Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, based on the classic Ron and Judi Barrett children's book, is a fun, funny and fresh movie. It is definitely a kid's movie, but it has a lot of very smart stuff directed at adults so everyone can have a good time at their own level.
In the film, after a string of hair-brained inventions (like a walking television, 'rat-birds' and a 'monkey thought translator'), young inventor Flint Lockwood creates a machine that (if it works properly) will transform water into food. The drab town he lives in, Swallow Falls, is down on it's luck since the main employer, the sardines factory, close recently. At a major town event, Flint's food machine goes haywire and gets shot up into the atmosphere above the town. The machine works and begins to rain down hamburgers.
The town, re-named Chew and Swallow, becomes a tourist hot spot (who wouldn't want to go somewhere that has bacon, eggs, hot dogs and steak from the sky!) and Flint begins to flirt with the weather woman, Sam Sparks, who is based in the town covering what it is raining each day. At some point, Flint's machine begins to malfunction and starts dumping out super-sized foods - ultimately endangering the people of the town.
My favorite part of the movie is the character of Steve the monkey. He is given a 'voice' by Flint's 'monkey thought translator' - but rather than taking what I would think to be the trite, easy route and having the monkey be a genius, Steve is an idiot. Most of his 'thoughts' are repeating his name or thinking about eating. It's really very funny. (I generally like monkeys and think they're much better in movies than dogs. Animated monkeys who talk and do stupid stuff are hilarious. I would watch a movie all about Steve.)
Another great thing about the movie is that the adult relationships seem really real. Flint and Sam meet and immediately have a connection. He's a geeky inventor who was mocked as a kid; She is an ex-geek who likes science and has always had a passion for chemistry and meteorology. The flirt in a real way and then fall in love. The relationship feels very natural and normal - much more normal than most romantic comedies out there.
The animation itself and look of the characters are very funny and creative. Flint's dad has bushy eyebrows that cover his eyes and a and moustache that covers his mouth. He doesn't emote well partly because he can't with so much hair on his face - which is used effectively for laughs later in the film.
I love that unlike many animated films where the two levels of comedy are juvenile and subtle sexual euphemism, here the two levels are sweet and young for the kids and intelligent, almost New Yorkery for the grown-ups. Kids won't understand the adult jokes not because they shouldn't get them, but because they're not intellectually adept enough.
I saw this movie in IMAX and 3D. I'm not totally sure the IMAX did more than just make it really big - but I would say the 3D was used very effectively. You won't really see meatballs flying off the screen into your face (which they could have done, I'm sure), but seeing the falling foods at different levels of depth on the screen is very effective and enjoyable. I would only recommend seeing it in 3D.
Stars: 3.5 of 4
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I liked it a lot too. No jokey pop culture references and like you say, the budding romance feels very natural and even subtle.
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