A World Of Unlimited Fast Food

Rating: Null/10 (6 December 2009)

What a wonderful movie to watch with your children. Based on a famous children's book 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs' is a charming and funny little film. For me its main strength was the characters. The characters are easy to relate to because all of them have their own insecurities and issues.
They are portrayed as flawed humans rather than the perfect heroes. For example, Flint Lockwood lying about his peanut allergy to impress the girl, Sam Sparks dumbing herself down to make herself more likable, Tim Lockwood limiting his son's dream because he thinks Flint would have a more secure future if he worked at the store. At the same time the humour is plentiful to keep the viewer laughing. I liked the 'message' that the film tries to bring to kids: That too much of anything (in this case tasty food) is bad and to always be yourself (things that even some adults ought to apply). Perhaps in a subtle way, this film also portrays how fast-food is abundantly consumed in America and how the culture today is obsessed about it.
The animation is vivacious and pleasantly colourful. The voice acting that includes Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Benjamin Bratt and Lauren Graham is solid. I also enjoyed the references it made to other sci-fi movies and series like 'Independence Day', Armageddon', 'Men In Black' (these three are lesser movies in my opinion), 'The Twilight Zone' etc. 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs' is the sort of film that makes you become a child (in a good way) for 90 minutes. It's imaginative, it's hilarious, it's good eye candy, what's not to like?