Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American computer-animated family comedy film, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, distributed by Columbia Pictures, and released on September 18, 2009. The film is loosely based on the children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett.
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. It was written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who both are best known for the animated TV series, Clone High, which starred Forte.
Plot
At a young age, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) has always wanted to invent something awesome; however, every one of his inventions fell into disaster, such as the Remote Control Television, Hair Un-Balder, The Flying Car, Rat-bird hybrids, and his Spray-On Shoes that have permanently trapped his feet in a solid sealant. He grew up misunderstood by his father, Tim (James Caan). His mother, Fran (Lauren Graham), always believed he could succeed, however she passed away 10 years before the story, leaving Flint with his father who seems unable to talk to his son without using fishing metaphors. Flint lives in Swallow Falls, a town located on an island under the “A” in Atlantic. Since the Baby Brent Sardine cannery closed down, the economy fell and left Swallow Falls with sardines as their one and only source of food. Although he seems destined to work in his father's fishing bait and tackle shop, Flint, along with the assistance of his pet monkey, Steve (Neil Patrick Harris), who speaks through a thought translator, invents a machine that uses microwave radiation to mutate water into food. The machine requires a lot of electricity to work, so Flint sneaks out of his father’s shop while he is watching Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell) and "Baby" Brent McHale (Andy Samberg) unveiling a new tourist attraction, Sardine Land. Flint goes to the power plant and hooks up the machine. The machine absorbs millions of megawatts of electricity and ends up rocketing through town and shooting up into the stratosphere, destroying Sardine Land. While sulking at the docks over his failure, he meets Samantha Sparks (Anna Faris), a weather intern for the Weather News Network in New York whose big break was foiled by Flint’s actions while reporting the events about Sardine Land. The two witness purple clouds floating over the town that rain cheeseburgers, much to everyone’s surprise and joy.Realizing his achievement, Flint invents a communication device to send orders to the machine which is resting in the stratosphere. He starts working for Mayor Shelbourne, and Sam broadcasts Swallow Falls (now renamed Chewandswallow) attracting tourists. Everything is going well until Tim fails to show appreciation for his son and, worst of all, more and more people (including the Mayor) start greedily requesting more and more food for Flint to rain. The more food that is ordered will require more clouds for the machine to collect and make the food. Flint notices that the food is beginning to rain in massive sizes and quantities, but the Mayor (now morbidly obese) sees it as a better outcome and Flint is forced to agree. He orders spaghetti and meatballs for the grand re-opening ceremony. The next day, citizens and worldly tourists crowd Chewandswallow and cheer on Flint who cuts the ribbon. Suddenly, a large destructive tornado made of spaghetti threatens the town. Flint rushes to the lab to turn the machine off, but finds the Mayor ordering a Vegas-style all-you-can-eat buffet. Flint attempts to send a 'kill code' to stop the machine but the Mayor tries to stop him by throwing a giant radish which misses Flint and instead destroys the communication device.
A massive food storm threatens the world and Flint loses hope. However, his father encourages him to fix the mess and hands him his lab coat that he lost in the recent disaster. Flint gains confidence and copies the kill code to a USB flash drive and invents the Flying Car 2. Flint, Sam, her cameraman, Manny (Benjamin Bratt), Steve and Brent set out to save the world while the citizens and remaining tourists work together to escape Chewandswallow. Entering the stratosphere, they find that the machine is now at the core of a giant meatball and that it is aware of the heroes' efforts to stop it, so it sends sentient food to attack them. In the chaos, Flint loses the kill code flash drive. Flint calls his father and instructs him to enter his lab and email the kill code to his cell phone. Flint, Sam, and Brent enter the meatball but Flint is forced to carry on to the machine solo since Brent must fight off sentient roast chicken and Sam suffers an allergic reaction to peanut brittle. Meanwhile in Chewandswallow, the Mayor arrogantly escapes, and while the citizens and tourists escape on boats made of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Mt. Leftovers collapses and destroys the entire town. The avalanche covers Flint's Lab with Tim still inside trying to send Flint the kill code. However he survives and he successfully clicks send. Flint encounters the machine and jams the phone into the serial port. However, Tim had sent him the wrong document, but Flint still triumphs as he sprays his Spray-On Shoes formula into the food extraction hole, destroying it. Sam and Brent escape the meatball before it explodes. They return to Chewandswallow (now covered in nothing but food). Flint returns safe and alive carried by his Ratbirds. Sam straps Steve's thought translator to Tim who is then finally able to show his appreciation for his son. The film ends with Flint and Sam embracing with their first kiss, in front of the entire town, including Tim, Steve, Brent, and Others.
The end credits show that everyone is now using the machine to change the world into a food paradise. The island has been converted to just food and national monuments are now made out of food (For example, the statue of liberty is now holding an icecream, the Eiffel Tower is now made out of vegetables and Mount Rushmore now has carvings of Flint, Steve, Tim and Sam.
Cast
- Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood, the main protagonist, the inventor of the FLDSMDFR machine.
- Anna Faris as Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather intern from New York City , Flint's love interest.
- James Caan as Tim Lockwood, Flint's technophobic father.
- Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey, Flint's pet monkey who communicates using a Speak and Spell monkey thought translator. He goes crazy when he's around gummi bears and enjoys ripping off moustaches.
- Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, the gluttonous mayor of Swallow Falls and the main antagonist. During the film he becomes obese, then becomes skinny again. In the end, he is arrested by Earl and Cal.
- Andy Samberg as "Baby"/"Chicken" Brent McHale, an infamous celebrity mascot of Baby Brent's Sardines and Flint's school rival.
- Mr. T as Officer Earl Devereaux, the town's athletic cop who is very loving to his son, Calvin.
- Bobb'e J. Thompson as Calvin "Cal" Devereaux, Earl's son.
- Benjamin Bratt as Manny, Sam's Guatemalan cameraman and a former doctor, pilot, and comedian.
- Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson, the anchorman of the weather station.
- Lauren Graham as Frances "Fran" Lockwood, Flint's mother who always believed in her son. She died ten years before Flint invented the FLDSMDFR, and she becomes a ghost in the credits.
- Will Forte as Joe Towne, a redneck citizen of Chewandswallow who appears on numerous occasions throughout the film.
- Max Neuwirth as Young Flint Lockwood
- Jane Axneil as Young Sam Sparks
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.[2] 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.[3] Co-writers and co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller said later that year that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster films such as Twister, Armageddon, The Core, and The Day After Tomorrow.[4]Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the second animated film to be made using Sony's animation rendering software, Arnold,[5] and the open source image toolkit OpenImageIO.[6]
Marketing and release
The first trailer was released online on March 18, 2009 and premiered with Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D, released March 27. The second trailer was released on July 1, 2009 with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2-D and 3-D. 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". For the Japanese release, Shoko Nakagawa performed a song titled "Rainbow Forecast" for the film, released on her single "Arigatō no Egao".
Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 5, 2010. A 3-D Blu-ray is both as a Sony exclusive and retail on June 22, 2010.[7]Reception
Critical response
The film has received favorable reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave positive reviews based on 125 reviews (107 "Fresh", 18 "Rotten") with an average score of 7.2/10.[8] Another review aggretator, Metacritic which normalizes a rating from mainstream critics, gave the film an approval rating of 66 based on 24 reviews.[9]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 applauded the 3-D effects which "are wonderful, full of witty sight gags that play out both center-screen and on the periphery."[10] 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." [11] Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film two stars stating that the animated film "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." [12]
Box office
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a box office success. The film earned $8,137,358 on its opening Friday, and ranked #1 at the box office[13] with a total of $30,304,648 for the first weekend. On its second weekend, it remained at #1 with a decrease of only 17 percent. It currently holds the record for third largest-opening weekend in the month of September. It has made a worldwide total of $243 million.[14][15]Awards
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs received four Annie Award nominations. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Animated Effects, Directing in a Feature Production, and Writing in a Feature Production. It also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Disney/Pixar's Up.Soundtrack
| Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Soundtrack by Mark Mothersbaugh | |
| Released | September 15, 2009 |
| Recorded | 2009 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Label | Sony Pictures Entertainment |
