Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
I know I’m way behind on this one, but I just got a chance to finally check out Cloudy. I loved what they did with the story and how they managed to flesh it out while staying true to some of the iconic images from the book. The visual style was also spectacular and I think it set a new standard for “cartoon-ey CG.” The only criticisms I have are pretty mild: The near-frantic pace of the jokes and the action left me a bit exhausted by the end. I feel like I would have laughed even harder had they let it breathe a bit more. Part of that was also influenced by the numerous characters, all of whom had their own arcs. Probably the only one I didn’t like was the baby from the sardine can. He was a good joke, but I didn’t feel like he needed all of that precious time he took up in the third act. Again, all pretty minor issues and more a matter of taste.
The only thing that really stuck out to me was the whole “sentient food thing.” Maybe they just felt like they needed a topper to up the ante, but to me it felt absurd… I know, I know… giant food falling out of the sky… and I have a problem with sentient food? I think my problem was that it broke the rules of the world they had established. The quick explanation helped tie it in, and in fact I asked my girlfriend about it and she didn’t mind it, but it definitely felt like Double Mumbo Jumbo to me.
All in all, a very fun movie that I’ll definitely be buying when it comes out!
