Review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) by Maximillion93 — 22 Jan 2014

I loved the first movie. It turned tired cliches into hilarity, gave Mr. T his first animated role since himself and was one heck of a lot of fun. While directors and writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller were busy on The LEGO Movie, Sony whipped up a sequel, hiring the writer of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and the director of Open Season 2, and while the critics seem to like it quite a bit, I felt that Sony Pictures Animation disappointed me yet again.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 has potential with its inventive designs, environmentalism and sweetness, but unfortunately it is only half the wit of the first, most of its attempts at comedy being food puns that start to get boring, repeats of whatever was funny in the first or even itself, none of them succeeding, and typical Hollywood poop jokes to make sure it doesn't get a G rating, the worst thing that can ever happen to a movie!

The new voice actors lack charisma; Terry Crewes is even less Mr. T than Quinton Jackson and Kristen Schaal is far from Mabel Pines or Louise Belcher. Not to mention the theme of the plot twist has been discussed before in animation history. This is exactly the kind of movie the first one was poking fun at.

Without Lord and Miller, or even Aardman, Sony Animation seems to be style-over-substance. They have some very talented animators who provide the cartooniest CG animation since the first Madagascar, but the output should be more than eye candy. A year ago, Hotel Transylvania paid more attention to unique animation than an inspired script; the rest was a sponge bathing itself in urine. In this movie, Chicken Brent comes along with the gang just to repeat his catchphrase and fall over repeatedly because FAT PEOPLE ARE COMPLETE DOPES.

It doesn't help that Sony's big return in 2015 will consist of sequels to that and The Smurfs - as if 2013 wasn't lousy enough.