Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Rating: 7/10 (2 November 2013)

Many people had told me that this computer animated film was hilarious, and I had seen a good amount of clips to be convinced to see it, and with the sequel in cinemas it was obvious the original would be shown on TV, so I watched with interest when it was. Basically on the small island of Swallow Falls, a town thats only revenue and nourishment comes from sardines, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is a clumsy inventor, encouraged by his late mother and misunderstood by his father Tim (James Caan), he has always wanted to invent something great, but all his useless or nonsensical attempts have failed. Assisted by his pet monkey Steve (Neil Patrick Harris), his latest invention is a machine that transforms water into food, and after short circuiting the house he decides to hook it up and power it at the nearby power plant, but something goes wrong and it rockets through the town, destroying new tourist attraction Sardine Land before going up into the stratosphere. Acknowledging another failure he meets intern weather reporter Samantha 'Sam' Sparks (Anna Faris) who was to have her big break before he spoilt it, however a rainbow appears in the sky, and all of the sudden it starts to rain cheeseburgers (previously selected in the computer), all of the townspeople are happy to catch and eat these delicious treats from the sky. Flint realises this is not a failure, and the potential his invention, the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator", or FLDSMDFR for short, and he creates a computer based communicator device to send orders to the machine so it will rain certain foods, and with all these different foods raining in the town Swallow Falls is renamed Chewandswallow and becomes a "food tourism" destination, and meanwhile he gets to know Sam more. Over time though the townspeople are becoming more greedy requesting the machine's foods, and the foods are slowly increasing in size, and also it is over- mutating, but now morbidly obese Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell) guilt trips Flint into continuing to make it rain food, he also causes his father to lose business at Baby Brent Sardine where he works. Soon enough, during an inaugural event, a large tornado, made up of spaghetti, tomato and meatballs, Flint rushes to turn the machine off using a kill code, but the Mayor destroys the communication device, and he ordered a Las Vegas style all-you-can-eat buffet before doing this, so a storm of giant foods threatens the town and the world, but he gets encouragement from his father to solve the problem. Flint builds a flying car, and he, Sam, her cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt), Steve and 'Baby' Brent (Andy Samberg) head for the stratosphere to destroy the machine with the kill code on USB flash drive, now in the core of a giant meatball and surrounded by attacking foods for protection. The townspeople try to escape as Mount Leftovers, the mountain of leftover foods from previous rainfalls, as it collapses and spills, and after failing to use the correct document on his cell phone Flint uses his Spray-On Shoes formula and it explodes and the heroes get away, on return Tim finally appreciates his son and his inventions, the obese mayor is left stranded in the ocean on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich boat, and Flint and Sam celebrate the end of the food terror with a kiss. Also starring Mr. T as Earl Devereaux and Bobb'e J. Thompson as Cal Devereaux. The voices are all right for the characters, Hader being the incompetent but lovable geek, Faris being her usual silly but infatuating personality, Campbell being mean, and the instantly recognisable Mr. T as a cop, the special effects to create tasty looking cheeseburgers, a bouncy orange castle of jelly, a snowfall of ice cream and all colourful things to see are fantastic, and there certainly are many slapstick moments that will make adults and children alike laugh lots, a really fun animated comedy fantasy. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. Very good!