| |
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
A scientist tries to solve world hunger only to see things go awry as food falls from the sky in abundance.
Genres: Kids/Family, Animation and Adaptation
Running Time: 1 hr. 21 min.
Release Date: September 18th, 2009 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG for brief mild language.
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
| Starring: |
Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Mr. T |
| Directed by: |
Christopher Miller, Phil Lord |
| Produced by: |
Yair Landau, Pam Marsden, Lydia Bottegoni | |
 In a year in which Hollywood’s 3-D animated films have seemed to set the genius of Pixar’s “Up” against the dubious best of everything else, the impulse to take a break from computer-generated family fare is understandable. (Any urge to see “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” again? I thought not.) But then you’d miss “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” which takes its title and premise from the 1978 children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett about a place where all types of chow rain down like manna.
Readers' Reviews Skip to next paragraph Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) has been mocked since childhood for his failed inventions.
 His machine that converts water into menu items seems to offer redemption, as well as a way to score points with a cute weather girl (Anna Faris), until, of course, the technology runs amok, and a perfect storm of the four food groups threatens his town and beyond.
This first animated feature by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who cut their animation teeth writing the short-lived “Clone High” on MTV, spins a predictable tale of youthful ambition, love and the quest for approval, yet without leaving a sappy or snarky aftertaste.
 Fathers, for example, don’t always know best, but sometimes they do.) Parents will enjoy tracking the endless stream of movie and television sendups. If the filmmakers opt to make only light statements about junk food, obesity and solid waste, they at least leave the audience sated on a single serving of inspired lunacy.
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” is rated PG (parental guidance suggested), presumably for its spaghetti twister and feral Gummi bears.
|
|
