Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Phil Lord Christopher Miller
Written by	Phil Lord Christopher Miller
Produced by	Pam Marsden
Starring	Bill Hader Neil Patrick Harris Anna Faris James Caan Bruce Campbell Andy Samberg Mr. T Bobb'e J. Thompson Benjamin Bratt Al Roker Lauren Graham Will Forte
Edited by	Robert Fisher Jr.
Music by	Mark Mothersbaugh
Production company	Sony Pictures Animation
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	September 18, 2009 (2009-09-18)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$100 million
Box office	$243,006,126

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American computer-animated family comedy film, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, distributed by Columbia Pictures, and released on September 18, 2009. The film is loosely based on the children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett.

The film features the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte. It was written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who both are best known for the animated TV series, Clone High, which starred Forte.

Plot

The town of Swallow Falls, located on a tiny island hidden under the “A” in "Atlantic" on the world map (corresponding to the real-life location of Bermuda), suffers an economic downturn after the demand for sardines plummeted ("everyone in the world realized that sardines are super gross"). Now stuck with their supply, sardines became the sole food in Swallow Falls. Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is a scientist whose inventions, beginning as a child (Max Neuwirth) have all ended in disaster. Flint's latest invention, Flint Lockwood's Diatomic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (or the FLDSMDFR), which mutates water molecules into food and hopes that it will end the town's sardine dependency. His home does not have enough power to make it work, so he is forced by his unsupportive and technophobic father, Tim (James Caan), to work at his Bait and Tackle shop. Flint immediately sneaks out while his father is at the unveiling of Sardine Land, a new tourist attraction created by Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell) and "Baby" Brent (Andy Samberg), the famous mascot. Flint, along with his pet monkey, Steve (Neil Patrick Harris), hooks up the FLDSMDFR to the town's power station. However, the machine absorbs so much power that it takes off like a rocket, destroys Sardine Land, and flies up into the stratosphere. Flint hides under a ladder in the docks, he hears footsteps and meets Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), an intern whose chance in reporting the weather was ruined by Flint's accident. The two witness giant purple clouds raining cheeseburgers over Swallow Falls, Sam reports the events and mentions Flint is responsible. Flint becomes famous, with new foods raining down every day. The greedy and gluttonous Mayor Shelbourne convinces Flint to rain food three meals a day every day for a month which will turn Swallow Falls into a new tourist attraction called "Chewandswallow".

During the last week before the grand reopening, the town cop, Earl (Mr. T), requests an ice cream snow day for his son, Cal's (Bobb'e J. Thompson) birthday. By this time the FLDSMDFR has begun to enter the yellow danger zone. Flint and Sam bond closer the day before the grand reopening in a giant Jell-O mold. That night, Flint invites his father to dinner as a VIP at a roofless restaurant in order to impress him with his new success. Tim instead questions the wisdom of an endless supply of food when big steaks fall into the restaurant, which angers Flint. After storming off, Flint notices giant hot dogs falling from the sky, and heads to his lab to investigate. He deduces that the machine is overworking and tries to shut it off. The Mayor, now morbidly obese and having to move with a scooter, shows up, and convinces Flint that keeping the machine running is the only way to get people to like him despite being told by Flint on his recent discovery of the overworking machine. At the Mayor's request, Flint orders spaghetti and meatballs.

The next day, while tourists from around the world are arriving, Sam, who discovered that a food storm will hit Chewandswallow, tries to warn Flint about the storm that is approaching, but he does not listen to her. After Flint cuts the ribbon, a spaghetti tornado destroys half the town. Not believing her, Sam rejects him while Flint returns to his lab to turn off the machine, but finds the Mayor placing a huge order. Flint tries to send a kill code to the FLDSMDFR, but the Mayor attempts to kill Flint. Instead, he destroys the communication device for the FLDSMDFR. Dismayed, Flint asks the Mayor what he ordered, and the Mayor, also dismayed, says "A Vegas style all you can eat buffet." Earl's son, Cal passes out due to excessive consumption of junk food, and Sam's cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt) cures him, since he is a doctor. Sam patches through to the network to warn the world of the impending food storm. Flint decides that he really is a failure, but his father helps restore his confidence. Flint redesigns a previously failed Flying Car and uploads the kill code into a flash drive and heads to the sky, along with Steve, Sam, Brent, and Manny (who is also a pilot), flies up into the stratosphere to destroy the FLDSMDFR, while the citizens and remaining tourists build sandwich boats to escape into the ocean, but the Mayor takes his own boat and gets a head start, leaving the citizens to die. He then starts eating his own boat.

Nearing the location of the FLDSMDFR, Flint and the others find that it is inside in a giant "meatball" composed various foods. They are attacked by mutant foods genetically altered to protect the FLDSMDFR. After they escape a mutant pizza, the flash drive containing the kill code flies out the window. Flint, Sam, and Brent enter the meatball and make their way towards the FLDSMDFR. Flint calls his father and asks him to send the kill code from his lab computer to his cell phone. As Tim struggles to send Flint the kill code, the dam holding back Mt. Leftovers gives way and food covers the town, presumably crushing Tim. However, he manages to survive the "foodalanche" and sends an email. The food storm begins to cover the world, destroying famous landmarks with giant food. Flint is left to go on alone after Brent, who possesses the body of a man-sized sentient chicken, holds off chickens and Sam, who is allergic to peanuts, is cut by a shard of peanut brittle.

At the center of the meatball, Flint discovers the rogue FLDSMDFR, and sees that it has redesigned itself to expel huge amounts of giant food with one blow. He plugs in his phone and finds that his father has erroneously sent a popular Internet video of kittens singing "Fight the Power." The machine starts trying to shoot food at Flint. As the machine prepares to expel a final blast of giant food, Flint uses his Spray-On Shoes formula to block the spout, causing the FLDSMDFR and the meatball to explode. The giant food clouds around the world disappear, and Sam, Brent, Steve, and Manny manage to land safely. They at first assume Flint was killed in the explosion, but are relieved to find he has been saved by a flock of Rat-birds (failed experiments that bred at a surprising rate). Tim is finally able to express his love and admiration for his son by using Steve's monkey-thought translator, and Sam and Flint kiss as the film ends. The Mayor is lost in the sea, holding a pretzel.

In the end credits, the town is named Chew and Swallow 2 during a different animation. The famous landmarks were rebuilt. Flint and Tim are shown opening a business using Spray-On Shoes as roof sealant. The Mayor is retrieved, deflated to normal size, and arrested by Earl and Cal.

Cast

• Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood, an inventor and the main protagonist. Max Neuwirth voices his younger self. Hader also did the voice of the "FLDSMDFR" machine.
• Anna Faris as Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather intern from New York City and Flint's love interest.
• James Caan as Timothy Lockwood, Flint's technophobic father.
• Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey, Flint's pet monkey who communicates using a Speak and Spell monkey thought translator.
• Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, the gluttonous mayor of Swallow Falls and the main antagonist.
• Andy Samberg as Brent McHale, an infamous celebrity mascot of Baby Brent's Sardines and Flint's school rival.
• Mr. T as Officer Earl Devereaux, the town's athletic cop who is very loving to his son.
• Bobb'e J. Thompson as Calvin Devereaux, Earl's son.
• Benjamin Bratt as Manny, Sam's Guatemalan cameraman and a former doctor, pilot, and comedian.
• Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson, the anchorman of the weather station.
• Lauren Graham as Frances Lockwood, Flint's mother who always believed in her son. She died ten years before Flint invented the FLDSMDFR, and she becomes a ghost in the credits.
• Will Forte as Joseph Towne, a redneck citizen of Chewandswallow who appears on numerous occasions throughout the film.

Production

On August 15, 2006, Sony Pictures Animation announced it would produce a film adaptation of the book, attempting to tell the origins of Chewandswallow's weather. On September 18, 2008, Variety announced that Bill Hader and Anna Faris had signed on to voice the two lead characters, with James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Benjamin Bratt, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte also in the voice cast. Co-writers and co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller said later that year that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster films such as Twister, Armageddon, The Core, and The Day After Tomorrow.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the second animated film made using Sony's animation rendering software, Arnold, and the open source image toolkit OpenImageIO.

Marketing and release

The first trailer was released online on March 18, 2009 and premiered with Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D, released March 27. The second trailer was released on July 1, 2009 with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2-D and 3-D. The film released on September 18, 2009 in the US and in Japan on September 19, 2009.

The film's second trailer and some of its commercials feature Journey's "Any Way You Want It" and Europe's "The Final Countdown". For the Japanese release, Shoko Nakagawa performed a song titled "Rainbow Forecast" for the film, released on her single "Arigatō no Egao".

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 5, 2010. A 3-D Blu-ray is both as a Sony exclusive and retail on June 22, 2010.

Reception

Critical response

The film has received favorable reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave positive reviews based on 125 reviews (107 "Fresh", 18 "Rotten") with an average score of 7.2/10. Another review aggretator, Metacritic which normalizes a rating from mainstream critics, gave the film an approval rating of 66 based on 24 reviews.

Ernest Hardy of LA Weekly stated the film "is smart, insightful on a host of relationship dynamics, and filled with fast-paced action." Hardy also applauded the 3-D effects which "are wonderful, full of witty sight gags that play out both center-screen and on the periphery." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film a mixed review stating that "Crazy doesn't always equal funny, and the gigantism of this 3-D offering's second half puts a damper on your enjoyment. But look: This film wasn't made for you, or me. It was made for dangerously, easily distracted 9-year-olds." Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film two stars stating that the animated film "greatly expands on the kids' book on which it's based in a clever and engaging first half. But the second half leaves a foul aftertaste."

Box office

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a box office success. The film earned $8,137,358 on its opening Friday, and ranked #1 at the box office with a total of $30,304,648 for the first weekend. On its second weekend, it remained at #1 with a decrease of only 17 percent. It currently holds the record for third largest-opening weekend in the month of September. It has made a worldwide total of $243 million.

Awards

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs received four Annie Award nominations. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Animated Effects, Directing in a Feature Production, and Writing in a Feature Production. It also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Disney/Pixar's Up.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. It was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Raining Sunshine" (Performed by Miranda Cosgrove)	3:44
2.	"Swallow Falls"	0:47
3.	"Introducing Flint"	4:16
4.	"The Latest Invention"	1:23
5.	"The Mayor/Earl Warns Flint"	1:17
6.	"Sam's Big Break"	0:50
7.	"Powering Up"	1:05
8.	"Failure Again"	1:54
9.	"Meatier Shower"	3:10
10.	"A Father's Love"	1:19
11.	"Ice Cream Wonderland"	1:22
12.	"Snowball!"	1:15
13.	"The Mayor's Big Plan"	1:16
14.	"Activation and the Jell-O Dome"	1:39
15.	"Sam and Flint Bond"	2:00
16.	"Doubting Dad/Mutations"	2:57
17.	"The Spaghetti Twister"	3:08
18.	"Aftermath"	2:26
19.	"Flint's Determination"	2:44
20.	"The Food Storm"	2:08
21.	"The Mission Begins"	2:36
22.	"Outside the Meatball"	1:57
23.	"Inside the Meatball"	1:39
24.	"Earl Takes Charge"	2:00
25.	"Sentient Chickens"	2:42
26.	"Worldwide Chaos"	0:57
27.	"Anaphylactic Love"	1:41
28.	"Attack of the Gummi Bears"	1:40
29.	"Here's the Cheese"	1:25
30.	"The Heart of the Meatball"	1:17
31.	"Spray-On Triumph"	1:55
32.	"Flint Returns"	3:31
33.	"Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" (Performed by Lesley Gore)	1:37

Video game

Ubisoft announced a video game based on the film that was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable on September 15, 2009.

Art book

In August 2009, Insight Editions published a companion book to the film called The Art & Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Sequel

On April 12, 2010, website Io9 reported that there is a sequel in production.

External links

• Official website
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at IMDb
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at AllMovie
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at Box Office Mojo
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at Rotten Tomatoes
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at Metacritic