Review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) by Gregeporter — 30 Aug 2015

Bottom line: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is the best children’s movie I’ve seen in a long time; I'd highly recommend it to anyone and especially those with children.

I remember reading Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, or at least having it read to me, when I was little. I was apprehensive when the first CwaCoM film came out. I thought the animation was too wiggly and I didn’t like the idea that they changed around the story. I didn’t even see it. Flash forward to last night, at her request, my fiancée and I watched the recently released sequel. It was such a good decision.

Just like any sequel, the movie begins with a plot refreshment but it was short and sweet. It brought me up to speed and smoothly transitioned into the new movie. From a young age, Flint Lockwood has dreamed of becoming a world changing scientist/inventor like his hero, the CEO of Live Corp, Chester V. Flint eventually makes a device that changes water into food. The machine malfunctions causing the island on which Flint, his family and friends live to overflow with food. Flint destroys the device to prevent a global catastrophe. He and his friends decide to make a lab together to invent and change the world. Chester V (well, a hologram of Chester V) arrives to the food covered island and invites the islanders to live in San Franjose, CA. Flint is given a job at Live Corp, a science company whose flagship product is the Live Bar.

Live Corp, and Chester V, is a source of constant, funny jabs at Apple and Steve Jobs. The Live Corp logo, a light bulb, is everywhere in the sleek, white design of the company headquarters: the building is a giant light bulb and it has a fancy light bulb shaped water feature. The entry-level inventors work in a cube farm in the basement of the building, tirelessly inventing for the biannual induction ceremony where one inventor becomes an Inventronaut, the upper echelon of Live Corp employees who have proven their scientific prowess. Numerous “caffeine stations” provide free coffee while videos of Chester V speaking play at “Motivation Stations”. Meanwhile, back on the island, Flint’s invention wasn’t destroyed. It has continued to create food but the food has evolved to the point that the fruits and vegetables are now food-animal hybrids like Flamangos and Cucumbirds. I am a fan of puns and, if you have seen the trailer, this movie is full of them. Chester V orders Flint to shutdown the machine to save the world from the food-animals.

I mentioned, previously, that I thought the animation was a little too wiggly. After watching the movie, I can say that I was incorrect; it's colorful and energetic. The same can be said about the humor. It was light, pleasant, and consistent. One of my pet peeves about children’s movies relates to the poor attempts at humor. There are fart jokes, poop jokes, or slapstick. They make me uncomfortable because I don’t think they are funny and I don’t think they should be such a source of humor. Then there are the jokes geared towards the parents because they go over the heads of the children. When I was little, this was a source of frustration. I was aware that there was a joke but I didn’t understand it. I felt like the movie was banishing me to the children's’ table. CwaCoM 2 doesn’t have many of these two types of jokes. It is an accessible movie. “Ah! There’s a leek in the boat,” yells Lockwood. The camera cuts over to a vegetable sitting in the boat which returns an equally startled yell. If a child didn’t know what a leek was the jokes would not be lost and it would give the parent/s the opportunity to explain the joke.

In terms of characters, they are all were pleasant. I loved the relationship between Sam and Flint the most. It is clear that they are a couple but the end goal isn’t to get married and live happily ever after but to make a laboratory and invent. They want to change the world together. Sam is a capable scientist who isn’t relegated to the position of damsel in distress.

I don’t know how I feel about attitude towards the food-animals. At one point, Sam says, “You can’t eat them, they are alive!” What are they supposed to eat!? Sam’s objection, of course, is an common reason for becoming a vegetarian but now what are they going to do for food in general? If they shut off the machine, the food-animals will die, but it is stays on, the machine will keep making more. Does this mean people will just have to make sure the food they eat is home grown, or at least, not sentient? Perhaps this is can be interpreted as a statement about responsible food production practices. It isn’t a question the movie directly raises or address, it was just something that came to mind. The main message of the movie is about friendship.

The sense of humor is refreshing and the animation is bright and happy and so is the story and characters. If I had children, I'd have them watch this movie and would recommend it to anyone looking for a happy movie.