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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and loosely based on the 1978 children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett. It was written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in their directorial debuts, and stars 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. In the film, an aspiring inventor named Flint Lockwood develops a machine that can convert water into food following a series of failed experiments. After the machine gains sentience and begins to develop food storms, Flint must destroy the machine in order to save the world.
The film premiered in Los Angeles on September 12, 2009, and was released in the United States six days later on September 18 by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label. It earned over $243 million worldwide on a budget of $100 million, and generally received critical praise toward its colorful visuals, humor, characterizations, and voice acting, while the simple character designs were mostly criticized. The film has since been expanded into a franchise, with a sequel, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, released on September 27, 2013, as well as an animated television series based on the film premiering on Cartoon Network on February 20, 2017, with none of the original cast returning.
Plot[]
Flint Lockwood is a wannabe-scientist who lives in Swallow Falls, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that has sardines as the base of its economy. Flint lives with Tim, his widowed technophobic father, and his pet monkey, Steve. Despite Flint's zealous enthusiasm, his inventions, including spray-on shoes, a remote controlled television, rat birds, hair-un-balder, and a flying car, all ended in failure.
Flint then invents a machine that transforms water into food, called the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (FLDSMDFR). Flint turns on the FLDSMDFR in his laboratory, but ends up overloading the house's electrical supply. He then decides to power the machine by hooking it up to a nearby power plant. When he turns the machine back on, it ends up rocketing through town, causing widespread damage, ultimately shooting up into the sky. While recovering from his failure, Flint meets Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather intern whose big break was foiled by Flint's actions. Their conversation is cut short when rainbow colored clouds float over the town and begin to rain cheeseburgers.
The town rejoices in their renewed food choices, and Flint creates a communication device to send orders to the machine and order it to create different types of food. Swallow Falls (now renamed Chewandswallow) suddenly becomes a successful "food tourism" destination. Everything is going well until the townsfolk start greedily requesting food from Flint's machine. Flint notices that the food is beginning to grow larger in size. Although he is concerned that the food is starting to "over mutate", the now morbidly obese mayor sees it as profitable for him and the city, and guilts Flint into continuing to make food rain.
Citizens and worldly tourists in Chewandswallow are blissful until suddenly a large tornado formed of spaghetti and meatballs threatens the town. Flint rushes to his lab to turn the FLDSMDFR off and attempts to send a "kill code" to stop the machine, but the mayor, while trying to stop him by throwing a giant radish at him, accidentally destroys the communication device. With Flint unable to control the machine, a massive food storm is created which threatens the world. When Flint's father encourages him to fix the mess, Flint gains self-confidence, places the kill code in a USB flash drive, and builds a new flying car to reach and deactivate the FLDSMDFR, with the aid of Sam, her cameraman Manny, Steve and Brent (namesake of the Baby Brent Sardine cannery).
As they approach the machine in the sky, they find that it is now at the core of a giant meatball, where clouds go in the top and a food hurricane comes out the bottom. The machine sends living food to attack them. In the chaos, the flash drive with the kill code is sucked by the wind out the window.
Back at Chewandswallow, the citizens and tourists escape while the last leftovers fall. Mt. Leftovers collapses, causing an avalanche of food that destroys the town. Despite the avalanche ravaging Flint's Lab, Tim manages to re-send the kill code to Flint's cell phone from there. Flint then goes inside the meatball, finds the machine, and connects the phone to a port. To his dismay, Flint discovers that Tim sent him the wrong file, so he is unable to stop the FLDSMDFR. Flint then gets an idea and uses his Spray-On Shoes formula on the machine, causing it to explode. With the machine destroyed, the food storm subsides and everyone is able to return safely to Chewandswallow. Tim finally shows his appreciation for his son and his inventions before Flint and Sam celebrate with a kiss. Meanwhile, the obese mayor is seen stranded in the middle of the sea, having eaten nearly all of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich boat, while muttering that his plans were not well thought out.
Cast[]
- Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood
- Anna Faris as Sam Sparks
- Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey
- James Caan as Tim Lockwood
- Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne
- Andy Samberg as Brent McHale
- Mr. T as Officer Earl
- Bobb'e J. Thompson as Calvin Devereaux
- Benjamin Bratt as Manny
- Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson
- Lauren Graham as Fran Lockwood
- Will Forte as Joseph Towne
Additional Voices[]
- Samantha Bee
- Jennifer Lopez
- Andrew Rannells
- Wayne Brady
- Cody Cameron
- Toni Braxton
- Will Arnett
- Josh Peck
- Seth Rogen
- Jack Black
- Dave Franco
- Phil Lord
- Paul Rudd
- Khary Payton
- Janet Varney as a woman
- Kristen Wiig
- Christopher Miller
- Elizabeth Banks
- Fred Armisen
- Tina Fey
- Jeremy Shada
- Stephen Root
- Melissa Sturm
- Ariel Winter
Additional Voices (uncredited)[]
- Denis Leary
- Steve Coogan
- Tony Hale
- Anna Kendrick
- Jenny Slate
- Alan Tudyk
- Bill Murray
- Dan Aykroyd
- Kevin Michael Richardsom
- Maya Rudolph
- Rob Paulsen
- Jay Pharoah
- Liam Neeson
- Rupert Everett
- Danny McBride
- Lake Bell
Production[]
Development[]
On May 9, 2003, a year after establishment, Sony Pictures Animation announced its first animated slate, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a film adaptation of the book. The Brizzi brothers were brought to direct the film, with Wayne Rice adapting the screenplay. In 2006, it was reported that the film had been helmed by new directors and writers, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. 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. Co-writers and co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher 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. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the second film (after Monster House) made using animation rendering software Arnold and the open source image toolkit OpenImageIO.
Release[]
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs premiered on September 12, 2009, at the Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The film had its wide release on September 18, 2009, along with a digitally re-mastered release to IMAX 3D theatres.
Home media[]
- Main article: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (video)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 5, 2010. A 3D Blu-ray was released on June 22, 2010. It was the first 3D Blu-ray sold individually in the US.[1]
Reception[]
The movie was given postive reviews and three years later became the biggest high for the franchise.
- Metacritic gives Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs a rating of 66/100 (Generally favorable reviews) and a average user score of 7.7/10.[2]
- Rotten Tomatoes has Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at 86% on the Tomatometer (Certified Fresh) with a viewer rating of 70%.[3]
Sequel[]
A sequel called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 was released on September 27, 2013. The entire voice cast reprised their roles, except for Mr. T, who was replaced by Terry Crews.
Trivia[]
- This is the first Sony Pictures Animation film to be produced in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio; all of the company's previous films were produced in 1.85:1.
- The second animated film from Columbia to be produced in 2.35:1, after Monster House.
- This is the first Sony Pictures Animation film to be scored by Mark Mothersbaugh, followed by Hotel Transylvania.
- The second Sony Pictures Animation film to be released in September, after Open Season.
- The first Sony Pictures Animation film to give Columbia Pictures a variant.
- This is the second Sony Pictures Animation to have "The End" on-screen, after Open Season
- This is the first Sony Pictures Animation film to not feature Matthew W. Taylor.
- Bill Hader and Anna Faris both made their animation debuts here.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
External links[]
References[]
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