movie review by brandon, the movie nerd: cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs- **** out of *****

3-D CGI cartoons are pretty much a dime a dozen, and most blow. Studios are busy cranking out the kind of cheap, lackluster children's fare that brought Disney to its knees in the early 2000s. But no one is really learning the lessons of Disney's blah animation section. Rather than focus on original, envelope-pushing entertainment a la Pixar, most studios are perfectly happy cranking out cruddy sequels to mediocre originals. Ooo, more Shrek! Another Ice Age! Hood winked 2? For real? Did anyone actually see Hoodwinked 1? Are we destined for another goddamned Shark Tale now?!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has a slightly different pedigree. It's based on the bestselling children's book and already has a legion of fans…luckily, Hollywood doesn’t mess it up too bad. Flint Lockwood is an inventor whose inventions cause more harm than good. He's trying to perfect a machine that turns water into food to help his struggling community. But it backfires, destroying the town's new sardine-themed amusement park and causing trouble for low-rent news lady Sam Sparks. But then the machine starts working, pulling moisture from the air and blanketing the town with storms of food. Flint finally receives the recognition he deserves, but as the machine begins to get a mind of its own, he realizes that the respect of his father and Sam means way more than the blind adoration of an entire town.

Well, it's a kid's movie, did you think there wouldn't be a lesson?

In terms of animation, it's near perfect. Sony seems to have figured out what Dreamworks learned with Kung Fu Panda…be as good as Pixar. They also make great use of the 3-D. Now, I didn't actually see this in 3-D, but even in 2-D I could see how much fun it would've been. Especially in the end, where food is flying around willy-nilly.

The story is highly imaginative, making the best out of the plot and even answering some of the questions rattling in my head (like how do they clean up after a hamburger storm?). The voice actors aren't the usual big name stars...there's nothing that pulls you out of an animated movie faster than a lion talking like Jack Bauer. "Mr. President, if we don't escape the zoo NOW, the terrorists will set off the nuclear bomb and unleash the deadly gas! DAMMIT!!" By casting people like Bill Hader and Anna Faris, we get solid voice actors without spending half the movie trying to figure out who they are. I didn't even recognize James Caan as the hilariously-animated father to Flint (I thought it was Ray Winstone). I also didn't recognize Andy Samberg or Bruce Campbell. The one everyone will know is Mr. T as the local tough-guy cop, but it's hard to disagree any time someone casts Mr. T.

But there is one problem with the movie…it tends to go over the top on emotional and action scenes. By the time we get to the end of the movie, we've seen Flint take so much crap from everyone that you wind up thinking, "Christ, does the movie want me to cry AGAIN?" The action scenes, especially the end, suffer from too many complications, and winds up just dragging on forever. I'm sure this is more to show off the 3-D technology, since the end all takes place in a gigantic floating food ball, but it starts to weigh the 2-D version down.

Still, it's not enough to sink the movie…there's enough charm and imagination to get you through the hiccups. The other studios haven't quite figured out how to make animated films like Pixar, but this shows they are trying. For a place as conventional as Hollywood, it gives me hope.