A rapid-fire, zany, daft and fun romp that is very tongue-in-cheek and feel-good

Rating: Null/10 (6 January 2010)

It's pretty clear from the start when the Sony Pictures Animation logo comes up that this is not a film that'll take itself too seriously and rightly so, given the main concept: food, falling from the sky like rain.
The voice acting is pretty solid all round - Hader as the misunderstood scientist, Caan as the doubting dad Tim, Faris as the bubbly reporter Sam and of course Mr T playing what seems to be an enthusiastic acrobatic policeman.
Plot-wise it's really simple, clichéd and predictable. The main characters are archetypes. I thought while watching it, some gags were so quick, it's as if they threw as many jokes as they could at the wall, and what stuck, they kept.
OTT and sometimes bizarre, some jokes are very funny in a silly way, and a few are witty. Some don't work as they try to hard, but these days, family animated films seem to think that's the best way to keep ADD kids interested through constant jokes and it shouldn't always be like that.
I didn't like the romance between Sam and Flint as it just felt very forced - hey Hollywood, not everyone of the opposite sex with similar interests needs to end up together, you know. Seriously, it's getting annoying.
Also didn't like Mr T's character repeating the 'I love you son' - got a bit mushy for my taste. Maybe some realism in there like maybe the uneaten mountain of food rotting with maggots, since the pile mostly looked like a giant kid's fake plastic food used for for make-believe role playing.
The animation is pretty decent. I still think they could've incorporated the illustrations from the picture book(which I've never read, but have seen the cover online), to give it a very distinctive seventies look.
What is in there, character design wise, looks like Betty Spaghetti dolls mixed with a dash of Pixar. So, generic, but does the job as it's colourful and blockily animated, that gives it that instant familiarity that should make it accessible.
The score is good, although with such a fantasy plot as raining food, there could've been more creative and innovative themes. I liked the song Raining Sunshine at the end, though.
Overall: It's not brilliant, but for what it sets out to do, which is pretty much 77 mins of diverting and funny entertainment, there are far worse options out there.
Bright, bonkers and fun, all ages should devour this easily.
If this film could be described as a weather forecast, it'd be sunny intervals.