Trailer Tuesday: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

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I've seen the trailer for animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs a few times at the cinema now, and I thought it deserved to be profiled as part of this blog's weekly trailer feature.

Based on, or rather inspired by, the beloved children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett (which I somehow completely missed during my kiddie days), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs centres on a young inventor, Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) who has a history of botched creations. To uplift his poverty-stricken community, Swallow Falls, Flint embarks on his most ambitious experiment ever - the development of a machine that instantly transforms water into food. However, an accident results in the machine shooting off into the sky, and soon purple clouds are raining hamburgers and other tasty treats on the town.


Out of interest, the trailer posted above is the teaser. This full trailer helps to better explain exactly what is going on, as well as the main character's motivations.

Anyway, apart from Hader the voice cast of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs includes Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Mr T and Tracy Morgan. This said the film is clearly not one of those animated movies where the celebrity voice cast is pimped as a major selling point.

This may come as a surprise for some of you but I'm actually not particularly keen to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I quite like the animation style, but I don't have the energy anymore for over-frenetic family comedies, and there's something about the film's concept that just grates me. Not to be too anal about the issue of obesity (particularly in children), but why is it that only junk and fatty food seems to fall out the sky? And why isn't anyone concerned that they've lost their source of life sustaining fresh water?

Then again, perhaps I'm over-thinking things. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is clearly a fantasy film that gives visual form to a dream that has gestated in the minds of multiple generations of children: swimming pools of jelly, delicious hamburgers that fall out of the sky, and blizzards of ice cream you can both eat and play in...

I remember when I was little being especially taken with a story in the Beano Annual where Minnie the Minx made jelly babies the size of real life adults. So, yeah, I had the same fantasy too. Perhaps I'm being unnecessarily critical of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs then.

Out of interest, the film debuted at #1 at the US box office this weekend, and achieved a very impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 84%. Critics have praised the film for its wacky humour, unconventionality and an insightful critique of the "greed and excess" mindset all too prevalent today.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs opens in South Africa in conventional format, as well as 3D, on 16 October.

Comments

MJenks said…
I've actually heard from critics that this is a very well-done movie, and it's not overly kiddified, instead playing up to the parents sitting there with their kids, too.

And, yeah, it's nice to see that they're relying on the story instead of the voice acting.

I think we're going to go see it next week some time.
7:37 PM
Pfangirl said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
11:21 AM
Pfangirl said…
Hey, MJenks, if and when you get around to seeing the film, please let me know what you think. I'm very interested to hear your opinion.
11:22 AM
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