Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (PG)

Genre: Kids
Jake's Rating:
Cami's Rating: 4 stars

Always up for a good kids show, but we don't usually make the effort to actually watch what we get for the kids, unless it is Disney or Pixar. We're not huge fans of Shrek or the like, and I do like a kids show to be FOR KIDS and not with a lot of adult inuendo in it. So this show was really so great--really fun for kids without a lot of crotch jokes, and great for adults without being too adult. I have to admit, I laughed more than I have for a really long time.

Summary: Our hero, Flint, is an inventor of ill-fated inventions. His mom believes in him, but his dad wishes he'd just give up and be a fisherman, like him. They live in a town that catches, sells, and eats only sardines. They are sick of them. So Flint decides to make an invention that turns water into food. During a ceremony that is supposed to put the mayor on the map, and give a weather girl her first big chance, things go awry and Flint's machine is catapulted into the sky, where it begins turning rain into foods. But the town gets greedy, and Flint's fame goes to his head. We see what can happen to a town when more is never enough.

Thoughts: My brother Matt highly recommended we watch this, and I still didn't have much hopes for it. I actually liked the animation style--the people all looked like Muppets. It wasn't trying too hard. Then things that I thought would be really annoying (Flint constantly saying what he's doing while he does it, a monkey with a thought interpreter), turned out to be really funny. The humor kept you on your toes. I was actually in tears when Flint is asking his dad to email a file to his cell phone and the seriously old-school dad is trying his very hardest to follow his techy son's instructions. But at the same time, my hard-to-please Ethan was in hysterics at the monkey saying "Steve" over and over, or a belly-flop into jello. I loved the cast--Mr. T was awesome--and most of the characters were funny and witty. I did not love the grown-up Baby Brent and his constant diaper-wearing, and I liked Chicken Brent even less. But that didn't ruin it for me. It didn't have as much heart as, say, Meet the Robinsons or Up, but there was enough there to keep it from being ridiculous.

All in all, it is one we'll probably buy and laugh at from time to time. As far as humor in animation, I'd say it's second only to Emperor's New Groove. But as far as pure movie-making, it doesn't stand as well outside the children's genre. I'd still recommend it to all ages.