Review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) by Chads — 20 Sep 2009

It could be a commercial for ice cream, the scene where the children of Swallow Falls first encounter the scoops that Flint Lockwood(Bill Hader) created for his temporary wonderland. Just like a real commercial, only skinny children fill the landscape, and interestingly enough, they never gorge on the ice cream like a real kid would.

The mis-en-scene seems informed by advertising, in which food companies create television spots that hide the truth about their fatty products. The children play with the ice cream; they and Flint have a frozen food fight, but the socially inept inventor hits the kids too hard with the dessert balls.

This action indirectly shows how a product like ice cream is bad for your health. Flint's rough play foregrounds the dishonesty behind adverts that peddle hamburgers, sugary drinks, or any other sort of junk food.

It's like a rupture in the text, in which a commercial that elicits consumer interest through the association of its product with some pleasing image(such as an ice cream park), is subverted by a self-critique, like if Ronald McDonald suddenly pushed some kid off a swing.

While all the townspeople keep their figures throughout the constant deluge of high-calorie food, the mayor(voiced by Bruce Campbell) is not quite so lucky. He's fat; he suggests the real end- result to Flint's invention.

The food storm can be construed as being metaphorical of our country's obesity crisis, but the meaning is lost somewhere in the marinara, because the images are too preoccupied with spectacle for serious contemplation.