POST-MOVIE TRAUMA: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatball (2009)

Yup, what an introduction! From the trailer and from the movie title alone, you'll know the whole idea driving the story is "Food falling from the sky." It's so outrageous that it works! Comparing to other 3D animated cartoons, this may not top Pixar's work but it certainly does top most of Hollywood's best attempt at 3D cartoons that does not have Pixar's thumbprint. I have actually come to believe that every other 3D cartoon other than Pixar may not actually fare well (Except for the first two Shrek movie, but I've also lost faith in the Shrek series after the third movie). So, when I first started watching "Cloudy", I didn't have any good expectation of it. But as the film progresses, I actually begin to enjoy it.

The story is pretty original. Despite the end-credits mentioning it as being based from a book, it really is loosely base. In the book, there were no crazy scientist, no cute weather reporters, no insane inventions and no mutated food monster, just purely food falling from the sky. The writers of the movie took that and added a whole new story behind it. So, this is not about "how-loyal-is-this-film-to-the-original-book," because the fans of the book will probably be horribly disappointed....that is, if there are fans to the book, cuz I have never heard of it until I look it up online in relation to the film. But as a film, a cartoon especially for kids, it's enjoyable, and I believe many kids will love it. The story is creatively handled, served with many memorable moments like the Jello Playground and the Burger falling from Heaven, with a side dish of a good amount of lighthearted humor as well as non-overuse parody from other movies and on different cultures, a spoonful of good character development for all the characters (except the mayor) and the chemistry and relationship they all have, a dash of romance between the guy and the girl and to top it off, an interesting twist to how everything was resolved.

The characters' design were simple, yet lovable. The key to their characters' design was not so much of how real they look, but how fluent they moved and how their facial expression was captured along side with the actors and actresses voice talent. The actors and actresses may not be at the top of their game but they certainly did enjoy themselves playing the characters, which ultimately made their characters and the story very much enjoyable! I especially love Earl, the policeman and Sam Sparks, the weather reporter. Earl's overactive body language and Sam's eye's movement with facial expression were animated unbelievably superb! The voice acting award (if i do have one) goes to Mr T who played Earl. I have to admit that the character Earl borrowed heavily from Mr T himself, but that doesn't mean it's unoriginal,I believe it worked well as a parody to Mr T himself and great as a character on its own. It didn't bothered me at all that the design, manners and characterization was borrowed from Mr T. Mr T owned the role, and he owned the line "FLIIIINT LOOOCKKWOOOD!" and do the eye thingy.

Another character design that I love was Flint's dad. Those missing eyes! It worked! The eyes only come into view to work in certain key scenes, like the Flint's promise to his dad.

There were plenty of moments that makes watching this film quite cinematic. What good movie does not come with romance? The romance between Flint and Sam was quite well handled and turned out to be pretty cute as well. It was really sweet of Flint to build an entire Jello Castle for Sam, and it was a great moment too to see Sam sharing her nerdy side and finally found someone who saw beauty in that. Ah, sweet romance!

Another element to this movie is HORROR! Yes, horror! Not only this movie plays out like a disaster movie of unimaginable catastrophes. But they've made food appear quite frightening. I mean, how would you feel if your roasted dead chicken becomes alive? Not just one, but a hoard of them!

What if they have the ability to eat MAN?!

Is this right for kids to view?

How about Gummy Bears ripping your wing apart?

Scary? Hehe...
Moving on.... there are plenty of parodies as well. Here are the two I especially like:

The Heart Ripping Action from Temple of Doom!

The Death Star like Explosion from Return of the Jedi!
I'm pretty sure there are more good parodies to many different movies and TV series...(Power Rangers' morphing action?)...for the keen observer...

Overall, this is a fun movie to watch. I believe any kid will enjoy this movie, and it's a perfect film for the family to watch. "Cloudy" may not be groundbreaking or anywhere close at being anything like Pixar, but this one definitely fare better than most 3D animated films out there. I wouldn't ask for more from this movie but, I do hope Sony Picture Animation will come up another creative and original production such as this. They've gone a long way from "Open Season" and "Surf's Up". I have to say, I still enjoy this movie very much even after watching it a second time to write this review. So, I'm going to give a rating of 8 out of 10 Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (FLDSMDFR for short).