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SYNOPSIS:
When Flint Lockwood’s latest contraption accidentally destroys the town square and rockets up into the clouds, he thinks his inventing career is over. Then something amazing happens as delicious cheeseburgers start raining from the sky. His machine actually works! But when the machine starts to run amok, it's up to Flint, with the help of weather girl Sam Sparks to find some way to shut down the machine and save the day.
MOVIE
REVIEW:
Its
food, glorious and gallons amount of succulent food dropping
from the sky. "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs"
marks the second time we seen food rendered in amazingly rich
CG graphics on the big screen after Pixar’s "Ratatouille".
While the latter offers delicious French cuisine, Cloudy offers
you everyday food such as ice-cream, eggs, pancakes, bacon,
pizza, Jell-O and many more.
Loosely
based on a 1978 children book by Judi and Ron Barrett, this
charming CG animation from Sony Animation Studio tells the
story of a misunderstood inventor, Flint Lockwood (the up
and coming SNL comedian Bill Hader) who lives with his dad
(James Caan from "Las Vegas") in a small town famously
known for its sardines called Swallow Falls. Other than Flint’s
late mum, no one in his town including the local cop Carl,
(an amusing Mr. T) and even his dad has much faith in Flint’s
inventions which include the disastrous spray-on shoes and
ratbirds for example. Until one day, Flint invented a machine
that has the capability to convert water into food. Does Flint
finally succeeds in his inventions or the sinister Mayor Shelbourne
(Bruce 'Evil Dead' Campbell) has other plans for him?
While
it can be a chore expanding the original material into a full-length
feature, directors/writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller did
a wonderful job innovating the children book into an entirely
new entity that could fit into the taste of today’s
generation. There are meaningful life lessons to be learnt
here such as the undeterred Flint who refused to give up his
dreams despite the insistence of his dad to give them all
up and work alongside with him in his sardine store. Is appearance
more important than one’s ability? The movie doesn’t
seem to think so as Flint finds his true confidant (in the
form of weathergirl Sam Sparks voiced by "The House Bunny"
Anna Faris) even more pretty with her putting on her glasses
back and hair tied up instead of drabbing in fancy clothing,
hairstyle concealing her inner geekness.
The
humour here can be both boisterous and tender at times especially
the ones between Flint and his dad. And it’s incredibly
entertaining seeing Flint and his sidekick, Steve the mustache-tearing
monkey (apparently voiced by Neil Patrick Harris) mouthing
chockfull of scientific jargon even if most of us have little
sense of what they are talking about. Even the constant 'Baby'
Brent (Andy Samberg) gags and the evil mayor are a delight
to watch. Parents should be glad the movie is devoid of any
fart jokes or cheap laughs to cater to the kiddos, what it
has in place is lots of joy, laughter and lush CG details
that will captivate your eyeballs. Though still a distance
away from Pixar, Sony has turned in a marvelous feat this
time and the technical aspects of "Cloud" are right
on par with any recent DreamWorks production.
"Cloudy
With A Chance of Meatballs" surprisingly offers more
than you can imagine. Fulfilling on the fun factor, wonderful
array of characters you root for and gorgeous servings of
CG food, this is the perfect adventure movie for children
and adults alike. There’s a good chance you might feel
starving after the show has ended. Anyone wish to join me
for donuts and meatballs?
SPECIAL
FEATURES :
Flint's Food Game – Food is your ammo as you
are tasked to battle with the F.L.D.S.M.D.F.R. in this fun-filled
game.
If
you are a huge fan of the theme song, you get not one but
three features including the "Raining Sunshine"
Music Video by Miranda Cosgrave, Interactive "Raining
Sunshine" Sing-A-Long and Behind the
Scenes of "Raining Sunshine" Music Video Miranda
Cosgrave.
Commentary
with Director/Writer Christopher Miller and Phil Lord and
actor Bill Hader – This is a fun, rowdy track
that offers plenty of insights to the whole production process
including the voiceover, story, music and many more.
A
recipe for success: The Making of Cloudy With A Chance of
Meatballs – The 10 minutes feature interviews
with Bill Hader, Anna Faris and the directors in which they
discussed briefly the story and design/effects work.
Key
Ingredients: The Voices of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
– More interviews with Hader, Faris and Andy Samberg
in which they talked about doing the voiceovers and stuff.
You
get to watch 2 brief Extended Scenes, one
elevator joke scene with Flint & Sam and two, Twister
with awesome food fight scene.
Early
Development Scenes - Watch 2 hand-drawn sequences
one involving Flint writing a letter to Super scientist Vance
Lefleur and the other, an early storyboard version of the
Twister.
Get
to know more about the animation progress such as coloring,
lighting technology in Progression Reels with Introductions
by Visual FX Supervisor Rob Bredow
Trailers
– Open Season 3 (Coming 2011), Open Season 2, Playmobil:
The Secret of Pirate Island, The Spectacular Spider-man animated
series and Michael Jackson’s This Is It.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
This
visual of this DVD is no doubt impressive from the character
to food rendering to the various backdrops. The colours are
bright, crisp and marvelous to ogle at not forgetting minor
details on the spaghetti and burgers as well (ya it’s
the food again). The Dolby Digital 5.1 is an active track
that consists plenty of zany surround effects while the music
and dialogue is almost flawless.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted on 4 February 2010
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