Every once in a while I have the opportunity to watch a movie that is a surefire winner. During the month of September it is rare a studio will release a good film. Fall television premiers and the popularity of football cause chaos in the movie world. The only genre that enjoys an advantage despite the obvious setbacks is the cartoon or animated films field.
Cloudy With a Chance Meatballs is about much more than spaghetti. It is a humorous and clever cautionary tale. Snapshot words to describe the movie are: clever, brilliant, hilarious, raucous, and a high calorie food. Bill Hader, James Caan and Anna Farris are perfect for their roles, respectively, as the lonely and un-credited inventor, the disapproving widower, and the gorgeous super geek weather fill in. In short, the plot is the magical story of a young man with a dream of becoming a world famous inventor. When his mother dies he becomes reclusive and his father becomes fast disapproving of his son's lifelong ambition to become an important scientist. They live on a small island famous for its sardines, and only its sardines. There is no other food. Conveniently the father owns a sardine bait and tackle store. Our underappreciated hero develops a weather machine that flies above the clouds and converts moisture into any type of food desired by the islanders. Unfortunately the scheming mayor becomes morbidly fat and greedy. He intervenes and forces the machine into overdrive nearly causing a catastrophic dropping of every type of food imaginable. The machine even develops independently operating foods capable of defending its perimeter and interior against would be intruders. This film has it all.
Nonetheless, to make an omelet one must break a few eggs. The salient flaw in this movie is the grotesque obesity of certain characters. This has been a common theme since the Pixar film WALL-E. Humans over-consume food or are brought to the brink of bodily bursting through galactic bone density factors. Although fatness adds to the humour it also provides a sickening spectacle and in a way discourages adolescents from becoming overweight. Rotted teeth, massively expanded stomachs, and food avarice aside, the mistakes are few and far between. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is the sleeper film of 2009.
A quick side note folks, 3D technology has come a long way. The glasses are no longer twice the size of my skull. They are slimmed down, light and comfortable. They also work better and show greater clarity throughout. This can partially be attributed to the IMAX theater which is incomparable. Kudos to the actors, producers and directors. Great job all around, two thumbs up.
