Review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) by Pur__0_0__ — 30 Aug 2021

The only way to solve world hunger is if it happens free of cost and everyone gets as much as they want all the time. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a movie that is about exploring this idea. The film follows Flint, a gifted scientist who uses his mind to come up with this idea. Although this movie mostly makes no sense and is not suitable for a mature audience, it does not pretend to do so. It is what it is. While writing this review I learnt this is a book adaptation which was originally published in 1978. So considering that I believe the author would have really liked this movie.

Flint is a character who is all about creating weird, wacky things without caring about the consequences. It is very similar to a superhero comic I've been making, so I can very well understand how much thought goes into showing what all things the protagonist makes in order to make the audience believe the tall claim. The problem here is, however, it is never shown why he suddenly decided to make a machine that can create food. It was never established that the whole town has been eating his father's sardines, nor it has been shown that Flint was made to eat the sardines. It was only said that his father wants him to sell them. Also there was no problem of poverty on the island either, so none of that really mattered.

Then there was the introduction of Sam Sparks, who was introduced as a journalist that really pretended to not look like a nerd. The character seemed annoying until it was told how she became the way she is. And honestly the transformation should not have happened. From what was established, her glasses were of near-sightedness, so she has hypermetropia and thus she should only wear glasses when she needs to read. Also the song "Four eyes, four eyes, you need glasses to see!" got embedded in my brain after watching this movie. It also comes to my mind whenever I play Brawlhalla.

Seeing the food from the sky really makes me hungry. Many people ask if you were to live in a fictional world, which one you will choose. If I had to choose, I'd say this one. The food which gets thrown away can help me last a lifetime. This is the reason why the climax scene didn't scare me at all. I'd gladly die that way, if it meant not eating gruel for breakfast the way I have always been doing since the pandemic started. But then again, this is just my personal problem because of the situation we are all in right now. This is a part of the original story so I won't blame the movie for this.

I'm not sure the original story had Flint and Sam blow their cheeks while kissing though, so I'd definitely call that out. Overall considering all the creative liberty that this movie took, this was the only thing I found annoying. Other than that I liked everything about this. The character of Baby Brent, the police officer, the mayor - everyone was very well done. It's a good thing this movie turned into a franchise, because of which we will be able to see these characters more in the future.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is just what you'd want to watch if you have nothing better to do and want to spend some time with children. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously and is an adaptation of a children's book, plus the animation is also pretty good so you will definitely not want to miss out this one if you're watching all the 3D animated movies of the current times. A definite watch from my recommendation.