CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 DVD (2013)

SYNOPSIS: Inventor Flint Lockwood thought he saved the world when he destroyed his most famous invention - a machine that turned water into food causing cheeseburger rain and spaghetti tornadoes. But Flint soon learns that his invention survived and is now combining food and animals to create "foodimals!" Flint and his friends embark on an adventurously mouth-watering mission to battle hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, hippotatomuses, cheesepiders and other foodimals to save the world - again!

MOVIE REVIEW:

With Phil Lord and Christopher Miller jumping ship to do The Lego Movie, the directorial baton for the sequel is passed to Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, both who have done significant work in the animation field.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 picks up where the first has left off. Young inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) has just saved his town, Swallow Falls from the food storm as the result of his FLDSMDFR going haywire. When super inventor Chester V (Will Forte) invites Flint to join his company, Live Corp, Flint jumps at the chance. Unbeknownst to him, Chester V has a hidden agenda of his own. He is making use of Flint to retrieve back the FLDSMDFR so that he can perfect his own food invention.

The animation is a delight all thanks to some of the best animation work ever seen on screen (and a very brisk pacing does help). When Flint, his dad Tim (James Caan), Sam (Anna Faris), Office Earl (Terry Crews), Manny the cameraman (Benjamin Bratt) and Brent (Andy Samberg) goes back to their hometown, this is where cinematic magic and adventure begins. The gorgeous Jurassic Park feel is undeniable as we watch a revealing Swallow Falls being populated by Foodimals of all sizes– mutated species between food and animals. The hugely imaginative named Shrimpanzee, Mosquitoast, Cheespider, Bananostrich, Watermelophant, Tacodile Supreme and many more will leave you chuckling for more. There’s even a cute heroic strawberry named Barry.

The overall striking images and colours by Sony Imageworks add to all the brilliance. In a lot of aspects, it’s almost as good as its predecessor if you can forgive the all too many food puns and silly parody. Is it me who thinks Chester V resembles the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs? Is the punch line “There’s a leek in the boat” so funny that they need to repeat it twice. It’s this silly treatment that diminishes the charm of the animation but in the end how can you hate a meaningful animation filled with deliciously cute characters. Though lacking the obvious wittiness and some heartfelt moments of the first, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is still generally good enough to make a grown man cry. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn team up for the Filmmaker Commentary providing an engaging, pleasant listening experience as the duo discusses the various aspects of making the animation.

Join the cast, directors and visual artists as they discuss the foodimals characters in Anatomy of a Foodimal.

The art designers, directors and producers talk about the visual aspect, character design and the story in Production Design: Back in the Kitchen.

We take a look at the awesome seldom-used puppeteering and stop-motion technology in making the movie’s end credits in Awesome End Credits.  

The directors and the many main cast members such as Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Terry Crews, Andy Samberg talk about their digital counterparts in Cloudy Café: Who’s on the Menu?

Building the Foodimals is an interesting feature that has the animation supervisor talks about how they came up with the weird and innovative looking creatures.

If you haven’t notice, there’s an Easter egg-like creature called Sasquash in the movie. The Mysterious Sasquash tells you where to look for it.

The production designer talks about creating the visual appearance and style in Delicious Production Design.

There’s also a brief Cody Simpson “La Da Dee” Music Video & Making of in the extras. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Texture, detailing and colours are brimming at every scene making this animation DVD a must-have in terms of technicality. Dialogue is clear; environmental sound is sonic and active at all channels.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee