Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Once again the bibliophile has ventured out of the house and gone to the cinema exactly a month after the previous trip (to see About Time) but this time to see a kids' film with my kid sister as well as my best friend that I've known since I was a kid.  We went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn and stars Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Anna Faris (What's Your Number?, Lost In Translation, Scary Movie), James Caan (The Godfather, A Bridge too Far), and Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser M.D.) to name a few of the stars.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is the sequel to the 2009 film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (referred to as Cloudy from here on out), which is the animated children's film that focuses on the town of Swallow Falls, a sardine fishing town, where Flint Lockwood (Hader), a young inventor, lives who creates the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" AKA the FLDSNDFR which generates food out of the bottom once water has gone through the top.  When it initially fails in his lab, Flint tries to hook the FLDSMDFR up to the town's power supply but inadvertently sends it up into the stratosphere.  As the FLDSMDFR is flying around the town, it hits Sam Sparks (Faris), an intern from the weather channel who is on her first assignment for the channel, humiliating her on live television.  Just as Sam discovers Flint is the one who humiliated her, the FLDSMDFR begins to work leading to Flint's and the town's success with the help of Sam; unfortunately for the entire world, the FLDSMDFR starts to overmutate the food which begins to destroy the world so Flint has to stop his own creation and save the world.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Animated film lovers

Favourite Characters: Sam; Steve; Barry

Favourite Part: Sam: A bully turned friend will be a friend to the end

Good Points: Recaps the first film; foodimals were interesting; sceneries are amazing; characters haven't changed drastically

Bad Points: Predictable story

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 picks up where Cloudy left off with Flint and Sam kissing following Flint thinking he's destroyed the FLDSMDFR as the rest of the residents of Swallow Falls watching and celebrating at the prospect of not having to leave their home.  However, a strange ship arrives in Swallow Falls moments later with Chester V aboard (or one of his hologram anyway) saying that his company, Live Corp, can clear the island for them but everyone has to leave so they can do so.  Flint, his dad (Tim), and his friends all move to San Franjose where they all start to build new lives with Flint working at Live Corp where he meets Barb, Chester's talking orang-utan with human intelligence, while Sam continues to build her career as a meteorologist.  As Flint tries to impress people at work, he is then humiliated when his invention isn't as successful as he wanted it to be, but is then assigned by Chester to go to Swallow Falls after several teams have failed to stop the FLDSMDFR (or so it is believed) so Flint and his friends (including his dad) set sail for their home and save the world from the foodimals that the FLDSMDFR has created.

This film spent the first minute or so recapping what happened in Cloudy so that everyone could be reminded of how the story got to this particular point or those that didn't see the first film can just watch the new film without being overly confused.  I found this really unusual for a film, especially for a kids' film, so this made it really stand out in my mind and even though I love Cloudy, it meant I didn't have to rewatch the film as key points were recapped.

I loved the evolution of the story, with the FLDSMDFR creating foodimals, because it made the film different (though not drastically) from the first film.  The foodimals clearly had a lot of imagination put into them and were well thought out; all of the foodimals display animal-like behaviour and physical traits while being made out of food.  Known foodimals that were named by Flint and his friends include Tacodiles, Cheespiders, and Flamangos, though there are many more.  As well as animals made of food, there were food that behaved more like humans but were just food with arms and legs; examples can be strawberries, blueberries, and pickles and just the foodimals, there were many more.  For me, it was clear a lot of thought was put into them, particularly the foodimals, because they moved pretty much like the animals they corresponded to in reality and looked like they could really exist.  A wonderful product of these extremely well imagined lifeforms is that it could encourage kids to use their imaginations to create their own foodimals and draw them, therefore encouraging their creativity.

Much like the foodimals and other products of the FLDSMDFR, the sceneries were amazing from the normal (sort of) sceneries of San Franjose where the residents of Swallow Falls are relocated to the food-based version of Swallow Falls that Flint and co. abandoned.  The scenery for San Franjose were quite simple, using simple lines and shapes to make up the places that Flint begins to live and work in so to contrast with the chaotic yet mesmerising Swallow Falls that the characters return to.  The contrast works well because San Franjose where Chester V's company is feels quite stale and scientific as would be expected for a place that focuses on inventing as its main source of income and seems quite alien straight away from its introduction when Chester V and his team come to save Swallow Falls.  Compared to this more sleek and sterile world, the abandoned Swallow Falls is phenomenal in appearance; just like the foodimals which are animals made of food, it makes perfect sense that the habitat they live in be made of food, from a food jungle to a breakfast bog just as two examples.  There is a lot of imagination behind this film and will keep an audience engaged because of the fascinating sceneries that are introduced in this film and could encourage children's creativity.

One minor good point is that the characters haven't changed since the end of the first film after they've learnt whatever lesson their character needed to evolve such as Flint's dad, Tim, being able to express himself more and communicate with Flint better and Sam being able to overcome the shallowness of being a weather girl and embracing what makes her who she is (glasses and nerdy).  The characters didn't revert which meant the story didn't just repeat its self and further differs from the original film; this meant for me that this film was equally as good as the first which is unusual for an animated sequel as they tend to be reiterations of the same film while this one was a continuation of a longer story.

I pretty much love all of the characters that could be considered protagonists but I ultimately found a favourite character in Sam as she doesn't believe in Chester V's propaganda unlike Flint who idolises Chester V and is blind to his true intentions.  As she is the first to really notice the true nature of the foodimals and other new inhabitants of Swallow Falls (when she sees the Tacodiles in a herd, behaving as an unit) and we see this with her as if she's showing us them like she wants to show Flint the truth.  It's Flint's naivety which makes him unlikeable for me because it's clear what is actually going on even though he eventually realises the truth closer to the end.

While my favourite character is ultimately Sam, I found Steve, Flint's lab monkey assistant, extremely adorable as I did when I watched the first film.  This is just because he's cute and quite sweet; saying one word sentences which are inadvertently relevant to the situation as Flint babbles and flits about his lab in his usual manner, believing Steve is having an actual conversation with him.  Steve's function is just to be there as the cute animal sidekick and the comic relief and right after Flint's humiliation at work, he provides comic relief as Flint and his father have a meaningful conversation; so if you don't want to pay attention to the sentimental conversation between the Lockwood men, just watch Steve as he jumps around the room, providing entertainment for children and the like.

This is only minor point but I found Barry the strawberry adorable with his big eyes and his little body, bringing to mind the "aw" factor that can be found in at least one character in kids' films which this film is full of.  He was sweet as he tried to show Flint and co. the true nature of all the creatures in Swallow Falls and boy, can he act.

My only annoyance in this film was that the story was predictable with Flint's idol being the bad guy and is using the protagonist for his own means.  However, I generally find kids' films predictable as they aren't overly complicated so the audience can enjoy them.

Sam: A bully turned friend will be a friend to the end

 I loved this line because Brent was really horrible to Flint in the first film until he has a moment of redemption towards the end and decides to do more with his life than being "Baby Brent" and wants to help Flint save Swallow Falls.  It is understandable to be wary of Brent as he used to be a bully but this teaches us that if they have truly changed having proven in some way (such as saving Sam's life), as Brent has, that we should trust them.  It's a kids' film; the lesson is simple and innocent.

I loved this film as much as the first film and encourage anyone to go and see it because it is suitable for all ages.  A note is that the foodimals may frighten some children initially, especially the Cheespiders and Tacodiles.

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