Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
File:Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.jpg Teaser poster
Directed by	Phil Lord Christopher Miller
Written by	Screenplay: Phil Lord Chris Miller Book: Judi Barrett Ron Barrett
Produced by	Pam Marsden
Starring	Bill Hader Anna Faris Bruce Campbell James Caan Bobb'e J. Thompson Andy Samberg Mr. T
Music by	Mark Mothersbaugh
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	United States: September 18, 2009 Mexico: September 16, 2009
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Box office	$8,100,000

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 computer-animated film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was released on September 18, 2009 and is inspired by the children's book of the same name by Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett.

It is Sony Pictures Animation's third theatrical feature, not counting Open Season 2, a direct-to-video film.

The film features the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte.

The film is presented in its 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is released in 3D in select theaters using RealD Cinema and IMAX 3D systems.

Plot

Flint Lockwood is a young inventor who has trouble seeing eye to eye with his technophobic father Tim Lockwood, because he invents many things that end up faulty, unwanted, and chaotic. His mother always believed he will become great someday till she passed away before Flint graduated school. Flint continues to invent even at the time he should be getting a real job at his father's Sardine Shop. Swallow Falls is a town that rests on a island in the middle of the Atlantic, and the only food everyone can afford are Sardines. Flint invents a machine that converts water into food, however fails due to the low amount of electricity. The next day during a rally for the opening of a theme park named Sardine Land by the Mayor and the sardine mascot Brent (a celebrity who represents the sardine products ever since he was a baby), Flint sneaks out of his father's shop and using the electricity from the nearby power station to work the machine. Meanwhile, a cute weather intern Sam Sparks has her big break when she is sent to Swallow Falls to report the events, however it is cut short when Flint's machine shoots like a rocket, destroys a segment of the theme park, and flies up in the sky. Blamed by everyone in town, Flint flees to the docks where he meets a dream wrecked Sam and instantly falls in love. Sam then realizes it was Flint that ruined her big break, but suddenly a large set of purple clouds covers the town and rains cheeseburgers, solving the problem that is covering the town.

Flint invents a communication device to order what people want to eat, like ice cream for Officer Earl's son Cal's birthday, and a huge amount of food for the Mayor to gorge at. The city's name is changed to Chewandswallow, and the mayor tries to generate tourism by inviting cruise ships to the island to eat. Getting to know Sam, Flint brings her on a date to a giant Jell-O mold in the fields. Flint then discovers a secret from Sam, that she was once a nerd-like figure for the weather and had her hair tied back and wears a pair of glasses, and because everyone made fun of her, she changed her look and gave up her interest to express with. Flint however likes her best with that look and interests, and Sam accepts walking into public with glasses and her hair tied with a Jell-O scrunchie given by Flint. They try to kiss, however it is interupted when the Mayor calls Flint to cut the ribbon for the grand re-opening of the town, which was scheduled for the next day. Later that evening, Flint runs into anger with his father who can't admit that he is proud of him for what he has done, and worries that the food may not be so good for people. He then discovers that the food is getting bigger before the day that many tourists arrive at ChewandSwallow for a grand re-opening. Flint decides to turn the machine off, but the Mayor (now morbidly obese) persuades Flint not to turn it off, thinking "The Bigger the Better". Flint agrees and leaves.

When the tourists arrive a spaghetti twister strikes the town, and Flint runs to the lab to turn off the machine, but arrives finding the Mayor ordering a large Las Vegas style buffet, which overloads the machine, and he destroys the communication device (by accident). When the storm roars around the world, the raining mutated food will destroy Earth. Flint grabs a USB flash drive (holding a code that will stop the machine) and rebuilds a past invention into a small aircraft and Sam, Steve the Monkey, Brent and Manny give a chase after the machine that is formed into a giant meatball. Flint loses the flash drive and calls his father to send the deletion code to his cell phone. Meanwhile the citizens build sandwich rafts and flee into the ocean now that the city is being flooded by the left over food. Flint makes it to the core without Sam and Brent in the meatball and jams the cell phone into the machine, however his father sent him the wrong document, and the machine fights back, Flint though pulls out a spray that imprisoned his feet into rock solid shoes during his youth, and blocks the machine from producing food, and he drops out of the meatball to his apparent death, followed by the destruction of the machine, while Sam, Brent, Steve, and Manny escape. Believing that Flint has actually died for the sake of ChewandSwallow, the citizens mourn. Then Flint emerges from the sunlight carried by his ratbird creations. His father finally admits through Steve's thought transmitter that he is proud of his son, and Flint and Sam finally kiss. Afterwords during the credits it shows everyone living their new life in a food paradise to the song "It's Raining Sunshine" by Miranda Cosgrove.

Cast and Characters

• Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood, an young inventor who dreams of inventing something awesome. He has a habit of announcing the action he is doing (ie: plugging, typing, staring, etc).
• Anna Faris as Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a cute weather intern, and Flint's love interest.
• Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey, Flint's pet monkey who can talk through a mind device.
• James Caan as Tim Lockwood, Flint's widower technophobic father. He is an old fisherman and usually speaks in fishing metaphors, something his son doesn't understand.
• Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, the mayor of Swallow Falls and the primary antagonist. He hates being the mayor of such a small town and does what ever he can to attract tourists.
• Andy Samberg as Brent, a celebrity mascot of Baby Brent's Sardines. He still hangs onto that status even though he is at least into his late twenties. However after Flint becomes the most important man in town, he becomes lost about who he really is.
• Mr. T as Officer Earl Devereaux, the town's play-it-by-the-rules cop. He openly loves his son, even going to Flint to set up an ice-cream snow fall for his son's birthday.
• Bobb'e J. Thompson as Cal Devereaux, Earl's son.
• Benjamin Bratt as Manny, Sam's Guatemalan cameraman and former doctor, comedian, and co-pilot.
• Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson, the sexist Anchorman of the weather station.
• Lauren Graham as Fran Lockwood, Flint's deceased mother. She encouraged her son to keep on towards his inventing dreams, and gave him his lab coat that he still wears today.
• Will Forte as Joe Towne, a citizen of Chewandswallow.

Production

On August 15, 2006, Sony Pictures Animation announced it would produce a film adaptation of the book, attempting to tell the origins of Chewandswallow's weather. On September 18, 2008, Variety announced that Bill Hader and Anna Faris had signed on to voice the two lead characters, with James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Benjamin Bratt, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte also in the voice cast. Co-writers and co-directors Philip Lord and Chris Miller said later that year that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster movies such as Twister, Armageddon, and The Day After Tomorrow.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the second animated film to be made using Sony's animation rendering software, Arnold, and the open source image toolkit OpenImageIO.

Marketing and release

The first trailer was released online on March 18, 2009. The second trailer was released on July 1, 2009 with 20th Century Fox's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The film released on September 18, 2009 in the US and in Japan on September 19, 2009.

The film's second trailer and some of its commercials feature Journey's Any Way You Want It and Europe's The Final Countdown. The Japanese version of the commercial and the trailer of the movie features the song by Shoko Nakagawa titled "Rainbow Forecast". The movie was released in theaters on September 18th 2009.

Reception

Criticial reaction

The film has received generally favorable reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 87% of critics gave positive reviews based on 90 reviews with an average score of 7.3/10. Another review aggretator, Metacritic which normalizes a rating from mainstream critics, gave the film an approval rating of 66% based on 22 reviews.

Ernest Hardy of LA Weekly stated the film "is smart, insightful on a host of relationship dynamics, and filled with fast-paced action." Hardy also appluaded the 3-D effects which "are wonderful, full of witty sight gags that play out both center-screen..." At the Movies host Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film a mixed review stating that "Crazy doesn’t always equal funny, and the gigantism of this 3-D offering’s second half puts a damper on your enjoyment. But look: This film wasn’t made for you, or me. It was made for dangerously easily distracted 9-year-olds." Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film 2 stars stating that the animated movie "greatly expands on the kids' book on which it's based in a clever and engaging first half. But the second half leaves a foul aftertaste."

Box Office

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" had a very good first day at the box office, as it earned $7.7 million on its opening Friday.

Soundtrack

Untitled

On September 15th, 2009, the soundtrack released including 31 tracks of score by Mark Mothersbough, and two tracks of songs feature in the film.

Video game

Ubisoft announced the game based on the film and it was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable on September 15, 2009.

Art book

In August, 2009, Insight Editions published a companion book to the film called The Art & Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

External links

• Official website
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, official trailer on YouTube
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Official trailer No. 2
• Ubisoft game page
• The Art & Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs companion book
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at IMDb
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at AllMovie
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at Rotten Tomatoes
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at Box Office Mojo
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at Metacritic