Lockwood (Bill Hadar) who wants to be an inventor when he grows up. Though he has yet to create something that works properly, he seems particularly gifted in making things which go ‘boom’ in the night.
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Then one day something works: A machine that turns water into food. Since the machine malfunctions though and gets stuck in the clouds, the food falls down from the sky and appears to rain food. Now the amazing thing is that this is supposed to be financially helpful to the small island (who reside under the A in Atlantic Ocean on the map), but I found myself wondering how this works. See, the reason the town is in dire straights is because they were the number one place to go if you wanted to import sardines. Once everyone realized sardines were gross...well, then no more sardines were bought. While this invention does feed the people who were likely getting tired of eating the unsold sardines I question how they are supposed to profit from this. If one wants a steak or cheeseburger one simply has to pick it up off the ground.
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No one seems to realize this though as one man even opens a restaurant without a ceiling. So that customers, you know, can pay to sit down and catch food that they could have easily caught for free outside. I went to see this movie at IMAX, where the movie is being shown in full-blown 3D. The 3D was fairly underwhelming from what IMAX has shown us before, but the movie was very colorful. In fact, this was a very cheerful movie where colors and action sequences were bright and sugary. I smiled a lot during a scene where it snows ice cream and a later scene involving a tornado made out of spaghetti and meatballs was a very clever and amusing sight to behold.
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The whole movie is like this and I wouldn’t be too surprised if most kids enjoy themselves. Sadly, I myself cannot recommend this. While the movie is very colorful and fun, so was Pixar’s “Up,” Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo,” and (from a few years ago) “Curious George.” Those movies were mostly made with kids in mind, but they had a bit of maturity to them that this movie does not. The food falling from the sky loses some of it’s steam near the end of the film and the story is so by-the-books that the checklist of things that absolutely must happen feels forced and unnatural. I know kids are going to like this and, by extension, I feel most parents will as well. I feel the movie though is rather boring. It has moments of fun, but I don’t find much to like or root for, and I doubt Flint Lockwood will be remembered by the time Disney unleashes “The Princess and the Frog” into theaters.
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Spaceriffic Review
