A visual delight, with real heart

Rating: 9/10 (23 September 2009)

I really enjoyed this movie. It is based on a well-loved book, I am told, but as I've never heard of it, I'm just going on the movie.
The story is simple but daft. Flint Lockwood lives on a small island which has fallen on hard times since the decimation of the sardine fishing industry. Flint is a brilliant but not very successful amateur scientist whose inventions cause trouble and embarrass Flint's father no end (Dad, who talks exclusively in fishing metaphors, simply wants Flint to join him in the family fishing tackle shop). Novice TV reporter Sam Sparks is sent to report on the opening of Sardine World, and her arrival coincides with an accident in which Flint destroys Sardine World but finally achieves success with an invention which turns water into food. Then things get complicated...
The story develops nicely and steadily, with no dead patches. Both Flint and Sam are likable and vulnerable, and the romance between them is believable and pleasing. There are lots of gags, both verbal and visual, including some which payoff much later in the movie from quite small seeds planted earlier. The 3D is excellent, with some sequences quite stunning. And the film bursts with visual imagination - I can't remember a movie which displayed this much imagination for a long time.
But most of all, the heart of this movie (to me, at any rate), is the dysfunctional relationship between Flint and his Dad, and the heartwarming resolution of this is one of the most satisfying parts of the movie's conclusion.
There is a lot in this film for both adults and children, and I recommend it.