Food Town (2009)

## The top food destination for animation lovers and foodies alike.

*Food Town* is an 2009 Marcanese American 3D computer-animated science fiction comedy film loosely based on the 1980 book of the same name by June and Rob Barlett; and produced by Anaya Animation and Ion Animation Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures under Sony Pictures Releasing. The film is directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller and produced by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Rob Greenburg. *Food Town* was released to theaters September 4, 2009 to mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. The film was also a modest box office hit, earning a worldwide total of $279 million.

## Plot

Young aspiring genius inventor Max Applewood (Bill Hader) thinks he's got the solution for the lack of food supply in his hometown of Bay City: he creates some machine known as the AFR-3000 that can make huge amounts of food from the sky. As Bay City changes its name to Chewsmore and the townspeople appreciate Max's revolutionary gizmo, many other people worldwide come to visit this famous food lover's paradise. However, when the AFR-3000 starts to create even bigger amounts of food, Max knows he has surely bitten more than he could possibly chew...

## Why It Rocks

1. The concept of a world of food inhabited by humans is wonderfully amazing. Also, the idea of having several food-related commodities such as lasagna apartments, ice cream mountains, submarine sandwiches, and flying cookie saucers is very creative.
2. Despite the film not being that faithful to the book it's based on, at least it's much more lighthearted and colorful than the book.
3. Very smooth and cartoony animation that fully resembles the *Marco* films, the background visuals are undeniably gorgeous, and the animation for the food is very impressive as well.
4. It has some pretty cool vocal performances, especially from Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Mr T. Bruce Campbell, and Will Forte.
5. The design of the overall feature, be it the characters, mutated foods or even the townsfolk's distinct movements, is amazing, taking full advantage of its cartoony nature.
6. It has a fantastically glorious score from Mark Mothersbaugh, which is very moving and charming.
7. The ice cream snowball fight with Max and the kids, the scene where fortune cookies fall from the sky, and the jello castle scene are highly memorable.
8. Awesome climax in which Max & his friends attempt to control the FS-3500 from making more food storms.
9. The film is absolutely hilarious, almost perfectly satirizing the disaster genre and disaster movies such as *The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day,* and *Titanic:*
	* One good example would be when Sloppy Joe and his crew read some fortune cookie message that says, "*You'll are about to get crushed by some giant donut*" only for seconds later said donut falls down from the sky.
	* Another good example would be Sloppy Joe's constant gag of eating his favorite food, which is of course, Sloppy Joes.
	* The scene where Max and Hailey have an awkward dinner night at Tony's restaurant is both funny and lovely at the same time.
10. All of the characters are all equally charming and fun, especially Max Applewood, Hailey Caramel, Officer Brown, and Sloppy Joe.
11. Despite the main conflict being food, the film holds a surprising amount of suspense.
12. The film's themes of never giving up & following your dreams, teamwork, how greed and manipulation can lead to problems, and the importance of having parents are surprisingly well handled for the most part.
13. There is a nice subplot regarding Max's relationship with his parents, which leads to some rather sweet and heartwarming moments.
14. Another good subplot would be Max & Hailey's cute relationship throughout the film.
15. The 2017 sequel was decent, although not as good as this film was.
16. This is by far Anaya Animation's most underrated film they ever made.

## Bad Qualities

1. Mayor Gordon is an very unlikable villain, that is until he redeems himself by the third act.
2. Despite the animation being good, sometimes it can get rather choppy in some scenes of the film.
3. The character designs, while cool, are just a tad bit simple compared to the *Marco* characters.
4. Sloppy Joe can get a bit annoying.

## Reception

### Box office

*Food Town* was a modest box office success, earning over $243 million on its $97 million budget. However, *Food Town* remains one of the lowest-grossing Anaya Animation films to date.

### Critical reception

*Food Town* received very positive reviews from critics and audiences alike for its animation, characters, voice acting, humor, writing, disaster tone, and soundtrack while they found the plot and character designs to be unfitting. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "Certified Fresh" rating of 86% based on 142 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. The consensus statement reads, "Quirky humor, plucky characters and solid slapstick make *Food Town* a frenetically tasty time at the movies - and a safe haven for food lovers everywhere" On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 24 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while IMDB scores a film a 7/10 rating.

## Trivia

* This was the second Anaya Animation film to be released in 3D, the first one being *Marco* (2005).