A zany film with unbelievable characters

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2016)

There's nothing wrong with the animation, art design or production values of this animated feature. Nothing wrong with the arc of the main story either (structurally or morally), or with the voice acting.
The reason I couldn't really get into it is that nobody acts like a real person; all the characters act like Hollywood stereotypes imagined by someone who doesn't actually have friends. It never feels like a single character in the film is actually real or has a soul, so it's hard to care about what's going on, aside from admiring it in the sense one might admire a roller coaster ride. A few days before I saw this, I watched the animated "A Christmas Carol" which came out the same year, and it is a great contrast; I could actually believe that the people in "Christmas Carol" were real and care about what happened to them, despite the ridiculous roller-coaster action sequences (which both films have).
The other thing which bugged me is that nobody in "Meatballs" has to work hard to make something they want happen; they just have to really want it and then suddenly they can easily do it. Inventor builds multi-million dollar lab and inventions effortlessly (the complete polar opposite of what actual work in science is like). Fat guy (near the end) suddenly becomes martial arts master just because he really, really wants to and the plot requires it.
It gives the wrong lesson about the value of work and discipline (namely, that one doesn't need them, that just to have a good idea is enough), but the primary fault is that it just made it hard for me to care about what was going on in the movie, particularly as none of the characters even felt relatable in the first place.