Spaghetti Storm! ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ Review…

Posted on October 2, 2009 - 2:36am by michael I still remember the feeling of sadness I felt when, one day when I was in college, one of my professors told us about the widely-supported theory that every story that can be told has been told in some form or other. I wish now that I could go back to my school and find that professor and hand him a copy of Ron and Judy Barrett’s book, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and say “Oh yeah? Where have you seen this before!” Oh yes, just when you thought originality was dead, burgers start falling from the sky! The story is about Flint, a young inventor who is overflowing with creativity but slightly lacking in logistical follow-through, hence the years of half-baked inventions like spray-on shoes that don’t come off. He lives in a tiny town on an island whose biggest business is an enormous sardine factory, and since all kids know that sardines are just gross, it follows that the childhood fantasies of someone like Flint would center on being able to eat as much as you want of any kind of junk food you can think of. It’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for the 21^st century. Flint's latest creation is a machine that he launches into the atmosphere and which he has programmed to manipulate the molecular structure of water and transform it into any kind of food that he enters into the system. And don’t worry about how the machine works, by the way. When a movie character can push a few buttons and make perfectly browned turkey legs rain from the sky, asking questions just makes you look foolish. [caption id="attachment_58789" align="alignleft" width="356" caption="For a kid who grew up in a sardine canning town, this isn't exactly paradise..."][/caption] More importantly, the sardine canning factory has been closed down, creating the threat of city-wide bankruptcy, and Flint is convinced that his new food creation machine could save the whole town. The problem is that his father wants him to help out with the family Bait & Tackle business, since Flint's mother has passed away, leaving the father with only his business, his son, one gigantic caterpillar of an eyebrow, and not a shred of personality. The man has suffered great personal loss and has supported his son for years and years of failed inventing, but now has decided that the line has to be drawn somewhere. But does he have to be such a downer? He mopes around in a state of suspended depression throughout the entire movie, and every time he comes on screen I felt like I was lapsing into depression myself. But not those townspeople, man. Despite the mess, the townspeople are beside themselves with glee, not only because of the delicious food precipitation, but because of the much needed media attention. Food and Weather correspondent Sam Sparks (for the Weather News Network, “Whether there’s weather or not….”), has been assigned to the case, and she develops a charmingly awkward relationship with Flint, who has not yet reached that age when young inventors and scientists become cool. In fact, I’m not sure at what age scientists and inventors become cool, but at any rate, he’s not there yet. Flint (Bill Hader), his father (voiced by James Caan with exactly the same lack of emotion as he gave to his similar performance in Elf), and Sam (Anna Faris) are the three central characters in the movie, and the only ones with any real meaning. There are other characters but none for any reason other than comic relief. [caption id="attachment_58792" align="alignleft" width="368" caption="Of course, there is a downside to even the most cheerful of stories..."][/caption] There’s a huge Chris Farley-type of guy who does promotional performances for the sardine company, a hilaious local police officer, voiced by Mr. T, who steals the show every time he's on screen, and a mayor (voiced hilariously by the great Bruce Campbell himself) who indulges so heavily in the food rain and the media blitz that he becomes an attention glutton with a physique not unlike the humans aboard the spaceship in WALL-E. He's the movie's internal warning about indulging in food the way everyone in the movie does. Oh and there’s also a monkey decorated with some kind of Indian war paint. I'm not sure where that came from but he's cute enough. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the first feature film from some new 3D imaging software from Sony, and it is outstanding. Animation has come a long way over the years, and the spectacular realism that can now be achieved is used to great effect in animating things like a palatial jell-o mansion, ice cream sledding, and a spaghetti storm that flings meatballs the size of storage sheds all over town. Sure, this is all a  little childish, but trust me, you will want to take a bite out of this movie. The one obvious problem of how to handle the mess that will be left behind is neatly handled by a joyful garbage truck vehicle that doesn’t so much collect the food from the ground before it rots so much as it scoops it up with a giant spatula and then flings it backward over the horizon. The resulting mess on the edge of town leads to one of the movie’s most exciting moments, where Flint and Sam are inside a candy mountain. [caption id="attachment_58797" align="alignleft" width="393" caption="Out of sight, out of mind!"][/caption] I won’t say much about it except to say that Flint has a peanut allergy and she and Flint are surrounded by jagged, deadly outcroppings of peanut brittle. Add to this a glitch in the computer software which is causing the falling food to get bigger and bigger and you have a genuine food crisis on your hands. But even though the movie definitely has a younger audience in mind, it’s still entertaining even for older viewers. I particularly was impressed by the writing, which is even more clever and amusing than it really needs to be with such a visually engrossing story. Consider, for example, one of Sam’s news reports, in which she is reporting on the spaghetti hurricane. The news anchor at the station says, “Wow, a twister! I haven’t seen one of those since 1995!” Or, my favorite, “You may have seen a meteor shower, but you’ve never seen a shower that’s meatier than this!” The Bean Meter [caption id="attachment_58796" align="aligncenter" width="303" caption="4 Beans out of 5."][/caption]