You-a Want-a Spaghetti-a With-a That-a?
Written: Oct 03 '09 (Updated Oct 30 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Full of colour and energy, some good jokes for adults, plenty for kids to enjoy...
Cons: ... perhaps a little too geared to younger ones, pacing a little shaky at times...
The Bottom Line: If you like animated movies, you're sure to enjoy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Not sure it's worth paying extra to see it in 3D though.
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| captaind's Full Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs |
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a thoroughly entertaining movie, and one I'd been looking forward to watching ever since I first saw the trailers some months ago. Based on the book by Judi and Ron Barrett with a screenplay by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the story revolves around Flint Lockwood, a young man trying to make a name for himself by virtue of his inventions - unfortunately, his creations have a tendency to go spectacularly wrong. As the film's title suggests, his most impressive - and potentially disastrous - invention is a machine that can turn water into food.
Trying to gain the approval and understanding of his father, the love of a weather girl who is extremely smart but deliberately acts dumb, aided by a monkey (or chimp, maybe) with a device to vocalise his thoughts, a committed local policeman, a mayor who's greedy for food (and everything else), and an assortment of other odd characters, Flint tries to help the world, then save it from what he's created to help it. There's a romantic sub-plot and a father-son relationship theme - yes it does all feel rather cliché and we've seen it in cartoons a thousand times before, but for all that it's quite nicely done.
The movie relies heavily in sight gags - perhaps a little too heavily - but there is some good dialogue and quite a bit of humour aimed squarely at adults in the audience. (Even some adults may not get the "We've got a diem to carpe!" line.) It's got quite a nice balance though a little too geared up for the youngest audience members in my opinion. Some of the designs that have been made for the island upon which the movie is set are fantastic, showing great imagination and sometimes endearing oddness. The machine that ends up in space seemed to me to have been heavily influenced by the Voyager spacecraft and how it's development is portrayed in Star Trek: The Motion Picture - any comments on whether people agree / disagree with this would be greatly appreciated!
The voice cast includes Bill Hader as Flint, Anna Farris as Sam Sparks (the weather girl), James Caan as Flint's Father, Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne and Andy Samberg as "Baby Brent", a young man who's never really moved on from being the baby from the local sardine company's logo. Everyone in the voice cast does a great job, but the most fun character is Earl Devereaux, voiced by none other than Mr T, whose voicing was hilarious at times. Earl is the local law enforcement and appears to have almost super-human abilities, though no-one actually seems to notice this. In a movie full of quirky characters, he really stood out as the most memorable character.
Somehow it's not quite brilliant, but it is highly enjoyable from start to finish. The visuals are loud and colourful, perhaps lacking a little detail compared to PIXAR's and Dreamworks' offerings but still very good. I wouldn't necessarily pay the extra money to see it in 3D - I really felt that though there were some good 3D effects worked in, they didn't really add much to the movie experience and to be honest I'd expected much more than was in evidence here. The music nicely accompanied the action without ever seeming particularly outstanding to me.
It's not quite up there with the very best animated movies, but what it sometimes lacks in visual detail and narrative continuity is made up for by its vibrant, energy-packed scenes, lots of humour and some truly crazy inventions. Another winner from Sony Pictures Animation!
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is rated PG for brief mild language.
Also by Sony Pictures Animations: Surf's Up!, Monster House
Another animated movie about an eccentric inventor: Igor
See also:
My Top Ten Animated Movies
My Top Ten Computer-Animated Movies
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Funny Movie
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