Film: Ready For A Tasty DVD Adventure? Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2

The first installment of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was an animated LSD-trip for food fetishists. A bit nerdy, a bit weird, fueled by a warmly-written screenplay full of humour and pathos directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Thanks to its originality and charm, the box office agreed with a take in excess of £77m. So, it was only a matter of time before Sony cooked up a sequel.

In the first film, we met Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader), an unsuccessful inventor from Swallow Falls. Putting his original ideas into practice isn't Flint’s best. So when he promised the islanders a respite from their permanent diet of sardines, he hoped to bask their respect and success thanks to his food creator machine: the “Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (FLDSMDFR for short).

The FLDSMDFR transforms water into everyone’s favourite dish. Freed from a diet of oily young herrings Flint is celebrated by the islanders, until the machine turns into an out-of-control food nightmare. The machine overloads, develops a life of its own and produces a food storm causing global chaos. To win back hearts, minds and stomachs, Flint, with the help of his friend Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), Flint’s dad (James Caan) and Monkey Steve (Neil Patrick Harris) saves the day by destroying the machine in an explosive showdown.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 Quick Summary

Hungry for adventures and ready for dessert, the sequel picks up where we left Swallow Falls in the aftermath of the disaster. Chester V (Will Forte), super-inventor and Flint’s idol, is tasked to clean up the island and offers Flint a job alongside thousands of inventors. Flint is up-graded to the pinnacle of his dreams.

What Flint doesn't know is the FLDSMDFR has survived and evil Chester wants the machine to himself. He orders Flint to return to Swallow Falls where he and his friends find the abandoned island transformed into a jungle, with leftover food evolved into harmless living creatures. Chester persuades Flint that the mutants are a threat that need to be captured and destroyed. But our hero is quick to work out Chester’s perfidious plan, which leads to a spectacular finale.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 Review

The creatures are cute and with names to curl the tongue of every linguist: Flamangos, Shrimpanzees, Mosquitoasts and Taccodiles live in this supreme foodscape that is wittily animated, full of details and vibrant colours. While the idea just works well, it’s easy to be fooled by style over substance and the script lacks any depth and flavour. There’s a reunion of old and new friends, but overall the characters felt one-dimensional.

I missed the unconventional humour which made the first film so individual and the script is largely reduced to a hamper of clumsy jokes and hyper-active characters jumping around. Maybe I needed to watch Cloudy 2 through the eyes of a 10-year old, but the tempo is so fast that most scenes are chaotic and hectic with few quiet moments, which made it difficult to swallow. Cloudy 2 had all the ingredients for an animated feast, but ultimately felt as predictable and forgettable as a Big Mac meal.

Rating: 5/10

Thank you so much for reading today’s post and hope you’ll be joining me on my next adventure. Have you seen any of the Cloudy movies yet? Which part do you like more? Let me know in the comment section below I read and reply to every comment.

Till next time,

xx Caz xx

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